annual report on european activities 2013 · 2014-04-14 · regional policy as the...

Annual Report on European Activities 2013

Munich and EuropeHard work and dedication pays dividends for Munich 3

City Council Commission on Europe 4

Cities’ role in Europe strengthened 5

StrategyIn demand: Munich’s expertise

Munich shoulders greater responsibility at EUROCITIES 7

The new role of cities in Europe 9

Europe benefits from strong, healthy cities 10

News from the networks 10

Privatization of the water supply off the agenda for now 11

News in brief 12

City Councilors actively involved in networks 12

International activities Cooperation project with Beylikdüzü 13

Strengthening the role of cities in Europe 14

Supporting local government interests in the context of geoinformation 15

Macroregional strategy for the Alpine space to go ahead 16

Munich’s commitment to the EU’s strategy for the Danube region 17

Local government keeps a close eye on free trade agreement 18

ERDF: Partial success for Munich 19

Best practice for green companies – made in Munich Making better use of ESF funding 20

Munich keen to keep using working visits as in the past 21

ProjectsAssistance with EU projects

Schoolchildren discuss international environmental standards 23

Training for successful school partnerships 24

Qualified Spanish staff for Munich’s nurseries 25

Fresh impetus for education? 26

Better chances of finding work 27

Munich – A European cultural metropolis 28

Sourcing specialists throughout Europe 30

Sensitizing people to EU themes 31

The voice of the people heard on Europe Day 32

The Europe Direct Information Center: A chance to meet, experience and understand Europe 33

Kiev: New cooperation project on dealing with HIV and AIDS 34

Steering towards greener mobility 35

Comparison of mobility costs in Europe 36

EnergyCity tracks down heat losses in Munich 37

Freshness and diversity in local government 38

Prizes and awards 39

Future More power for the European Parliament

Munich welcomes Europe 41

Imprint 42

Hard work and dedication pays dividends for Munich

The European Union is an important factor for our high standard of living. It influences as many as 80 percent of all local government decisions, cover-ing everything from particulate matter to the energy-efficient modernization of old buildings to the bidding process for public contracts. To ensure that as many of these decisions as possible line up with the interests of the Bavarian capital, the City of Munich works hard both in and for Europe. The more actively we participate, the more opportunities Munich has to help shape the EU – and hence the future of its citizens.

There are plenty examples of success-ful efforts to date. One is our resolute stance opposing the privatization of the water supply. Munich teamed up with many other cities and local authorities to lobby for this cause in Brussels. In response, the EU has exempted the supply of drinking water from the Concessions Directive. While making the internal market as open to competition as possible is a good thing in principle, public goods such as water must be handled differently. The decision about how this precious commodity is to be supplied now remains with local governments.

Accordingly, Munich’s water supply will not be privatized: Instead, the city will continue to enjoy clean, high-qual-ity water at fair prices. Moreover, to make sure that Munich can continue to decide about the fate of its services in the future, we will also actively accompany negotiations on the free trade agreement between the EU and the USA.

Another example is our concerted effort to give the Munich region access to the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF). The City of Munich went to great lengths lob-bying for permission to participate in programs in the new funding period from 2014 – 2020. Its efforts were rewarded: Starting in 2014, parts of the ERDF program will now be open to the whole of Bavaria, including Munich. The Munich region will thus have access to projects under priority axis 3 (“supporting the shift towards a low-carbon economy in all sectors”). Local government intends to make the best possible use of this new opportunity.

Munich benefits from Europe in many ways, one of which is EU funding for research and development. The Erasmus exchange program gives our students the chance to study at other universities and get to know other countries and cultures within the EU.

Annual Report on European Activities 2013 3

Munich’s City Council Commission on Europe is an advisory body to the City Council. It concerns itself with EU initiatives that have a bearing on local government, applications for EU projects submitted by local govern-ment departments, funding programs and position papers on EU consultation proceedings. The City of Munich submits the latter directly to the EU Com-mission. In its advisory capacity, the City Council Commission meets three or four times a year to discuss European policy issues.

Voting members are: § Dieter Reiter, head of the Department of Labor and Economic Development § Ulrike Boesser, SPD § Andreas Lotte, SPD § Claudia Tausend, SPD § Elisabeth Schmucker, CSU (to be succeeded in October by Elisabeth Schosser) § Manuel Pretzl, CSU § Lydia Dietrich, Fraktion Bündnis 90/Die Grünen/ rosa liste § Gabriele Neff, FDP § Dr. Otto Bertermann, Bürgerliche Mitte

The heads of local government departments attend these meetings as permanent guests.

City Council Commission on Europe

Conversely, many young people from all over Europe spend time in the Bavarian capital in order to gain fresh insights and ideas in the course of their studies.

Local government itself makes good use of exchange activities under the auspices of the Leonardo da Vinci Mobility Project. Within this frame-work, municipal employees pay working visits to other European local authorities such as those in twin city Edinburgh. Such experiences advance the professional development of the individual, but also foster a deeper understanding of collaborative work at the European level. The project thus contributes to convergence among the EU member states.

Two important dates have already been set for 2014. Between May 22 – 25, 500 million EU citizens will be eligible to vote for their new parlia-ment. The EU Parliament is the only directly elected institution in the EU. The European elections are thus an excellent opportunity for everyone who has the right to vote. My hope is that as many people as possible will therefore seize this opportunity to directly influence European policy.

Second, the EUROCITIES annual con-ference in November 2014 will be a highlight for the European activities of the Bavarian capital. Representatives

of many major cities throughout Europe will meet in Munich to discuss how they can best organize their local governments to ensure a sustainable energy policy in the future. Some 400 delegates, including numerous mayors and political representatives of EU member states and EU institutions, will also see at first hand what Munich is doing to put energy-efficient urban development into practice. This will give us a tremendous opportunity to present our many examples of best practices.

Dieter ReiterHead of the Department of Labor and Economic Developmentat the City of Munich

4 Annual Report on European Activities 2013

2013 was an important year for the cities’ European activities. It was the year in which the European Commis-sion conducted negotiations over the new program and budget period (from 2014-2020) with the European Parlia-ment and the national governments. Working together with other members of EUROCITIES, but also within the framework of the German Association of Cities and the Council of European Municipalities and Regions, we have formulated relevant position papers, spelled out our interests at confer-ences, in committees and in discus-sions with representatives of the EU Commission and the European Parlia-ment, and added important topics to the political agenda, such as social inclusion, migration, the creative industries and the launch of new businesses. We have also clearly high-lighted the contributions that cities such as Munich are making in relation to climate change, urban mobility, services of general interest and energy supply.

Above and beyond their specific exper-tise, cities’ experience as “living labo-ratories” for democracy are increa s-ingly attracting the attention of the political echelons. Numerous local governments and administrations began by making the transition from authority to service partner for the local population. Now, they are becoming cooperation partners who

Local governments act on behalf of their citizens. But they also demand the right to play their part as key actors on the international stage. They know what they can contribute to smart, sustainable and social growth. And they are successful in doing so: Increasingly, the European Commis-sion and organizations throughout the world are recognizing cities’ capabili-ties in this role. At EUROCITIES’ 2013 annual conference in Gent, Hanna Gronkiewicz-Waltz, Mayor of Warsaw and President of the EUROCITIES network, summed up this develop-ment very succinctly when she spoke of “cities as the Zeitgeist”.

As a visible indication that it will treat cities as official partners in the future, the European Commission has renamed the Directorate-General for Regional Policy as the Directorate-General for Regional and Urban Policy. For our part, we too are working hard to ensure that the knowledge, demands and interests of the City of Munich are all channeled into the political activities of the EU and international organizations, and that this is recognized as a substantial con tribution. We therefore engage in intensive networking activities and do our best to ensure that our voice and our concerns are heard.

Cities’ role in Europe strengthened

work with local citizens to plan the future of their city. Smart citizens develop smart cities: This understand-ing was the focus of EUROCITIES’ 2013 annual conference in Gent. At the 2014 annual conference in Munich, we plan to show what solutions that combine the expertise of administra-tive bodies, the scientific community and the general public might look like.

The reports on the pages that follow make one point very clear: Munich’s city leaders and many of its coun-cilors, heads of department, experts and project managers have worked intensively together with experts in civil society to ensure that the city’s demands are heard throughout Europe, that we are able to collaborate with European partners on innovative projects, and that we can engage in in-depth dialogue with the local popu-lation about important issues relating to our Europe. The reports also show that we – as a local government , but also simply as Europeans – can indeed influence the future development and design of Europe.

Henriette WägerleCity of MunichDepartment of Labor and Economic DevelopmentDirector of European Affairs


The EUROCITIES network takes a high-profile stance in voicing the key concerns of large cities through-out Europe. In this context, the Bavarian capital is taking on ever more responsibility – currently chairing the Public Services work-ing group, for example. This level of involvement opens up new oppor-tunities to help place the water supply, waste disposal, wastewater disposal and local public transport services on an equitable and ecologically sound footing at the European level. In addition, the Department of Urban Planning and Building Regulations has been facilitating the Integrated Urban Development working group since 2012.

