• The deputy councillor Miguel de los Toyos and the councillor Jon Bilbao accompany the officials of the Cuban organisation on their visit to the Otxarkoaga neighbourhood and its Opengela office.

The Deputy Minister for Territorial Planning and Urban Agenda of the Basque Government, Miguel de los Toyos, and the Councillor for Housing of the Bilbao City Council and President of the Bilbao Municipal Housing Association, Jon Bilbao, accompanied the heads of the Office of the Historian of Havana this morning on their visit to Otxarkoaga and its neighbourhood office (Otxar Opengela): Perla Rosales, Deputy Director General; Nelys García, director of International Cooperation; Anabell Cedeño, technical specialist of the International Cooperation Directorate; Malena Roche, director of Habana Espacios Creativos; and Ariam L. Mayor, senior specialist at Habana Espacios Creativos. The visit was also attended by the Director of Territorial Planning and Urban Agenda of the Basque Government, Ignacio de la Puerta, and the Director General of Municipal Housing of Bilbao, Eider Bilbao.

The Office of the Historian of the City of Havana, founded in 1938 by Emilio Roig for the protection of the cultural heritage of Old Havana, has carried out the rehabilitation of many buildings in the historic centre of the city. It had its heyday in the 1980s with historian Eusebio Leal at the helm, the first project for the restoration of the entire area and the declaration by UNESCO of the Historic Centre of Havana and its system of fortifications as a World Heritage Site in 1982. He is currently in the process of extending this type of project to other areas, not only in the Cuban capital, but in the whole of the Caribbean country.

Today’s meeting, requested by this Cuban body, was therefore a meeting and exchange of ideas between the latter and those responsible for the Opengela urban regeneration programme, coordinated by the Department of Territorial Planning, Housing and Transport of the Basque Government and involving 9 public and private organisations, including Bilbao Municipal Housing.

The Opengela project, which is funded by the European Commission’s Horizon 2020 programme, consists of setting up neighbourhood offices that accompany the neighbourhood throughout the process of refurbishing their buildings, offering support to homeowners’ associations in contracting works, managing public aid, accessing financing, improving energy efficiency and accessibility.

This programme is linked to the integral urban regeneration projects in vulnerable neighbourhoods, through which the aim is not only to improve accessibility and energy efficiency with the rehabilitation of residential buildings and the redevelopment of the entire environment, but also to address their social situation (low income, high unemployment and low level of education), through these technical offices and neighbourhood proximity.

The place chosen for the meeting was the Otxarkoaga neighbourhood, whose urban regeneration and building rehabilitation project, known as Orain Otxar, for 240 homes spread over 16 doorways and three streets in the neighbourhood (Irumineta, Txotena and Larrakoetxe) is well underway and its neighbourhood office Otxar Opengela is hosting a multitude of actions to accompany and support residents and other initiatives such as the remodelling of the old shopping centre and the launch of entrepreneurial initiatives in premises that are now empty.

Opengela, whose European project will end in January 2023, has generated a management model for neighbourhood offices that is already beginning to be deployed in other municipalities, beyond the two pilots in Otxarkoaga and Eibar. Specifically, in Lasarte and Durango, as well as in Pasaia, Abanto-Zierbena, Santurtzi and Valle de Trápaga.

• This European Project funded by the Horizon 2020 programme will continue for a further eight months, until January 2023. Therefore, the pilot neighbourhoods of Otxarkoaga (Bilbao) and Txonta (Eibar) will be able to finish the refurbishment of the buildings of 460 dwellings
• CINEA (the European Climate, Infrastructures and Environment Executive Agency) values Opengela for its “ambitious energy-savings”, “the creation of local experiences and employment”, the scalability of the processes and the financing” and “the support for vulnerable communities of owners”

The European Union is living a key moment in the energy and ecological transition because of the geopolitical crisis consequence of the invasion of Ukraine. Now, more than ever, the European Commission is determined to reduce its dependence on Russian gas and has launched some initiatives to the end.The recently approved REPowerEU Plan or the ‘Fit for 55’ regulatory framework (aimed at reducing emissions) are oriented in this direction, and the Commission stresses the fundamental role that energy-saving must play in our buildings: in this sense, there is a clear preference for in-depth rehabilitation projects, which involve savings of more than 60% of energy consumption.

In this context of a double need for decarbonisation and reduction of energy dependence, the Commission clearly supports projects such as Opengela that also include a social component. Martin Eibl, Senior Project Advisor at CINEA, the official body that oversees such projects, explained.

During the General Assembly of Opengela, which yesterday brought together all the partners of the consortium led by the Department of Territorial Planning, Housing and Transport, Mr Eibl highlighted the role played by Opengela, an urban regeneration project that is developing two pilot projects in the Otxarkoaga (Bilbao) and Txonta (Eibar) neighbourhoods. He highlighted four reasons: on the one hand, he emphasised the “ambitious energy savings” proposed by the project thanks to the works related to efficiency in the intervened buildings. On the other hand, he underlined the importance given to “the value chain to create local experiences and employment”, which speaks in favour of “long-term policies”.

Thirdly, emphasis was placed on “scalable processes and funding” beyond the two pilot neighbourhoods, which have already begun to be applied in other Basque localities and have been the subject of interest from other European regions. In addition, CINEA values “the support to vulnerable communities of homeowners”, a relevant aspect of the project.

Eight-month extension for Horizon 2020 project

The General Assembly also served to confirm that this project financed by the EU through the Horizon 2020 programme (with 1.7 million euros) will be extended by eight months more than initially planned. Instead of ending in May 2022, the European Commission has accepted an extension – without additional funding – until January 2023 to allow all the objectives to be reached and to finalise the works in the Txonta and Otxarkoaga neighbourhoods, some of which were delayed due to the difficulties arising from the pandemic and the recent supply crisis.

This is not to say that the urban regeneration process, and in particular the Opengela model, will end there. In fact, the replication phase has already begun in other places. Specifically, there are already 10 Basque municipalities that are applying this initiative based on the implementation of neighbourhood offices as a one-stop-shop for all procedures related to the refurbishment of buildings. In addition to the 460 homes covered by the project in Txonta and Otxarkoaga, work has begun in Lasarte and Durango, as well as in Pasaia, in three Biscayan municipalities in Ezkerraldea (Abanto-Zierbena, Santurtzi and Trapagarán), as well as another two in the Ayala Valley: Orduña and Amurrio. In total, there are 1,800 dwellings.

The European Opengela project started in May 2019 and is an example of public-private collaboration. In addition to the Basque Government, there are other public entities in the consortium, such as the Basque Energy Agency (EVE), Bilbao Municipal Housing and Debegesa, as well as two organisation at the European level (FEDARENE and Housing Europe) and firms specialising in financing (GNE Finance), communication (Gabineteseis) and European affairs (Zabala).