The Spanish Government is providing the Basque Country with 16.7 million euros to reinforce urban regeneration in Otxarkoaga, Txonta, as well as in Aramotz (Durango) and Basaundi Bailara (Lasarte-Oria). The European aid will make it possible to increase the subsidy received by each owner to alleviate their contribution to the payment of the projected works.   

The Basque Government announced today that the Basque Country is the first autonomous community in Spain to receive the initial batch of Next Generation European Funds related to urban regeneration, which form part of the Recovery Plan to repair the economic and social damage caused by the pandemic. The Government of Spain has delivered 16.7 million euros that will go to the four neighbourhoods that have their projects underway as part of the Opengela project.  

“The Basque Country is the first Spanish community to receive this aid for having advanced projects in this area,” explained the Department of Territorial Planning, Housing and Transport. This refers to the urban regeneration initiatives in the neighbourhoods of Otxarkoaga (Bilbao), Txonta (Eibar), Aramotz (Durango) and Basaundi Bailara (Lasarte-Oria), whose distribution of funds has already been established and which will now begin the administrative process to access them.  

The first two neighbourhoods started the European Opengela project in May 2019, as pilots. Durango and Lasarte-Oria are subsequently replicating the model and it is hoped that in the future it will be extended to other Basque cities, and also in Europe.   

The 16.7 million received will be used to increase the direct subsidies granted to the four local councils to finance the integral urban regeneration projects in vulnerable neighbourhoods, which are already underway and aim to improve the quality of life of a total of more than 1,500 people and 740 dwellings spread over 65 house numbers. 

The aim of these projects is not only to improve accessibility and energy efficiency with the refurbishment of residential buildings and the redevelopment of the whole area, but also to address their social situation, through technical offices and neighbourhood proximity offices to provide information, manage works and aid and promote local training and employment plans to boost their economic reactivation.  

Specifically, the investment from the European funds will be used to improve the energy efficiency of the homes and buildings to be refurbished, which should achieve a reduction in non-renewable primary energy consumption of more than 45% in some cases and 60% in general depending on the case. 

Otxarkoaga (Bilbao) 

The regeneration project of the Otxarkoaga neighbourhood in Bilbao, which affects 240 dwellings spread over 16 house numbers (five blocks), will add 6.56 million euros to the 3.55 million euros provided by the Basque Government and 997,139 euros from the City Council. Private individuals are investing 1.17 million. The integral action of this project consists of, in addition to the aforementioned actions, the extension of housing in three of the portals, the recovery of a commercial building to house socio-cultural activities and the installation of photovoltaic panels on its roof, and the constitution of a community of shared energy self-consumption. 

Txonta (Eibar) 

In addition to the 1.8 million euro grant from the Basque Government to Eibar Town Council – which in turn is providing a further 2.45 million euro – 2.15 million euro from the Next Funds have been added for the Txonta rehabilitation project, which will benefit 75 homes spread over 16 house numbersenergy-savingenergy-saving, and which stands out for the construction of a public lift to improve accessibility and the demolition of obsolete industrial ruins, which involves the redevelopment of the space. The owners will contribute 734,868 euros for the intervention. It should be borne in mind that, although the Txonta project covers 221 homes, the Next Funds are limited to 75 of them as they are the ones that meet the project start dates or the energy saving percentages established in Royal Decree 853/2021. 

Aramotz (Durango) 

The project for the regeneration of the Aramotz neighbourhood in Durango, which involves 128 dwellings spread over 16 house numberss, will receive an additional 3.66 million euros for its refurbishment from European funds, which will be added to the 3.4 million euro subsidy from the Basque Country and 1.08 million euros from the municipality itself. The owners, for their part, will invest 2.86 million euros. Its urban regeneration has the peculiarity of including the diversion of a channelled stream, which runs unburied in the inner area of the residential buildings. 

Basaundi Bailara (Lasarte-Oria) 

The regeneration project for the Basaundi Bailara neighbourhood in Lasarte-Oria will add 4.38 million euros to the 3.3 million euro grant awarded by the Basque Government, which covers 151 dwellings spread over 16 portals, and includes urban development work and refurbishment of residential buildings with improvements in accessibility and energy efficiency. The City Council will invest 1.93 million and the owners 3.33 million. 

• 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).

• The pilot projects in the neighbourhoods of Otxarkoaga and Txonta have received heads of organisations interested in implementing similar initiatives in two regions of Croatia, two in Spain, three counties in Ireland, and also two in Poland and Greece.
• The Opengela project, which is supported by the European Commission through the Horizon 2020 programme, is already being replicated in other Basque municipalities.