At a meeting in Munich on November 20 – 21, 2013, the members of EUROCITIES’ Public Services working group elected Munich to take over from Vienna in chairing the group. Nantes has assumed the role of vice chair. Headed by the Department of Labor and Economic Development, the working group focuses essentially on issues relating to European laws on state aid, the award of public contracts, and the EU’s prescriptions regarding the quality of public ser-vices. The group’s aim is to have European laws formulated in such a way that local governments remain free to choose how these public services are provided.

Munich shoulders greater responsibility at EUROCITIES

To represent its interests in Brussels and Strasbourg, the City of Munich once again engaged in vigorous and active lobbying work in 2013. The aim is to involve experts from the Bavarian capital in the political opinion-building pro-cess at EU level. Lobbying tends to be most successful when we are aware of political developments that could affect Munich at an early stage, as this gives us the chance to find reasoned arguments, develop strategies

and exert a real influence. Participating in legislative pro-cesses, taking part in consultations, seeking information as early as possible or targeting direct involvement in specific processes. Whatever the issue at stake, lobbying is an efficient tool with which to achieve objectives in Brussels. The European Affairs Team at the Department of Labor and Economic Development coordinates all European activities on behalf of the City of Munich.

In demand: Munich’s expertise

Successful lobbyingOne important point on the agenda in Munich was the planned amendment to the Concessions Directive. Conces-sions play a major part in the delivery of public services by local govern-ments. Last year, the water supply was the focus of lobbying campaigns that ultimately helped ensure that the EU Directive now no longer applies to the water supply. The working group also addresses how Europe’s laws on state aid affect social housing pro-grams, a subject on which it has already drafted a joint position paper. A separate declaration, initiated by the City of Vienna, goes further than the EUROCITIES position paper and high-lights the potential risks of lowering income levels for social accommoda-tion. This declaration too was pre-sented in Munich and signed by 30 cities, including the Bavarian capital itself.

Beyond these activities, EUROCITIES also asserted the interests of cities during European negotiations on the EU’s multi-year financial framework, within the scope of which the European Commission prioritized its spending plans for the period from 2014 – 2020. Munich welcomes the


EU’s decision to support integration and social cohesion projects at local government level. The European Commission will also chart a course for sustainable growth from which Munich can reap further benefits. Funding in support of entrepreneur-ship and creativity is likewise of relevance to urban development topics and will gradually be ramped up as well.

Within the framework of EUROCI-TIES’ task force on Sinti and Roma Integration, Munich’s Department of Social Services organized an exchange event with two Bulgarian cities, Omurtag and Pazardik, in October 2013. At the event, Munich presented its activities to develop skills and encourage integration in the labor market, in addition to programs to strengthen social cohesion at the level of urban districts. In a second step, the City of Munich will help its Bulgar-ian partners to set up similar local government activities of their own in order to improve living conditions for Sinti and Roma on the ground in Bulgaria too.

The European Commission sees the training and qualification opportunities afforded by Germany’s sandwich-course system as an important tool to

help reduce persistently high youth unemployment rates and open up new possibilities for growth in Southern Europe. Accordingly, the Department of Education and Sports is actively involved in the working group Inclu-sion Through Education, which focuses on precisely this topic. In September 2013, the group held its most recent meeting in The Hague. One event on the agenda was a visit to the local conference “Geslaagd in het vak 2.0”, at which various educa-tional and business organizations from in and around The Hague were repre-sented. How the sandwich-course system is applied in Munich in particu-lar was the subject of a presentation at this conference.

Densification as an opportunityDialogue on integrated urban develop-ment, jointly moderated by the Department of Urban Planning and Building Regulations and the City of Stockholm within the framework of the EUROCITIES’ Economic Develop-ment Forum, was further intensified in 2013. Many growing European cities are confronted by the challenge of pursuing inner urban development and densification – to safeguard their sus-tainable development. This working group therefore discussed how densi-fication can be designed in such a way that any potential burdens are at least offset by positive effects.

Densification can, for example, create new opportunities even for the exist-ing resident population if it is accom-panied by improvements to the infra-structure, superior energy efficiency and better noise abatement. Dialogue with the Housing working group (part of the Social Affairs forum) has been actively sought in this context. A pres-entation by the City of Dresden high-lighted the changes and conflicts in the use of public space.

In 2013, both the Department of Labor and Economic Development and the Department of Urban Planning and Building Regulations took part in the EUROCITIES study Metropolitan Areas in Action (MAIA) commissioned by the EUROCITIES WG “Metropolitan Areas”. The working group pursues two primary objectives: to pool experi-ence in order to improve cooperation within urban regions; and to cultivate contact with European bodies (the Commission and Parliament) to secure support and funding in the future. In November 2013, the working group presented its findings to the European Parliament’s URBAN intergroup. Talks concerning cooperation with the European Commission are currently in progress.


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The new role of cities in Europe

At the end of November, mayors and politicians from over 90 European cities converged on the Belgian city of Gent for the annual EUROCITIES conference. Under the heading “Smart Citizens”, the gathering discussed ways in which cities can encourage ever greater public participation in their design and development.

New technologies make direct partici-pation easier, but also place new demands on local governments. How cities can best accommodate this development was one of the hotly debated issues at the conference: How can local governments provide their citizens with platforms for com-munication and dialogue? How can they safeguard residents’ quality of life and make smart, focused use of new technologies? Participants expressed the conviction that cities can never hope to develop and accommodate constantly changing conditions

without the committed and, at times, exceptional support of their citizens. Innovation, inclusion and integration, they agreed, are ideals that can only be lived out if local residents play an active part in shaping the life of “their” city. As a result, the confer-ence sees the role of citizens shifting from that of passive customers to active partners.

On behalf of the City of Munich, City Councilor Ulrike Boesser (SPD) invited the EUROCITIES members to attend next year’s annual conference in Munich. Other City Councilors in the Munich delegation included Dr. Constanze Söllner-Schaar (SPD), Manuel Pretzl (CSU), Ursula Sabathil (Bürgerliche Mitte FW/ÖDP/BP) and Gabriele Neff (FDP).

The event was concluded with tradi-tional Bavarian gingerbread, Munich beer and small beer mugs sponsored by the Munich Brewers’ Association. City Councilor Manuel Pretzl tapped the beer barrel and handed the first mug to Daniël Termont, Mayor of Gent. At the end of a very intensive conference, the Bavarian specialties went down very well – and kindled positive anticipation of the 2014 annual conference in Munich.

Waste management utility boosts lobbying activities in BrusselsEver since the Municipal Services Department took over the chairman-ship of the Technical Committee on Europe at the VKU Association of Municipal Companies, Munich has stepped up its lobbying activities in the field of waste management. Thanks to the European Affairs Office in place at the VKU, Munich’s waste manage-ment utility AWM is now in a position to quickly identify and respond to politi-cal developments in Brussels. To take just one example: In 2013, AWM took part in a stakeholder dialogue session organized in Brussels by the EU Commission and relating to extended

News from the networks

“Strengthening Europe – for its citizens and for its cities”: This was the motto of the German Associa-tion of Cities’ Annual Conference in Frankfurt/Main in April 2013. Yet the Association made it abundantly clear that realizing this goal also meant preventing the privatization of water, curbing rising rents, easing the housing shortage and avoiding too heavy a burden on local government budgets. Christian Ude, Mayor of Munich and Presi-dent of the Association until 2013, stressed the special importance of cities for Europe’s development and its future. The conference concluded by ratifying the “Frankfurt Decla ration”.

The majority of the populations of both Germany and Europe live in cities. Top priority, Ude noted, must therefore be given to organizing the best possible living conditions for Europe’s citizens, safeguarding public interests and encouraging people to play an active part. “Local government policy centers on the people. Their living conditions must be optimized to the greatest extent possible,” Ude said. “That is why we want to state very clearly: Europe can only benefit if local democracy is protected and nur-tured. Cities are the bedrock of demo-cratic societies. They are the level that is closed to the people themselves.”

Proven structures under threatTo safeguard public interests in the field of water supply, Ude made an urgent appeal to the EU Commission to exempt the public water industry from its planned realignment of the Directive on Concessions: “We reso-lutely oppose the compulsory reorga-nization of the municipal water indus-try in Germany. We refuse to expose it to the threat of privatization. Realign-ing the Directive on Concessions poses a threat to proven structures. In this country, the municipal water industry underwrites the high quality of drinking water. But it also guaran-tees afford able prices and sustainable investment in infrastructure.

Europe benefits from strong, healthy cities

Irrespective of its legal form, it must be permitted to remain in the hands of local government if that is what cities and their inhabitants want.”

