Less than a year since it has been launched, the EU Projects City Network in the Western Balkans, initiated by the City of Sarajevo and supported by GIZ and NALAS, picks up its first, significant fruits – two successful joint projects, worth over 1.85 million EUR, developed in a process of learning and exchange.

The urban mobility, CITYMOVE project, has been approved for financing under the first call of Interreg Adrion. The project, led by the City of Bar, will improve cityies’ infrastructure through the installation of new software (smart parking in Bar and Biograd) and the improvement of urban mobility through the introduction of modern equipment (in Mostar, Novi Pazar, Bar, Sveti Nikole, Gubbio, Mat and Kantanos-Selino). As part of the project, a cross-border Car-Free Day will be organised for promotion of healthy lifestyles at eight locations, local bicycle races in all partner cities, and an Urban Mobility Day at three locations. Safe walking and cycling maps will be created. A transnational Sustainable Mobility Plan will be published that will document modern solutions in this area, and Local Urban Mobility Plans in partners cities will be created/updated.

The leading partner of the project is the Municipality of Bar (ME), and the partners are the cities of Mostar (BA), Biograd na Moru (HR), Novi Pazar (RS), the municipalities of Sveti Nikole (MK), Gubbio (IT), Kantanos (GR) and CIHEAM-MAICH (GR), while the associated partners are NALAS (HR) and the Municipality of Leskovac (RS).

A total of 67 projects out of the 222 submitted were approved at the entire call. In the competition of 20 project applications that passed the first stage of evaluation within the specific objective 2.4 which refers to the promotion of multimodal urban mobility at the Interreg Adrion call, CITYMOVE is one of the 7 approved projects.

Another project, developed by Sarajevo and Podgorica, focused on inclusivity and visibility of their museums, was awarded by UNESCO.