New EU Missions and the importance of citizen participation
Photo by Markus Spiske on Unsplash
The European Commission recently launched a new series of five missions that put a number of major challenges for European citizens into focus. EU Missions are a new way of bringing specific solutions to some of our greatest challenges, with ambitious goals aimed to be reached by 2030. They will deliver impact by putting research and innovation into a new role, combined with new forms of governance and collaboration, as well as by engaging citizens.
The Commission's main priorities are some of the greatest challenges the world is facing today: fighting cancer, adapting to climate change, protecting the oceans, seas and waters, promoting greener, carbon-neutral cities, and ensuring healthy soil and food. In trying to achieve these purposes, comes a new method that combines research and innovation projects, policy measures & legislative initiatives, used as an ecosystem to achieve specific goals with large social impact within a set timeline.
In the Climate-Neutral and Smart Cities mission, selected communities will involve their citizens in drawing up 'Climate City Contracts' to help reach climate neutrality by 2030. With the Soil Deal mission, residents will be encouraged to participate in citizen science initiatives to collectively improve soil health. These EU missions provide a great opportunity of putting into action new instruments, business models, and investments across all the necessary levels, from local to EU-wide, not to mention setting a tremendous example for the rest of the world to follow.
Moreover, by connecting with citizens and engaging them in these processes, we can establish a new relationship between communities and their residents that not only makes them a key part of it, but also fully aware of their roles within the urban ecosystem. We can observe an extra strategic layer in the architecture of a smart city plan which involves, aside from changes in the infrastructure, how you use smart tech and why. It also involves citizens through a responsible role in how their communities develop and thrive, at both an individual and collective level,
EU missions have just been recently launched into their full implementation phase, so I’m looking forward to seeing how these work in tackling some of the most pressing challenges faced by EU communities.
