A new round of the EU’s Twinning Learning Programme has launched, pairing 16 “Mission cities” with 13 “twin cities” in 11 partnerships for a year-long collaboration.
The fifth cohort is part of the EU Climate-Neutral and Smart Cities Mission, with participating cities set to work together over the next 12 months through regular online exchanges and two study visits, the European Commission announced on Monday.
The city partnerships include Izmir and Sofia with Cascais; Dortmund with Gdynia and Issy-les-Moulineaux; Miskolc and Zagreb with Matosinhos; Istanbul and Athens with Prague; and Turku and Porto with Aalborg.
Other pairings are Riga with Kifissia; The Hague and Sønderborg with Ghent; Aarhus with Hamburg; Gabrovo with Rethymno; Lappeenranta with Maribor; and Vitoria-Gasteiz with Barreiro and Bodrum.
The programme is designed around sharing practical solutions between cities, with twin cities bringing approaches tested in their own EU-funded projects in areas including energy, mobility, nature-based solutions and citizen engagement.
Mission cities, meanwhile, share experience from implementing Climate City Contracts — plans that set out commitments, actions and investment needs for cutting emissions at city level — as well as from developing wider climate strategies.
How the programme fits into the wider EU cities mission
More than 200 cities across Europe have taken part since the Twinning Learning Programme began in 2023, the Commission pointed out.
The wider EU Mission: Climate-Neutral and Smart Cities was launched by the European Commission in September 2021 and includes 112 selected cities — 100 from the EU and 12 from Horizon Europe-associated countries.
Climate City Contracts are reviewed by the European Commission with input from the European Investment Bank and the Joint Research Centre, and 107 cities have received an “EU Mission Label” linked to the process.
NetZeroCities, described as a consortium of 34 partners from 27 European countries, manages the EU Cities Mission Platform supporting the 112 Mission Cities in reducing greenhouse gas emissions to reach climate neutrality by 2030.