Alongside the threat of privatization in the water industry, topics such as rising rents, housing shortages in con-urbations and the cities’ financial situa-tion were also addressed and, where appropriate, criticized. After the launch event, the participants split into five thematic forums to discuss issues such as local democracy, integration and services of general interest.

Representing the City of Munich, Christian Ude was accompanied at the conference by the members of Council Christian Amlong, Hans Dieter Kaplan, Claudia Tausend (all SPD), Dr. Manuela Olhausen, Mario Schmidbauer, Walter Zöller (all CSU), Paul Bickelbacher (Bündnis90/Die Grünen), Gabriele Neff (FDP) and Henriette Wägerle, Director of European Affairs at the Department of Labor and Economic Development.

product responsibility. The utility also played a part in the 2013 OPEN DAYS in Brussels. Over a moderated dinner at the EU Commission’s Bavarian representation, representatives of both AWM and the EU’s Directorate-Gen-eral for the Environment met together with waste management associations and municipal decision-makers.

Munich expert joins CEMR’s “Waste” focus group Munich is keen to play a weightier role in the EU’s legislative process and is therefore ramping up its involvement in city networks such as the Council of European Municipalities and Regions (CEMR). Numerous members of the

City Council and local government experts are already part of various CEMR working groups. The most recent addition was Günther Langer, an expert who now represents the Municipal Services Department and Munich’s waste management utility AWM in the “Waste” focus group. City Councilor Ulrike Boesser (SPD) is a member of the same focus group in her capacity as political representative of the City of Munich.

Environmentally friendly inner cities in EuropeOne newcomer in the period under review was the CIVINET network, founded in November 2013 by various

Mayor Christian Ude


Michel Barnier, EU Commissioner for the internal market, has responded to the vote by 1.5 million EU citizens, but also to the con-certed efforts of the City of Munich and other (mostly German) cities. In 2013, 1.5 million people from eight countries put their signatures to the European citizens’ initiative “Water is a human right”. In doing so, they wanted to prevent a new EU Directive from possibly forcing cities and local governments to invite public tenders for the supply of drinking water. This would have posed a threat to both the quality and the price of drinking water, as private enterprises naturally tend to give precedence to commercial interests in this business.

In the end, Commissioner Barnier proposed that the water supply be struck off the list of applications to be covered by the Concessions Directive. The EU Parliament and the Council of the European Union have now acceded to the wishes expressed by the vote, leaving cities such as Munich free to continue organizing the water supply as they see fit and ensuring that clean, top-quality drinking water continues to be provided at reasonable prices. Decisions about the water supply will thus remain with local authorities and will not be withdrawn

Privatization of the water supply off the agenda for now

from the influence of the citizens con-cerned. Accordingly, the water supply in Munich will not be privatized.

Resolution by the Munich City Council Munich’s dedicated efforts on many levels, including in the context of a consultation, were therefore worth-while. At its meeting on January 23, 2013, the Munich City Council ratified the following resolution on the muni c-ipal water supply: “Pursuant to consultations held at the European Parliament, the Council of the City of

Munich hereby affirms that the water supply is to remain in the hands of local government, provided that this is the will of the local authority con-cerned. European law cannot be allowed to force local governments to privatize the water supply ‘through the back door’. The City Council stands by its fundamental position, namely that Munich rejects the priva t-ization of the water supply and will take all appropriate measures to be able to keep the water supply in the hands of local government.”

parties in German-speaking Europe. Munich is represented in the network by the Department of Public Order and District Administration. CIVINET is the German-speaking arm of the CIVITAS initiative, which the European Union set up in 2002 to promote ambitious strategies for environmentally friendly urban traffic and transportation in Europe.

Urban safetyDr. Wilfried Blume-Beyerle, head of the Department of Public Law and Order, represented Munich at the 2013 General Assembly of the European Forum for Urban Security (EFUS). Dr. Blume-Beyerle has been a member

of EFUS’ Executive Committee since May 2010. Held in Cascais, Portugal, the EFUS General Assembly focused primarily on crime prevention. The EU project “Security & Tourism”, which aims to improve security standards in European cities, was launched in the course of the event. Barcelona, Rome, St. Denis, Alba and Munich, the cities involved in the project, are currently engaged in a lively experience-sharing exercise. Ultimately, proven security concepts are to be combined in a charter and made available to cities throughout Europe.

Munich’s “GUIDE” project – A best practice Within the framework of EUROCITIES’ Entrepreneurship working group, vari-ous local authorities have joined forces to learn from each other’s experience. The outcomes have been distilled into a brochure which documents out-standing local examples. One of these is Munich’s EU-backed “GUIDE” proj-ect, which developed service pack-ages specially to promote female start-up entrepreneurs. A similar proj ect is currently running in Gothenburg.


Freedom of movement certificate abolished Following an amendment to the law governing EU citizens’ general free-dom of movement, the Department of Order an District Administration stopped issuing certificates granting permission to reside within the EU (freedom of movement certificates) in February 2013. Until then, this certifi-cate had been needed by all EU citi-zens who elected to make use of their right to reside in Germany pursuant to the freedom of movement guaran-teed by the EU. The abolition of this certificate reduces both the cost and the volume of administrative work. EU citizens likewise benefit, as they no longer have to present the certi f-icate to the relevant authorities when entering the country as proof that they are entitled to stay.

Backing for the “Main Line for Europe” The Department of Urban Planning and Building Regulations is convinced

that efforts to accompany and step up expansion of the “Main Line for Europe” initiative have so far proven their worth. Accordingly, the depart-ment remains firmly committed to the project, which it has supported for many years and to which it also provides financial assistance. This decision was resolved by the City Council in summer 2013. Together with other cities, regions and cham-bers of industry and commerce along the route, the Bavarian capital sup-ports end-to-end expansion in order to transform the east-west axis Paris – Stuttgart – Ulm – Munich – Vienna – Bratislava/Budapest into a high-speed rail link for passenger and freight transportation, including opti-mized connections to local and regional public transport. Expansion of this Main Line is vital to the rapid economic, political and cultural inte-gration of Eastern and Western Europe. As such, the Main Line for Europe is naturally also of tremen-dous importance to the Munich Met-ropolitan Region (EMM) in particular.

Exception granted for emergency servicesSince 2013, the Emergency Services Association has been lobbying for the European Union to accept special provisions in its laws governing the emergency services. The Committee on the Internal Market and Consumer Protection, the EU parliamentary body responsible for this area of legis-lation, voted on the EU Concessions Directive on January 24, 2013, and hence also on the compromise motions for the draft report tabled by French rapporteur Philippe Juvin (UMP). In what has become known as the trilogue procedure, it was thus possible to push through an exception for the emergency services. As a result, strict contract award rules must no longer be applied when sourcing emergency services. This verdict confirmed the original stand-ing of emergency services as sover-eign activities that are integral to civil protection and disaster control.

News in brief

City Councilors actively involved in networks

The City Council Commission on Europe oversees the local government’s work on European affairs and provides advice on position papers regarding draft legislation by the EU. To represent the interests of the Bavarian capital, Councilors did a lot of traveling to the network meetings of numerous European organi-zations in 2013.

Councilors Gabriele Neff (FDP) and Dr. Inci Sieber (SPD) were among those Council staff who represented the City of Munich at the 7th European Conference on Sustainable Cities and Towns in Geneva. Dr. Sieber addressed the gathering during breakout session B-1 on “The Reference Framework for Sustainable Cities” (RFSC), sharing Munich’s experience with the framework’s test phase. Munich was one of 66 European cities that took part in the test.

Dr. Sieber also represented Munich at a meeting between the Council of European Municipalities and Regions (CEMR) and EU parliamentarians in Brussels in June as part of the “Thematic Platform on Resource Efficiency and Environment”. At this meeting, Dr. Sieber talked about a catalogue of clean air actions, citing Munich as an example of best practice.

In her capacity as a member of the CEMR Standing Committee on Equality of Women and Men in Local Life, but also as Chair of the Munich City Council’s Equal Opportunities Commission, Lydia Dietrich (Bündnis90/Die Grünen) attended the International Conference of Local Elected Women in Paris. At the end of the conference, which was attended by around 1,000 women from all over the world (with a particularly large contingent from Africa), a decla ration was ratified calling for more responsibility to be given to women in local government.


Beylikdüzü and Munich are continu-ing the cooperation on integrated urban development within the frame-work of the EU/Turkey Town-Twin-ning Program. Beylikdüzü is one of the fastest-growing districts in the Turkish metropolis Istanbul. Rapid growth is confronting the local authorities with the challenge of pro-tecting open spaces and developing sustainable mobility solutions. Beylik-düzü was adamant about wanting Munich as its partner for this project.

