MUE25 - Managing Urban Europe 25

Directly connected to the thematic Strategy on the urban environment, this project is co-financed by the European Commission. It aims to improve the development and the implementation of environmental management systems for urban zones. Coordinated by the Union of Baltic Cities (UBC), this project involves 23 partners including 14 cities which will undertake pilot projects.

Managing Urban Europe-25 is the largest European project so far on cities’ environmental management systems (EMS). MUE-25 will improve the environmental quality and sustainability of European cities by delivering a framework for better implementation of already existing environmental management systems (EMS) like EMAS, ISO 14001 series and eco-budget. Through practical work with the cities, like local training, capacity building and research, MUE-25 will be part of a larger picture of strengthening environmental and sustainable practices. The project is closely linked to the Thematic Strategy on the Urban Environment within the 6th Environmental Action Plan of the European Union.

MUE-25 is developing the next generation of EMS to address sustainable development in the whole functional urban area. An ambitious, yet feasible goal. Within the MUE-25 framework addressing the whole functional urban area means to address all relevant activities of all actors (municipality and stakeholders) within the borders of the political authority area and built-up city area that have remarkable environmental impacts.

Only very few cities in the world have so far been able to achieve this by applying the existing systems. As work on environmental management systems in cities has been on-going already for more than a decade, it seems to be time to take a closer and critical look at the systems themselves and on the ways how they have been implemented in the cities.
MUE-25 starts exactly by doing that. During the current year, the project will investigate and analyze the success of EMS applications in European cities – map the state-of-the-art. On basis of that, the development needs will be found. Once these needs start to be revealed, further development of both the existing systems and the methods of their implementation will be carried out.

The main outcome of the project will be a framework EMS system, an EMS umbrella, which enables the implementation of environmental management systems for the entire urban area. By using the system, the cities should better be able to improve implementation of environmental legislation, municipal policy integration and coherence, urban management, municipal compliance with existing legislation and voluntary agreements, as well as environmental assessment and reporting and communication with local stakeholders.

ACR+ contribution is in providing training support in waste management and in disseminating results.

For more information visit the MUE25 website

For any further information:
O. De Clercq - odc@acrplus.org - Tel +32 2 775 78 57