Quick facts
Region: Region of Central Macedonia (RCM)
Country: Greece
Population: 1,882 million inhabitants
Number of municipalities: 38
Largest city: Thessaloniki
RCM’s vision
Since the early stages of the REFORM project, the Regional Development Fund of Central Macedonia (RDFCM) - on behalf of the Region of Central Macedonia - has set as a key objective of the Action Plan the creation of a central mechanism for supporting and coordinating the development of local Sustainable Urban Mobility Plans local municipalities with the aim of increasing the SUMPs efficiency and effectiveness. In Central Macedonia, 23 Municipalities have received funding from the Green Fund of the Greek Ministry of Environment and Energy for the development of SUMPs.
RCM in REFORM
The Action Plan that has been developed by the RCM and the RDFCM to promote SUMPs in Central Macedonian municipalities is influenced by the experience gained from the know-how exchange meetings with partners and the results of the consultation actions. The Action Plan is clearly structured along two axis. RCM will take actions on two levels:
- at the regional level, RCM will act as a "Competence Center" to provide technical support to the Municipalities developping SUMPs
- at the metropolitan level, the region will set up an "Urban Mobility Observatory" which will collect, organize and analyze urban mobility data in order to support municipalities in designing mobility projects.
RCM’s strategy
In the initial design of the Regional Operational Programme (ROP) of Central Macedonia 2014-2020, actions to strengthen the institutional capacity of the public administration and the public services were included within the Axis A06: “Preservation and protection of the environment and promotion of resources’ efficiency”. Those actions were allocated to the “Integrated Spatial Investment for Sustainable Urban Development of Thessaloniki”.
In March 2018, a call for proposals was launched by the ROP that includes interventions aiming to the "strengthening of structures and networks towards monitoring urban-related phenomena" with special reference to the Urban Transport and Mobility Observatories. The Region of Central Macedonia submitted a proposal for the creation of a “Sustainable Urban Development Observatory of the urban area of Thessaloniki” to support the Action Plan, which was approved in October 2018.