The Turkish Association of Cities chose Munich to be one of 14 European cities to participate in a pro-gram to intensify collaboration between cities in the EU and twin cities in Turkey. Universities too have joined with local governments and regional administrations to take part in the project. The first meeting, held in Istanbul on May 22 – 24, was attended by Dr. Inci Sieber (SPD) in her capacity as voluntary City Coun-cilor. Ten districts of Istanbul and the 14 selected European cities intro-duced themselves in the course of the three days. During the talks that followed, a number of Istanbul’s

districts expressed an interest in part-nering with Munich. Beylikdüzü was finally given the nod.

Together with representatives of the Beylikdüzü local government, Munich’s Department of Labor and Economic Development is now nail-ing down the precise areas on which cooperation will focus. The project is slated to run for one year and will be funded by Istanbul and the EU.

A further step towards municipal collaboration was a visit to Munich by a delegation from Beylikdüzü in October.

Cooperation project with Beylikdüzü

Munich is a member of the European Coalition of Cities Against Racism (ECCAR) and was once again elected to the Steering Committee in Nancy last October. Dr. Inci Sieber (SPD) took part in an ECCAR meeting, which began by showing a video clip of the City of Munich produced to mark March 21 as the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination. Changes in migrant flows in Europe and Africa formed the focus of a panel discussion. Local governments were urged to share their local experience with national governments to enable effective action to be taken against racism at the national level.

International activities

At a workshop, Dr. Sieber delivered a speech about the value that the ECCAR’s scientific research and evaluation has for member states. She also reported on the findings of recent research commissioned by the City of Munich’s Department to Combat Right-Wing Extremism and conducted at Ludwig Maximilians Universität in Munich. The key topic in this context was what is known as “group-focused enmity”.

At an international meeting of PREVENT, via which Europe cooperates with parents to prevent children from dropping out of school, City Councilors Christiane Hacker (SPD) and Manuel Pretzl (CSU) met in The Hague to pool their expe-rience with representatives of ten other European cities involved in the project. Workshops were complemented by attendance of the best-practice model “The Transfer”.


Against the backdrop of the finan-cial crisis, how can Europe be made leaner and more competitive? And how can it be strengthened at the same time? At the twelfth Munich Economic Summit, Dieter Reiter, head of the Department of Labor and Economic Development, explored these questions from the perspective of local government. Presenting three key hypotheses underpinning what he called “Europe 2.0”, Reiter called for solutions that meet specific munici-pal needs: “A lean Europe must not come at the expense of the supply of basic services to our citizens.”

Decentralized solutions have always been the better alternative to greater regulation, he argued, citing the example of the dispute over the privat-ization of drinking water. He then appealed for the problems and inter-ests of cities and local governments to be given due consideration in the European process. This too, he noted, should be one aspect of a “ European relaunch”.

“Wherever possible,” he continued, “competencies should be bundled permanently at the lowest possible administrative level – at the level closest to the citizens. In my opinion, the lobby groups demanding further privatization must be opposed in order to preserve the provision of commu-nal services.” Reiter admitted that Munich is very well placed in Germany and Europe as a dynamic economic region with a growing population. Yet because of this situation, it is scarcely possible to make use of European development programs. Therefore, he contended, it is important to think about how the strengths of Europe can be further reinforced by promoting dynamic urban regions so that their economic performance can make both individual regions and Europe as a whole more competitive.

Strengthening the role of cities in Europe

A social achievement “ European integration is a political, social and economic achievement. As we build a stronger Europe, we must not neglect to integrate its people; and Europe must strengthen its core com-petencies and collaboration in areas such as the social market economy, solidarity and the diversity of life conditions,” Reiter stated. “Europe is benefiting from freedom of movement on the labor market. At the moment, however, local governments are being left alone to deal with the problems associated with what is known as the migration of poverty. Cities must be able to offset the consequences of precarious employment conditions, poverty and homelessness.” Reiter insisted that solutions must get to the root of the problem, adding that it is necessary to develop ways and means for people to feel that they are inte-grated as Europeans in the European Union.

The Munich Economic Summit is organized jointly by the BMW Herbert Quandt Foundation and the CESifo Group Munich (under Professor Werner Sinn). It is attended by inter-national scientists and politicians.


INSPIRE, the EU’s Directive on Infrastructure for Spatial Information in Europe, is having a powerful influence on developments in the field of geoinformation. In Munich, the survey office responsible for providing municipal geodata services at the Municipal Services Department is therefore lobbying for greater attention to the needs of local governments. In addition, it wants to see binding conditions that improve interdepart-mental collaboration.

The Municipal Services Department is seeking to have the supply-oriented approach that is currently most common-place replaced by a user-oriented approach for the benefit of open communities. If the switch is to be implemented efficiently at municipal level, however, local governments need the support of the Free State of Bavaria. Why? Because many decisions are based on geoinformation. Indeed, there are really no questions or issues in which geoinformation is not of use to local authorities.

Geoinformation is thus a fundamental building block in e-government and can be used in a variety of services to support the service delivery of cities such as Munich in many ways. One example is the presentation of infrastruc-ture elements on maps. Another is support for online forms with a service ensuring that addresses are filled in correctly, for instance.

INSPIRE concerns itself with the provision of geoinforma-tion via the internet. Its aim is to ensure that uniform data records are available throughout Europe. To date, 34 spatial data themes have been defined on three levels planned to be available by 2019. Responsibility for the data is shared between federal, regional and local governments. In Germany, a geodata infrastructure steering committee (LG GDI-DE) has been set up to oversee implementation. The issue of “municipal relevance” – i.e. what geodata is to be entered and maintained by local governments – repeatedly raises questions among the parties involved. While some of Germany’s states have already issued guidelines, these vary as a function of legislative differ-ences from state to state, with the result that a standard nationwide set of guidelines cannot be achieved. In Bavaria, the Geodata Access Law actually excludes local authorities from responsibility for entry and maintenance.

Notwithstanding, some geodata originates from local government activities and is still maintained and updated by them. For some time, the Bavarian Ministry of Finance cooperates with local governments. To help local govern-ments clarify municipal relevance as defined in the INSPIRE guidelines, the City of Munich believes that it is urgent for the Free State of Bavaria and its local governments to work together to produce a common set of guidelines for Bavaria as quickly as possible.

Supporting local government interestsin the context of geoinformation

To mark the 40th anniversary of the European Patent Convention (EPC), the Municipal Committee decided to rename the square in front of the headquarters of the European Patent Office (EPO): The forecourt will now be named Bob-van-Benthem-Platz in honor of Johannes Bob van Benthem, the first President of the European Patent Office.

New address for the European Patent Office

On October 17, 2013, Munich’s Mayor Christian Ude oversaw an inauguration ceremony for the new square. The postal address for the EPO is there-fore no longer Erhardtstrasse 27, but Bob-van-Benthem-Platz 1, 80469 München.


On December 19, the European Council instructed the EU Commission to draw up a strategy for the Alpine space in close collaboration with the countries in the Alpine region. This decision finally gave the green light for the “macroregional strategy for the Alpine space” that Munich has sought to initiate for so long. The Commission now has until 2015 to prepare the strategy. In the years ahead, Munich will play an active part in shaping it.

Macroregional strategy for the Alpine space to go ahead

The Alps are not only an economic and cultural point of intersection: They also give shape and character to the whole of Europe. The Alpine space is of tremendous impor-tance to the Bavarian capital; and Munich has for years given strong backing to the idea of a European partnership project to rise to the challenges that exist in this space. Munich’s primary focus in this regard is on competitiveness, environmental matters, transportation and mobility in the Alpine region. To have received political affirmation from the European Council is therefore extremely important.

The wider Alpine region covers a total of around 400,000 m² and is home to about 70 million people in seven countries (Germany, France, Italy, Liechtenstein, Switzerland, Slovenia and Austria). This flourishing region lends itself ideally to a macroregional strategy. The follow-ing jurisdictions are to be part of the Alpine macroregion: the Austrian states of Tyrol, Salzburg and Vorarlberg; the Italian regions of South Tyrol-Trentino, Valle d’Aosta, Pied-mont, Lombardy, Veneto and Friaul; the German states of Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg; the French regions of Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur, Rhône-Alpes and Franche-Comté; Liechtenstein; and several Swiss cantons.


Munich’s commitment to the EU’s macroregional strategy for the Danube region primarily takes the form of intercity cooperation. First and foremost, the Bavarian capital partners closely with Vienna, which spearheads a number of initiatives and is therefore a very important player in the unfolding of this strategy. At a conference in Vienna on “Building the Urban Future of the Danube Region”, Munich portrayed urban issues in their European context. More than 100 representatives of European cities in the Danube region were in atten-dance. Munich was involved in one of the two podium workshops.

The overriding goal of the strategy for the Danube region is, between now and 2020, to give everyone who lives in this region better chances of entering higher education, finding employment and achieving prosperity. The strategy is designed to establish the Danube region as a forward-looking 21st century venue: safe, self- confident and, as such, one of the most attractive regions in Europe.