The Opengela model of urban regeneration is expanding not only in the rest of the Basque Country but also in different European countries. On Thursday 31 March and Friday 1 April, representatives from seven municipalities and regions visited Bilbao and Eibar to see first-hand the pilot projects being developed in the Otxarkoaga and Txonta neighbourhoods, respectively.

The selection of the regions to replicate the model has been made by Fedarene, the European Federation of Energy and Environment Agencies and Regions, which in turn is one of the partners in the Opengela consortium. housing Europe also assisted in the selection of the regions that visited the project.

These are two regions in Croatia, two more in Spain – Extremadura and Asturias- and also an Irish entity established in three counties, Poland and Greece.

From Croatia, officials have come from two regions: on the one hand, from the county of Medjimurje, which covers three cities and 22 municipalities. There, the regional energy agency MENEA operates as an advisory centre for energy and climate issues and is now in the process of expanding its services to, among other things, integrate a home renovation service collaboratively and ensure financial sustainability.

The other Croatian region present in Euskadi covers the counties of Varazdin, Koprivnica-Krizevci and Virovitica-Podravina. There, the regional energy agency, REA North, has already started to provide consultation and technical guidance related to housing renovation. However, it is looking for ideas to address the financial side and questions on how to establish an innovative citizen-driven one-stop-shop model at the local and regional levels.

There was also a Spanish presence, through representatives from Extremadura and Asturias. Representatives from Extremadura came with AGENEX, an energy agency that has already participated in other European projects such as INNOVATE or HousEEnvest. It is looking for ideas and experiences to address social housing from a perspective in which homeowners are involved, in addition to the search for sustainable financial tools. For its part, Asturias was present through Viviendas del Principado de Asturias-VIPASA, the company that manages the public housing stock of the Principality of Asturias.

The fifth region comes from Ireland. There, the energy agency 3cea is active in the counties of Carlow, Kilkenny, and Wexford and is committed to energy efficiency and renewables. Finally, there were also the presence of the Polish region of Mazovia through the Mazovia Energy Agency, and from Greece via the Thessaloniki social rental agency.

Opengela, until January 2023

The heads of the seven European cities and regions have attended a busy programme in which they have learned about the general lines of the Opengela project, which started in May 2019 and is scheduled to end in January next year. They also visited the two pilot neighbourhoods: Txonta (Eibar) and Otxarkoaga (Bilbao), where work is already progressing on the buildings where the intervention is being carried out. Opengela focuses on the creation of neighbourhood offices that act as a one-stop-shop, where the neighbourhood receives support to tackle the refurbishment of their buildings from a perspective of improving energy efficiency and also with social criteria.

In Otxarkoaga, in Bilbao, work is being carried out on five buildings totalling 16 portals with a total of 240 dwellings. The office is located in the former BBK kindergarten. In the Txonta neighbourhood in Eibar, the pilot project involves work on 221 homes in 17 home owners.

The project has received 1.7 million euros from the European Commission’s Horizon 2020 programme and is led by the Basque Government’s Department of Territorial Planning, Housing and Transport. The consortium is joined by eight other partners: the local urban development companies of the two municipalities (Viviendas Municipales de Bilbao and the Gipuzkoa-based Debegesa), the Basque Energy Agency (EVE), as well as three companies: one specialising in financing, GNE Finance; another in European affairs, Zabala; and another in communication, Gabineteseis; together with two European organisations based in Brussels: Fedarene and the European Federation of Public, Cooperative and Social Housing (Housing Europe).

• In 2021, the progress of the two one-stop shops of the Opengela project is already visible: more than 700 people are participating in the programme, with a reduction of more than 50% in the CO2 emissions of the intervened buildings.

The Opengela project continues to make progress. It started in May 2019, and even though the pandemic slowed down the urban regeneration process in the two pilot neighbourhoods (Otxarkoaga in Bilbao and Txonta in Eibar), by the end of 2021, some outstanding results can already be seen.

This project, which is funded by the European Commission through the Horizon 2020 programme, has set various objectives, both in the refurbishment of buildings and improving energy efficiency. And, in this regard, it is making notable progress.

At this moment, the two neighbourhoods have managed to reduce their CO2 emissions by more than 50% in the buildings where work is being carried out. Thus, in Otxarkoaga an average of 74% has been reduced in the four blocks that are currently being refurbished. According to the samples taken, the Bilbao neighbourhood has managed to reduce the emission of 340 tonnes of CO2 per year. This is possible thanks to the fact that 69,14% of the budget has been allocated to energy efficiency (both active and passive actions).

