A green, social recovery needs a neighbourhood-based EU renovation wave

An international conference gathering input from 6 EU funded projects working on urban regeneration One-Stop-Shops underlines the importance of local action in the forthcoming European and national recovery plans.

On 12 May an international multi-stakeholder Webinar was organised by Opengela (an EU-funded project led by the Basque Regional Government), gathering representatives from 5 other projects from France, Austria, Italy, Ireland and Spain. The event, followed by more than 180 participants from 26 countries and 4 continents, aimed to foster a collective brainstorming on how to tackle the situation provoked by the COVID19 crisis in local urban regeneration projects.

Moderated by representatives from EASME, the European Commission’s Agency for Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises, participants fostered a lively debate on the effects of the COVID crisis on local One-Stop-Shops for building renovation, the specific actions foreseen for the “new normal” scenario and the best possible ways to place sustainable urban regeneration at the core of forthcoming regional, national and European recovery programmes.

Among the main challenges for the way ahead, speakers underlined the need for solid financial schemes to overcome the barriers that citizens will face for making the decision of renovating their homes. But, according to the experience drawn on the field from the participant projects, finance is not the main potential barrier: other elements, such as integrating building refurbishment with other socio-economic measures fighting energy poverty, increasing accessibility to buildings and strengthening the social fabric in neighbourhoods, were judged to be as important as the availability of funds.

“European Regional and local authorities need a signal from the EU to ensure that the Renovation Wave is made real not only top-down, but also bottom-up, from our neighbourhoods,” said Ignacio de la Puerta, Opengela Coordinator and Director for Territorial Planning, Urbanism and Urban Regeneration of the Basque Government. “The deployment of the Green Deal on the ground will only be successful if it takes into account the essential contribution of One-Stop-Shops already in place at local level, and working on a broad approach: this is about energy savings, but also about fostering social fabric, ensuring healthy homes and promoting local, long-term job creation”.

All participants agreed that the current crisis has shown the importance that our homes and neighbourhoods have in our daily life: the dwellings in which we have spent almost our entire time have suddenly become learning, working and care centres, and – as our societies learn to live with the effects of the pandemic – it is increasingly clear that our immediate vicinity will play an essential role in our daily lives in the future, therefore increasing the importance of holistic, integral and fair urban regeneration, leaving no one behind.

* Interview in the regional media Radio Euskadi to Ignacio De la Puerta and Davide Cannarozi about the Opengela project and the webinar ‘Post Covid-19 Urban Regeneration: One-Stop-Shops for a fair, green and social recovery’ HERE

This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 846707.

Otxar Opengela

Address: Avenida Pau Casals, No. 16, Otxarkoaga, Bilbao (In front of Plaza Kepa Enbeita)

Telephone: 946 85 19 32

E-mail: otxaropengela@vvmm.bilbao.eus

Txonta Opengela

Address: Calle Txonta No. 3, ground floor, Eibar

Telephone: 688 77 97 37

E-mail: txontabulegoa@eibar.eus

Opengela organises the webinar ‘Post Covid-19 Urban Regeneration: One-Stop-Shops for a fair, green and social recovery’

What? The webinar will gather speakers from 6 European One-Stop-Shops for Urban Regeneration, and will be moderated by EASME (European Commission)

When? Tuesday May 12 at 11:00 (CET). Maximum 90 minutes.

Registration: You can register HERE.

Agenda:

1. Short introductory statement from Ignacio de la Puerta, Opengela Coordinator and Director for Territorial Planning, Urbanism and Urban Regeneration, Basque Government.

2. Debate -moderated by Stephan Renner, EASME– with interventions from the following OSS:

· Opengela (Basque Region, Spain): Andoni Hidalgo

· SharingCities (Milan, Italy): Cecilia Hugony

· EuroPACE (Spain): Davide Cannarozzi

· RenoBooster (Vienna, Austria): Stephan Hartmann

· SuperHomes (Ireland): Declan Daly

· Orfée (France): Françoise Refabert

In order to have a lively debate, there will be no presentations, and discussions will be structured around 3-4 questions. During this debate, the ‘Q&A’ tool will be open for gathering questions from the public.

3. Finally, we will get to conclusions that will result in a short report gathering the main lessons learnt, and that will be distributed to participants after the meeting.

Context

The Covid-19 pandemic and the subsequent socio-economic crisis facing the EU are going to impact urban regeneration projects. There are a number of important challenges and opportunities ahead:

On the one hand, the period of confinement has proved that our homes play an essential role in our lives, providing us with shelter, workspace, a place to learn and grow. Spending nearly 100% of our time indoors has taught us the value of community and neighbourhood life. It is critical to rebuild resilient community relationships post Covid-19 and to ensure that all Europeans are living in healthy and comfortable homes.

On the other hand, it is likely that -during the social and economic crisis- investments in home renovations may be de-prioritised by Europeans, seeking to cover immediate expenses. In the meanwhile, local, regional and national public authorities will be forced to divert their investments to fostering employment, saving the economy and ensuring social benefits for the most disadvantaged groups.

How can we face this reality? What kind of narratives can urban regeneration OSS contribute to be seen as one of the keys to a fair, equitable, and green exit from the crisis, leaving no one behind?

The Opengela program (funded from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 programme under grant agreement No 846707) is undertaking an internal process of reflection to adapt to the post Covid-19 reality. However, we feel that we will have much to gain if we open this process by inviting other renovation programs, One-Stop-Shops to share their experiences across Europe. With that in mind this webinar intends to generate “collective brainstorming” about the impacts of Covid-19, identifying challenges and opportunities faced by our communities.

This is a period of high uncertainty at many levels, and therefore this webinar does not intend to provide clear answers or magic solutions to the challenges we face, but rather to be a thought-provoking and knowledge-sharing experience.

REGISTER HERE