Munich’s commitment to the EU’s strategy for the Danube region

Long-standing commitment the key to successThe decision was preceded by many years’ of lobbying for the Alpine macroregion. As far back as October 2010, the head of Munich’s Department of Labor and Economic Development Dieter Reiter spelled out the significance of the Alpine region to Munich at the Forum Alpinum. Over the past two years, the Council, the Commission and the Committee of the Regions have repeatedly emphasized the importance of cross-border cooperation in the form of the development of macroregional strategies, calling for the continuation of work on future macroregional strategies in collaboration with the EU Commission.

Based on the principle of territorial cohesion, which can be understood as a rigorous implementation of the principle of subsidiarity, macroregional strategies will reinforce territo-rial collaboration at the interregional and transnational levels beyond what has been seen up to now. Macroregional strategies for the Baltic Sea, the Danube basin and the Adriatic-Ionian region have been formalized to date.

Endeavors by various players to develop a macroregional strategy in the Alpine region too finally culminated in a resolution by the European Parliament in May 2013. Once again, it was stressed that it will be easier to sustainably master the challenges ahead – in particular climate change, the preservation of rural space, the sustainable use of water resources and renewable energy, cross-border traffic volumes and demographic developments – if strategies are harmonized at the interregional and transnational levels.

Questions about the spatial definitionOne controversial point in the resolution was the spatial definition (or demarcation) of the Alpine macroregion. Questions about the functional relationship between the core region and the extra-Alpine metropolitan regions and about the pursuit of diverging interests fueled arguments as to why agglomerations such as Munich and Milan (that are near but not in the Alps) should not be included in the macroregion. The proponents of this position see it as problematic if the Alpine periphery is made to interlock with the metropolitan regions, as they fear that the inter-ests of the latter (predominantly urban nodes) could take precedence over those of the Alps (an extensive region covering a wide area).

Not least thanks to the Bavarian representatives in the European Parliament, and first and foremost to MEP Kerstin Westphal (SPD), the passage that sought a narrow defini-tion limiting the macroregion to mountainous areas has now been deleted.


The EU and USA are negotiating to eliminate customs duties and tear down other barriers to trade – such as safety standards, technical norms and competition rules – within the framework of a free trade agreement. The “end product” would be an economic area numbering more than 800 million consumers and generating half of all global economic output. The USA and EU together account for a third of the world’s trade flows. Munich is keeping a watchful eye on the proceedings – and is stand-ing up for the interests of local governments.

It is doing this in various ways: by submitting position papers to the European Commission in Brussels; via the agency of Munich’s representative body with the Commission; through vigorous ongoing dialogue with the Bavarian and German Associations of Cities; but also within the framework of the EUROCITIES’ Public Services working group.

Public services underwrite the provi-sion of certain essential services at the local level. Munich is keen for the EU to “keep its hands off” this whole area, and was recently successful in joining with other cities to achieve this goal in relation to the water supply. It therefore remains resolutely commit-ted to this stance. On the other hand, the European Commission predicts that the average annual EU budget will grow by about 0.5 percent of the

Local government keeps a close eye on free trade agreement

Gross Domestic Product (GDP), which is the equivalent of around EUR 120 billion.

If the Transatlantic Trade and Invest-ment Partnership (TTIP) is ratified, it can be expected to lead to greater harmonization of the laws that regu-late goods and services. This would have a direct impact on local govern-ments, which would be forced to take on new obligations as a result. A number of relevant topics have been identified for Munich: § Impact on public services (water, transportation etc.) § Public procurement § Local governments’ inability to have their say § A too-narrow focus on exclusively economic issues (wich would, how-ever, have a social and ecological impact)

Given this situation, the European Affairs Team at the Department of Labor and Economic Development has already conducted concrete research and performed an initial analysis of its findings. The fact that the local author-ities’ right of self-government would be directly affected would inevitably influence both the provision of public services and public procurement activ-ities. In light of legal requirements for investor protection, that could, under

certain circumstances, even restrict local governments’ ability to act. The current negotiations plan for future agreements to tackle the opening up of government monopolies, national-ized companies and companies that enjoy special or exclusive rights. Ultimately, after all, the putative agree-ment aims to overcome barriers that have a negative impact on procure-ment markets. This could, for exam-ple, give all levels of government (at the national, regional and local levels) improved access to each other’s public procurement markets.

Right from the outset, Munich has criticized the fact that local govern-ments have no say in the negotiations. In collaboration with European part-ners, it has therefore lobbied for the involvement of local authorities – and has already achieved a measure of success. For 2014, the European Commission has announced that it will hold a public consultation on the free trade agreement. Entities that have hitherto had no part in the proceed-ings will therefore officially be able to have their say for the first time.

The Department of Labor and Eco-nomic Development believes that the outcome of negotiations regarding the free trade agreement are of very great importance to the City of Munich. Lobbying activities will therefore be intensified in 2014, some of them in cooperation with other European, national and regional bodies.


For Munich, the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) used to be off limits as a source of struc-tural funding. The Free State of Bavaria had excluded its capital city and the surrounding region from accessing the money distributed for this purpose by the EU. Munich contested this decision by lobbying the regional government on many levels: After all, one of the main aims of the fund is to reduce CO2 emissions – precisely the core objective of the Metropolitan Region Munich. Starting in mid-2014, therefore, at around the time when the new EU funding period begins, Munich will at last be free to apply for support in line with this goal.

ERDF: Partial success for Munich

The City of Munich welcomes plans to support projects within the frame-work of Priority Axis 3 (“low-carbon eco nomy”). Two action clusters in parti cular are of relevance to the City of Munich: Action cluster 3.1 (“energy savings of enterprises”) targets com-panies that plan to modernize the energy systems in existing buildings or to build new facilities. Munich-based companies too can therefore now benefit from this program.

Calls for support with a widespread impactThe second action cluster supports local government measures to improve energy efficiency and sus-tainably reduce carbon emissions. A series of development activities could be supported for suitable areas where modernization is needed. Examples include the development and implementation of integrated municipal energy master plans to reduce CO

2 emissions; the design of activities to substitute renewable energy plants for heat generation from fossil fuels; advising owners and users and soliciting their participation; start-up financing for non-recoverable costs when building and expanding distribution systems and connections. However, Munich believes that the available funds should be further increased and that support should achieve a more widespread impact.

Qualifying for inclusion in the Free State of Bavaria’s draft ERDF program thus satisfies only some of Munich’s hopes, as both the city itself and the surrounding districts are still precluded from access to funding for sustainable urban-rural development. In the Munich Metropolitan Region in partic-ular, there is tremendous potential – but also a tremendous need – to ramp up sustainable development in a way that caters to the special requirements of urban/suburban relationships. The City of Munich is therefore calling for

the corresponding purse strings to be opened for the whole of Bavaria. Even if retroactive inclusion of the Bavarian capital in Priority Axis 4 – the one dedicated to this topic – seems unlikely, the local government is continuing to make its voice heard.

The City of Munich has formulated an official position paper in which it asks for Munich and the surrounding region to be given even better access to EU funding. The paper has already been disseminated to the Bavarian Ministry of Economic Affairs, the German and Bavarian Associations of Cities, mem-bers of the European Parliament, European local government associa-tions and other organizations involved in the European political mix. Munich’s stance has also been made known to the European Commission’s Directo-rate-General of Regional Policy, which plays a part in fleshing out the opera-tional programs applied by member states.

Local government departments take a stand On August 23, the Bavarian govern-ment submitted a draft of the ERDF operational program for Bavaria. The finalized program is expected to come into force in mid-2014. For years, Munich has been working together with other European cities to strengthen cities’ role in the EU’s Cohesion Policy. Now, it has seized the opportunity afforded by the state government to submit a position paper. The European Affairs Team at the Department of Labor and Eco-nomic Development oversaw formula-tion of Munich’s position in collabora-tion with the Department of Urban Planning and Building Regulations, the Department of Health and the Environ-ment, the Department of Order and District Administration, the Depart-ment of Arts and Culture and other units of the Department of Labor and Economic Development.


Prompted by the Munich City Council, the Department of Labor and Economic Development organized a special full-day con-gress devoted to the European Social Fund (ESF). The ESF supports activities that promote integration and seek to reinforce social cohe-sion at a local level. The current EU funding period begins in 2014 and will run until 2020. Funding totaling around EUR 960 billion is available for this period.

Thanks to the ESF, a wide range of integration projects are supported in Munich with the aim of successfully integrating people in society in general and in the labor market in particular. These projects have proved a very useful complement to work in districts covered by the “Social City” program in particular. The European Social Fund has thus been instrumental in strength-ening social cohesion in Munich.

Making better use of ESF funding

Sustainable growth on the basis of a resource- efficient, low-carbon yet more resilient economy is one of the European Union’s most important objec-tives. Within the framework of a public consultation, the European Commission therefore plans to explore the best ways to help small and medium-sized enter-prises (SMEs) to improve their resource efficiency and sell their green products and services on the world’s markets. Munich is taking part in the con-sultation and can trump up with a best-practice example in the shape of ECOPROFIT.