In the case of Txonta, the reduction in emissions is quantified at an average of 54,09%, with a total reduction of 157 tonnes of CO2 in the projects already executed. If the works currently underway are added, the number rises to 378,70 tonnes of CO2 per year. In the Gipuzkoa neighbourhood, 67,60% of the budget has gone directly to promoting energy efficiency.

3,6 million private investments

Public-private partnerships are fundamental to this progress. In addition to institutional support, the homeowner’s associations must agree to carry out the refurbishment projects. In this sense, private investment is important. By the end of 2021, total of 3,6 million euros had been mobilised between the two neighbourhoods: 825.438 euros in Txonta and 2,83 million in Otxarkoaga, where most of the property is owned to Municipal Housing. In fact, if the investment of the Bilbao public company is added, the investment is increased by a further 3,92 million.

In this sense, the final objective of the project is closed to being achieved, as it reached 4,6 million euros of private investment.

More than 700 people from 22 buildings in both neighbourhoods have already signed up to the project. It is worth highlighting the high degree of agreement among the neighbourhood to carry out the works (90% in Otxarkoaga and 88% in Txonta). This is reflected in concrete improvements. For example, it has already been agreed to replace a third of the carpentry in the buildings being refurbished.

The district offices, both Txonta Opengela and Otxar Opengela, accompany the neihbourhood throughout the refurbishment process. In Eibar, 143 aid applications have been processed for homeowner’s associations and individuals in different typologies. It is worth noting that this neighbourhood, which is considered vulnerable, has increased its registered population by 3,4% since 2018.

In Otxar Opengela more than 600 interactions have been registered last year between the people who manage the office and the neighbourhood, to accompany them in the refurbishment process.

Finally, a dozen homes in both neighbourhoods have expressed interest in taking advantage of Opengela’s specific financing, which offers payment facilities for renovation work.

• A course of the Basque Institute of Public Administration (IVAP), aimed at civil servants and profesional, presents the cases of integral refurbishment in Otxarkoaga (Bilbao) and Txonta (Eibar), as well as in Lasarte-Oria and Durango.
• In addition, Ignacio de la Puerta, Director of Territorial Planning and Urban Agenda of the Basque Government, explains the different actions that are being carried out in the Basque Country in terms of urban regeneration.
• On the other hand, Gerardo Ruiz, architect and professor of the Polytechnic University of Madrid, presented the great economic and social potential of urban regeneration presents in Basque neighbourhoods.

A training day organised on Tuesday 16 February by the Basque Institute of Public Administration (IVAP) has oriented civil servants and professionals in the Basque Country on the technical and organisational aspects of urban regeneration. In order to make this known, it used the Opengela project, which is developing two pilot projects in Otxarkoaga (Bilbao) and Txonta (Eibar).

The aim of the course was to show the regulatory and administrative frameworks in the field of urban regeneration and the scales at which it can be developed, as well as to learn about technical and organisational aspects.

Representatives of two of Opengela’s partners, Bilbao Municipal Housing and Debegesa, have presented the comprehensive refurbishment they are carrying out in Otxarkoaga and Txonta. In the Bilbao neighbourhood, work is being carried out on five buildings which with a total of 16 house numbers and 240 homes. In the case of Txonta, the work is being carried out on 221 homes of 17 house numbers.

For his part, the Director of Territorial Planning and Urban Agenda of the Basque Country, Ignacio de la Puerta, was in charge of presenting the actions being carried out in the Basque Country in urban matters, including Opengela, the project driven by the Basque Government which looks to improve quality of life in cities through urban regeneration.

Gerardo Ruiz Palomeque, professor at the School of Architecture of the Polytechnic University of Madrid and who collaborates with the Basque Government in the development of these actions, also participated in the conference. In his lecture, he explained the great economic and social potential of urban regeneration in the Basque neighbourhoods.

In addition to the representatives of Debegesa and Bilbao Municipal Housing, who coordinates the Txonta and Otxarkoaga offices, those responsible for two offices where the Opengela model has begun to be replicated, in the neighbourhoods of Aramotz (Durango) and Basaundi Bailara (Lasarte-Oria), aso participated and explained the actions they are carrying out.

The conference also included the sociologist Aitor Vallejo, founder of the European Research Survey, and the architect Sonia De Gregorio, who spoke about urban regeneration and the gender perspective.