2018 marks the 10th anniversary of the Covenant of Mayors, an initiative launched by the European Commission to bring better quality of life and green growth in municipalities.

To mark the anniversary, all committed cities and members of the Covenant Community are invited to get together in Brussels for the Covenant of Mayors Investment Forum & Ceremony on 21-22 February 2018, to take stock of the results achieved, discuss joint challenges such as investment, multi-level collaboration, and meet the newly set-up EU Covenant Political Board. The event will bring together cities, business and financial institutions to exchange on good practices and successful solutions to common challenges.

In the Southern Mediterranean region, the EU-funded CES-MED project is supporting the preparation of Sustainable Energy and Climate Action Plans in eight partner countries. Since the beginning of the CES-MED project, more than 28 such plans have been prepared in collaboration with local authorities and municipalities in the region, with the project’s two offices in Rabat and Beirut working to help local authorities to join the Covenant of Mayors and provide additional information on sustainable energy to municipalities.

Since 2008, over 9,200 local authorities in the EU and beyond are taking action to reach their Covenant of Mayors targets and contribute to climate and energy objectives. By 2020, those cities are expected to have an average reduction of 27% for CO2 emissions, and 20% decrease in energy use.

The CES-MED project is an EU-funded regional initiative set up to provide training and technical assistance support to local and national authorities in the southern Mediterranean region, with a view to helping them respond more actively to sustainable policy challenges.

CES-MED ensures that the actions proposed match with the objectives of the Covenant of Mayors: to reach and even go beyond the European objective to reduce CO2 emissions by 20% thanks to the improvement of energy efficiency and the increased use of sustainable energy.

Read more

CES-MED press release

Covenant of Mayors website

Register for Covenant of Mayors ceremony on 22 February

Draft programme of anniversary event

CES-MED website