The Department of Labor and Economic Development is coordinating the consultation, which began at the end of December 2013 and will run for three months. ECOPROFIT is an acronym derived from “ECOlogical PROject for Integrated Environmental Technology”. As far back as 1998, the City of Munich became the first local government in Germany to launch the project as part of its Agenda 21. Today, more than 100 local governments

– including Bonn, Cologne, Dortmund, Düsseldorf, Erfurt, Frankfurt, Hamburg, Hanover, Mainz, Wiesbaden and many rural administrative districts – have followed suit, with over 2,400 companies now involved in ECOPROFIT. In its capacity as the system head in Germany, Munich informs and advises other local governments, Agenda 21 initiatives and companies. The Bavarian capital also founded the German ECOPROFIT network.

Broadly aligned with the Europe 2020 strategy for smart, sustainable and inclusive growth, the action plan for eco friendly SMEs is intended to support the structural transition and help cultivate sustainable development in both manufacturing and tourism. For the purposes of the present consultation, the term resource efficiency has been defined generously and covers the efficient use of energy (including renewable energy), water, other natural resources and raw materials, waste minimization, the sale of used substances, and recycling.

Best practice for green companies – made in Munich

Workshop on the new EU funding periodMunich’s local administration and the voluntary support organizations are being encouraged to acquire greater ESF funding in future in order to make further progress in actively improving social integration. In December 2013, the European Affairs Team thus organized an initial internal information event that outlined the basic tenets of the new funding period. Nearly 100 experts took the opportunity to find out about funding opportunities available from the ESF.

The workshop provided an overview of the new EU funding period (2014 – 2020), shared information about funding options available from both the EU Structural Funds and other EU support programs, and discussed the practical outworking of EU project work. Together with the participants, relevant urban topics and EU funding options were explored to prepare the ground for new European projects in the new funding period.

Closer liaison work useful If optimal use is to be made of EU funding, it would be useful for the

people involved at local level to liaise more closely. This point was made again and again by the participants, underscoring the importance of the one-day ESF congress. The event effectively laid a foundation on which collaboration between local govern-ment and voluntary support organiza-tions can now be intensified. These activities will be pursued to ensure that the ESF plays an increasingly impor-tant role in complementing the Munich Employment and Qualification Program.

Details of the 2014 – 2020 funding period will be published by the relevant Bavarian and federal government departments in summer 2014. The European Affairs Team at the Depart-ment of Labor and Economic Develop-ment will keep the other parties involved in the city’s European activi-ties informed in due course. When the possibilities for soliciting support have been assessed, collaborative initiatives for new project ideas will be launched to ensure that the ESF continues to reinforce urban society in the Munich region in the future.


Munich keen to keep using working visits as in the past

Facilitating lifelong learning in the European context: That is the fundamental idea behind the Leonardo da Vinci Program which the EU itself has singled out as a “good-practice project”. In the past, the City of Munich has made intensive use of this opportunity to gather on-site learning experiences throughout Europe. In no uncertain terms, the Bavarian capital has therefore voiced its opposition to far-reaching changes in the new funding period.

In the new funding period, the Leo-nardo da Vinci Program will focus on vocational training and on promoting the mobility of skilled labor and spe-cialists in the context of vocational training. However, it will no longer promote learning for employees, i.e. individuals who are already integrated in the labor market. The City of Munich is deeply dismayed at this omission: In a position paper, it has spelled out how important and sensi-ble it is to engage in mobility projects for precisely this target group. The paper has been circulated to members of the European Parliament, to the European Affairs Offices of Bavaria’s local governments, and to the national point of contact for on-site visits.

Visits to other European local adminis-trations are beneficial to professional development, but also engender a deeper appreciation for collaborative work at the European level. The City of Munich sees the opportunity for its staff to experience other (administra-tive) cultures and ways of working as vital to its personnel development. It believes that seeing things from a different perspective is the key to introducing innovation at one’s own place of work.

The position paper goes on to explain that the program is an excellent way to improve employees’ professional and language skills and, above all, to further their personal development. Language development and cultural experience in particular yield tremen-dous benefits. The attractive EU pro-gram does more than provide financial assistance: It is also a source of lasting motivation to play an active

part in the ongoing European dialogue. For its part, Munich’s local govern-ment is likewise much sought-after as a venue for visits – by colleagues from Edinburgh, for example.

Enhanced capabilitiesIntercultural skills and openness to new developments are important to the work of the Department of Arts and Culture. These capabilities and qualities enable staff to identify, respond to and encourage trends and developments that are of relevance to culture and society. To date, five employees from different units at the Department of Arts and Culture have got to know their opposite numbers during visits to Bordeaux, Bergen, Rotterdam, Vienna and Genoa. On their return, their experience was channeled into discussions on various matters, allowing others too to benefit from their what they had learned.

In June 2013, one employee of the Legal Affairs unit at the Department of Public Order and District Administra-tion was able to gain work experience with the local government in Edin-burgh under the aegis of the Leonardo da Vinci Program. Similarly, a member of staff at the Social Services Depart-ment spent 14 days gaining valuable experience by doing youth work in Liverpool. An employee of the Depart-ment of Urban Development and Building Regulations completed a working visit to Amsterdam, while staff from the City of Munich’s Mana-gerial Board and the Department of Labor and Economic Development were ale to sit in on useful sessions in Edinburgh.

The value of these experiences is underscored by what the participants themselves have to say:

City of Edinburgh

“The things I learned have been a tremendous help in my day-to-day work at the City of Munich’s Legal Affairs unit. As a domestic administra-tive legal professional, looking beyond your own backyard can help improve your line of argument in the context of legal subsumption and when assessing laws.” Dr. Elmar Nordhues (Department of Public Law and Order) paid a working visit to the local authority in Edinburgh

“Despite the problem of trying to cope with scouse, I was able to improve my technical English. And it was exciting to experience something like an everyday routine in a different country and a different culture. Look-ing at the similarities and differences in the approach to youth work, this experience has helped me to see and appreciate many aspects of the way open youth work is conducted in Munich in a completely different light, although I am aware that a wealthier local government can naturally create different conditions. All in all, I am glad to have had this opportunity to spend a period of time working abroad and looking beyond my own backyard.” Tarja Marks (Social Services Department) spent a visit working in Liverpool

“Professionally and in terms of the language, my stay in Edinburgh was very helpful. The work at the local authority, especially in open-plan offices, was very different to what we do. It was really exciting. No one has ‘their own’ workplace, and the princi-ple of the paperless office is lived out consistently. That impressed me.” Margit Mayer (Department of Labor and Economic Development) was able to work in Edinburgh


“Don’t waste our planet” is the motto of a current partnership project at the City of Munich’s Robert-Bosch-Fachoberschule [upper vocational school]. Above and beyond their regular curric-ulum, the pupils are learning more about environmental problems and talking about what is being done and what could be done. As far as possible, they are also being encouraged to plan and take actions on their own initiative. The school project thus seeks to provide a hands-on experience of Europe, as well as nurturing and supporting the skills and abilities that are needed to rise to the challenges of globalization.

The topic is ideally suited to intensive international cooperation between schoolchildren, who can thus debate different habits, mentalities and opin-ions. The project is being conducted in collaboration with partner schools in Turin (Italy), Heerde (Netherlands), Talavera de la Reina (Spain) and Słupsk/Stolp (Poland).

Slated to run for two years, this COMENIUS project combines virtual project work with several workshops a year on specific topics. The work-shops are held jointly with partner schools and are complemented by visits to factories and lectures by external speakers. The hands-on knowledge gained from practitioners in this way is then discussed and con-solidated in international groups.

Lively debate fueled by workshopsThe Dutch town of Heerde hosted the first one-week workshop – focused on waste disposal – in February 2013. Visits to two waste disposal plants gave the schoolchildren a vivid insight into the environmental problems caused by different types of waste. The children then teamed up to explore waste avoidance strategies in what was at times a very emotional debate, clearly reflecting the varying mentalities in the partner countries.

Recycling and environmental design were the key themes of the second workshop, which was held in Talavera in April 2013. In five workshops, the children learned how to make toys and household products such as soap from waste products. They were also shown how to recycle paper. An excursion to the Montfragüe National Park left a particularly deep impres-sion: The children learned about the park’s environmental concept in gen-eral and about its pumped storage power station in particular.

In November 2013, a workshop on the subject of electronic waste/mobile phones at the Robert-Bosch school in Munich was attended by 80 pupils and 18 teachers from all the partner schools in the project. A keynote address by the speaker from creating sustainability e.V., subsequent group work and various discussion sessions sensitized the children to the problems associated with their mobile phones. The project week ended with a pre-sentation of “deliverables” in the form of a public poster fair and a “Europe Day” at the school.

