A signing ceremony for 20 Ukrainian cities in Kiev on 20 June brought the number of local authorities in Eastern Partnership countries joining the Mayors for Economic Growth (M4EG) initiative to over 100.
The signing ceremony took place during the first Steering Group meeting for M4EG, held in Kiev City Hall, attended by representatives of national governments, as well as associations of local authorities, the European Commission DG NEAR and DG REGIO, EU country Delegations, and the World Bank.
M4EG, a EUR 10 million EU initiative promoting local sustainable economic development in the six Eastern Partnership countries, was launched in October 2016. Its overall goal is to support Mayors and municipalities of the Eastern Partnership countries to become active facilitators for economic growth and job creation at the local level.
Since January 2017 technical assistance has been made available for Eastern Partnership cities through the M4EG Secretariat The first results of the project include the development of the Concept of Mayors for Economic Growth and its dissemination among all the participating countries.
Local administrations and mayors are invited to sign up for the Mayors for Economic Growth membership if they are ready to accept the M4EG guiding principles in order to spur self-sustained local economic growth; work to develop locally inspired solutions; and implement them with M4EG Secretariat guidance and support.
A Call for Proposals was also launched in April to finance pilot projects capable of showing how concrete actions included in the Local Economic Development Plans can be realised on the ground.. The Call for Proposals “Mayors for Economic Growth Pioneer Projects”, which was closed for applications on 31 May 2017, has gathered the total of 164 applications from the region.
Find out more about the initiative.
Find out more about the Call for Proposals.