The project runs from 2012 – 2014. Subsidies totaling EUR 22,000 have been made available.

Schoolchildren discuss international environmental standards

23 Projekte Europa-Jahresbericht 2011

The European Union provides local governments in its member states with substantial resources to fund projects in the fields of business, research, employment, education, consumer protection and environmental protection. In doing so, it creates opportunities for local authorities to tread new paths in many areas and to share their experi-ence in a cross-border, international context. Munich partic-ipates in this knowledge transfer and learning process in a large number of projects. The European Affairs Team at the Department of Labor and Economic Development has

Assistance with EU projects

developed a set of services to help other municipal units and departments with their EU project activities.

Munich’s various municipal departments independently over-see a whole raft of EU projects. To help them with their project work and with the choice of suitable EU support programs, the European Affairs Team provides advice and assistance on issues such as the application process, identifying the right partners, project costing, financial management and project management.


How can intercultural dialogue be made to work? How can the mutual understanding encouraged by student partnerships be sustained? Through thoughtful and sensitive supervision and follow-up. In the project “Going Ahead with Euro-Med”, headed by the Unit for European and International Exchanges and Projects at Munich’s Department of Education and sports, teachers from Jordan, Israel, Croatia, Spain and Munich recently received training with precisely this objective in mind.

Training for successful school partnerships

Ideally, this kind of educational work should take a form agreed by the countries involved in a project. Why? Because student exchanges and partnerships in the European and Mediterranean (“Euro-Med”) regions present are very challenging both for the teachers who organize them and the students who participate in them. Alien customs, different school routines and, above all, very pro-nounced differences in family struc-tures often demand acute sensitivity in approaches to the other culture, to religious backgrounds and to forms of communication.

Differing approaches An intercultural training seminar in April 2013 was at the core of the “Going Ahead with Euro-Med” proj-ect. At the seminar, around 20 teach-ers from the countries listed above who have experience of student exchange programs presented existing and at times very culture-specific methods and materials for intercultural learning. The encounter gave every-one in attendance the opportunity to critically reflect on their own approaches and, together, to begin to adapt these methods and materials to

the needs of bilateral and multilateral student exchanges in the European-Mediterranean region.

The project aims to build ever stronger bridges between partner organiza-tions, intensify collaboration between teachers in the participant countries and thus open the door to new school partnerships. In the longer term, it also plans to develop reusable mod-ules for coordinated, exchange-spe-cific didactic conceptual design – ide-ally a kind of “user manual” – for the preparation, supervision and follow-up of school exchange and partnership programs in the European-Mediterranean region. The project will thus play a part in improv-ing and assuring the quality of interna-tional youth exchanges.

Exhaustive documentation from the training seminar “Going Ahead with Euro-Med” is posted in the News section on the website of the Institute for Teacher Development (http://www.pi-muenchen.de).

The project ran from 2012 through 2013 and received subsidies totaling EUR 21,750.35


Qualified Spanish staff for Munich’s nurseries

Finding a solution to the lack of suitably qualified employees for Munich’s nurseries while at the same time helping to fight high youth unemployment in Spain: These were the goals set for a small “advertising campaign” organized by the Unit for European and International Exchanges and Projects at Munich’s Department of Education and Sports during a contact seminar between Spanish and German national agencies as part of an EU educational program in Bad Godesberg, Germany.

The campaign led to a collaborative pilot project run by the Unit for European and International Exchanges and Projects and the Nurseries Unit at the Department of Education and Sports. The aim was thus to recruit participants from Spain whose qualifi-cations would be recognized in Bavaria and who were interested in complet-ing a six-month internship in Munich to begin with. The pilot project was funded partly by the EU’s ERASMUS educational program. The Department of Eductaion and Sports agreed to foot the bill for the language courses.

Thus it was that Silvia Blanch, ERASMUS internship coordinator, and Mequè Edo, study leader at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB), came to Munich in May 2013 to finalize the arrangements for future collaboration between the two institu-tions. Enlisting the involvement of the UAB gave Munich both a reliable project partner and access to an excel-lent teaching establishment for child education.

Initial successesThe practical implementation phases of the pilot project began on July 2, 2013. Over the six months that fol-lowed, the Spanish colleagues worked at various nurseries during the morn-ings and attended German lessons in the afternoons. Their work at the nurs-eries as supervised by qualified senior staff set up as a monitoring group by the Nurseries Unit, as well as by a member of staff from the the Unit for European and International Exchanges and Projects. And the project was a success: On December 2, 2013, the first six Spanish child educators signed their contracts of employment with the City of Munich.

Ongoing conceptual development of the project has not yet been com-pleted. To gain a deeper understand-ing of the Spanish colleagues’ per-sonal and professional skills and thus to place moves to continue and widen the project on a firm foundation, a del-egation from Munich’s Nurseries Unit therefore visited both the UAB and a number of nurseries in Barcelona.


Fresh impetus for education?

Conceived as a way to kick-start creative careers, the international “Takeoff” project was instrumental in organizing the 20th international congress of the cultural network “Banlieues d’Europe”. The confer-ence was held in Munich in Novem-ber 2013 in collaboration with the Münchner Trichter [“Munich Funnel”] organization. It was also sponsored by Munich’s Social Services Department and Depart-ment of Arts and Culture, with funding coming from sources such as the Federal Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs and the European Social Fund (ESF).

In recent years, Takeoff (supported by Kontrapunkt e.V. and the Euro-Train-ings-Centre ETC e.V.) has developed a mobility project for disadvantaged youngsters and young adults. The project was set up under the aegis of the Integration Through Exchange program in collaboration with partners from France, Ireland and Slovenia. The experience gained from this project played a key part in shaping Takeoff’s focus on cultural education, profes-sional qualifications and mobility.

Under the heading “Fresh impetus for education?”, the congress produced a wealth of useful information, but also plenty of opportunities for interna-tional dialogue. A debate on “cultural education – participation – informal training” was conducted locally and internationally: Four panels presented the perspectives of project practition-ers from the scientific and political communities. These insights were then explored in greater depth in twelve workshops. The approximately 230 participants came from various European countries and other Medi-terranean coastal states.

Out-of-the-ordinary encounters The congress wasn’t one-way traffic, however. It was not just experts talking to each other about young people, but experts joining together

with young people to think about edu-cation. And that is what made the event so fascinating. In the world of con ferences and congresses about youth work, it is not every day that the former Albanian foreign minister, UN ambassador and author Besnik Mustafa and rappers from Brussels and Munich meet up in the Bavarian capital simply to talk to each other about language and culture. Nor is it commonplace for Iranian-French photographer Reza Degathi to place his copious work for National Geo-graphic in the context of his artistic work with disadvantaged individuals – and to then sit down with young people from Munich to discuss this approach. Or when French politician George Sylvestre discusses youth mobility, youngsters from all kinds of projects throughout Europe contribute their experience and scientist Jost Buschmeyer (from research and con-sulting organization GAB München) underscores the value of cultural edu-cation. And it is at least a little out of the ordinary when presentations by hip-hoppers from Munich’s Bieder-stein youth project put them in contact with their peers from Brussels and France. Yet all these items on the agenda made the “Banlieues d’Europe” congress a genuine high-light in the context of international youth encounters.


The FiBA network for refugees in employment and education seeks to improve the situation of young refugees with regard to education and training. It also helps adult refugees to improve their work qualifi-cations and become integrated in the labor market. The network is now set to receive further EU support. Originally slated to run until the end of 2013, the project has been extended until the end of 2014. At the same time, project funding from the European Social Fund (ESF) has been increased to nearly EUR 480,000. The Intercultural Work and Migration Unit at the Social Services Department coordinates the FiBA network.

Going forward, labor market players, labor administration bodies and interfaces with municipal departments such as the Department of Labor and Economic Development and the Department of Education and Sports will work more closely together to use resources and skills available throughout the city more efficiently to develop coordinated strategies and support offerings in order to combat the structural disadvantages faced by refugees whose long-term residency is still in doubt. The aim is for foreign nation-als entitled to permanent residence and refugees with at least a secondary work permit to be integrated in the labor market on a long-term basis. The latter’s chances of being granted permanent residency in Germany and access to the education and labor markets throughout Bavaria are to be improved.

Identifying sources of fundingThe Office of Housing and Migration is applicants’ first port of call. Advice is provided one-on-one, identifying partici-pants’ strengths, abilities and work skills and, on this basis, exploring the possibilities for career advancement and official subsidies. The process of providing advance and developing skills is an ongoing one.

The Federal Employment Agency and the Job Center are integrated seamlessly in the FiBA network to make it easier for refugees to claim support pursuant to the relevant social welfare legislation in Germany. Training courses, public relations work and lobbying work are used to encourage companies, professional chambers and other business institutions to give more work to refugees with pending or approved applications for residency. A further focus of the

Better chances of finding work

network’s work – supporting young refugees in their school and vocational education – was also ramped up in 2013. Collaboration between the Bavarian FiBA network and the Bavarian Ministry of Education and Culture has been espe-cially positive. A Bavaria-wide congress on the subject of “Refugees at Bavarian Vocational Schools” hosted together with the ministry in June 2013 generated a very conside-rable and positive echo.

Training courses as a template for othersA similar congress had already been organized jointly by the FiBA network and the regional board of the Federal Employ-ment Agency in Bavaria at the end of 2012. In the course of 2013, this congress then led to the preparation of an extensive array of training courses on “Labor market access and support for asylum seekers, tolerated persons and refugees”. Targeting employees of the Federal Employment Agency and Job Centers in Bavaria, the courses – developed in cooperation with the Augsburg-based “Door to Door” project – reached more than 700 staff members. The courses on offer were evaluated by the Federal Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs and now serve as a template for similar training in all of Germany’s federal states.

An additional focus was on placing asylum seekers and tolerated persons in job-related German language courses funded by the ESF and the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees. Many people in Bavaria are normally excluded from offers of German language courses (though German tuition funded by the City of Munich is an exception to this rule). To enable as many of these people as possible to nevertheless acquire German language skills, a coordinated and interregional feeder process was therefore developed and expanded. This process now involves many forms of cooperation with regional refugee advice centers, language course providers and regional councils.

Integration-focused employment strategies for refugees are becoming an increasingly important topic. Accordingly, efforts are now being made to mainstream the successful networking approach of the FiBA project in Munich and adapt it to step up various local government offerings in the context of refugee management. In January 2014, a new structure will be created for this purpose in the shape of the Intercultural Labor and Migration Department.


The Bavarian capital sees itself – and is seen from the outside – as a European cultural metropolis. A vast array of contacts in all branches of art and culture adds up to an impressive international network. Intercultural activities and cultivation of the European identity are two aspects that are permeating Munich’s urban society as a result.

Local government-run theaters in particular have been step-ping up their commitment to Europe for years and are now tackling European and global themes with greater intensity, as well as ramping up international cooperation.

The Münchner Kammerspiele, for example, collaborated with the NO99 theater in Tallinn and the KVS municipal theater in Brussels on the trinational production Ilona.Rosetta.Sue. The result is a European play through and through with main actresses speaking Estonian, Flemish and German. The play was performed in all three cities.

Two years previously, Director Sebastian Nübling had already overseen a successful trilingual, cross-border

production in the shape of Three Kingdoms. On the stage, actors and actresses from England, France, Scandinavia, Switzerland and Russia both enhanced the capabilities of the regular ensemble and broadened the horizons of the audience. Under the direction of Dutchman Johan Simons, the Münchner Kammerspiele was once again chosen by critics as theater of the year in a 2013 survey. In explaining its decision, the jury pointed primarily to the internationali-zation of the municipal theater. Risto Kübar, an Estonian member of the ensemble, was also singled out as young actor of the year.

“Radically Young” festival Since 2012, the Münchner Volkstheater has opened its doors to young directors from German-speaking Europe and beyond. One of those given the chance to present their works to a wider audience during the annual festival in 2013 was Hungarian Csaba Polgár. Later, the Münchner Volkstheater invited him to develop a German-Hungarian co-production based on William Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar. Theater director Christian Stückl gave him a great deal of freedom, which in turn facilitated intensive colla b-oration and a participatory approach. The quality of the intercultural cooperation made a lasting impression on everyone involved in the project.

These examples illustrate how artists can work together successfully despite language barriers; and attempts to communicate the outcomes to theater-goers and cultural aficionados are likewise meeting with growing success. At the same time, such innovative approaches by publicly funded theaters are stimulating other establishments and the independent scene to try similar experiments.

Munich – A European cultural metropolis

Munich and the European art sceneIn the visual arts, internationalization seems long since to have become an accomplished fact. Language barriers are utterly irrelevant. Even so, projects in public spaces clearly showed how art can develop a specifically local dimension. In 2013, the highly regarded Scandinavian artist duo Elmgreen & Dragset, who live and work in Berlin and London, oversaw the series “A Space Called Public/Hoffentlich Öffentlich”.

For nine months, the City of Munich made space for temporary projects available to the two art curators. All in all, more than 20 artists concerned themselves with Munich as a European metropolis, how it sees itself and how others see it, and developed their contributions on this basis. Two of these artists were David Shrigley, who works in Glasgow and was nominated for the Turner Prize in 2013, and Paris-based Tatiana Trouvé, whose work will be pur-chased by the City of Munich.

Everyone involved in the series started out by asking the question: Whom does public space belong to? To every-one? To no one? Or perhaps to those who actively lay claim to it? The answers given varied greatly; and the discussions held in and about Munich were very intense. Topics that are decidedly explosive in many cities were tossed into the public space, eliciting responses that seemed very specific to the Bavarian capital. The topics included the shortage of housing, multicultural society, tolerance versus discrimi-nation, dealing with one’s collective past, and a culture of commemoration. In the current debate on contemporary art, the shift of perspective triggered by this international project series served to magnify Munich’s role as a traditional center of European art.

Discovering Scandinavia with the Municipal libraryFestivals that zoom in on a different European theme every year have attracted considerable attention at both the Gasteig Municipal Library and Munich’s adult education center. Having focused on “Voices of the Roma” in 2012, the “Nordic Talking” program that ran from April 23 through May 16, 2013, turned its gaze to the Scandinavian coun-tries. Despite their distinctive characters, the nations of Northern Europe appear to the outside world to set and example as a cultural region, united as they are by the dream of a society that is open and free. “Nordic Talking” explored the myth and the reality, the clichés and hard practicalities such as solidarity and social justice. It also presented new streams of thought and fresh ideas from our Nordic neighbors.

More than 40 events covering every conceivable aspect and staged at different venues in Munich showcased a broad spectrum of contemporary artistic works from Denmark, Iceland, Finland, Norway and Sweden. The international flair and associated linguistic diversity of the festival were perceived as a powerful source of enrichment by the organizers and the public alike.

Identify and make good use of suitably qualified migrants, help overcome the disadvantages they face in Munich and integrate them in the labor market: These are the goals of the AMIGA project (Active MIGrAnts in the local labor market), with which Munich aims to recruit international experts.

AMIGA is a European cooperation project overseen by the Department of Labor and Economic Development and the Center for Migration Studies at the Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznán, Poland. GründerRegio M e.V. is the operational partner and the organization responsible for executing the project on Munich’s side. As an ESF project designed to recruit and retain specialists, AMIGA focuses first and foremost on developing local strategies to integrate suitably skilled migrants in the local labor market.

AMIGA was launched in June 2013 and is slated to run for two years. The project is funded jointly by the Bavar-ian Ministry for Labor, Social Affairs, the Family and Women, the European Social Fund and the Munich Employ-ment and Qualification Program (MBQ).

Target groups: § Qualified migrants with barriers to employment § Migrants who are keen to start a business § International students and gradu-ates of Munich’s universities

Activities in Munich: § MigMENT mentoring program: Proven experts and managers share their career experience with AMIGA mentees. § Seminars: Experts provide infor-mation about relevant topics such as the labor market situation in Munich, rights of residence, labor law and starting a business. § Career exchanges: German and foreign companies introduce themselves.

Sourcing specialists throughout Europe

Transnational networkingThe project promotes the Europe-wide exchange of experience and various aspects of migration issues in both the new EU member states and the exist-ing ones. Collaboration between dif-ferent institutions and organizations at the local and European levels is designed specifically to investigate actions and support services for the project target groups on the local labor market. AMIGA sets up expert groups to develop strategies and formulate recommendations for action on labor market integration. These expert groups are then supported by scouts – specially trained experts from the proj-ect who serve as the mouthpiece of and intermediary between institutions and the migrants themselves. The proj ect deliverables in Munich and Poznán will be evaluated to determine whether they can be transferred, pub-lished and presented at a closing con-ference in Munich, and then made available to relevant labor market players.


Europe has a greater influence on Munich than many people think. The City of Munich therefore takes an energetic stance to defends its interests in Brussels and Stras-bourg. Part of its strategy on Europe is to regularly keep a wide public audience fully informed about these activities, and to sensitize people to EU themes.

The City of Munich’s position on current EU topics such as deregulation of the water supply and access to the Structural Funds is posted at www.muenchen.de/europa, together with details of current EU projects and plans for Europe-related events.

2013 began with a press conference on the annual EUROCITIES confer-ence which Munich will host in 2014. Head of the Department of Labor and Economic Development Dieter Reiter joined with high-ranking represen-tatives of BMW, Siemens and utility company Stadtwerke München (SWM), Munich’s technology partners for the conference, to present the motto – “Energising Cities” – and sketch their initial plans. Participants at the conference will address question such as: What will Europe’s cities look like 20 years from now? How will they manage private and public transpor-tation? From what sources will they satisfy their demand for energy? The press conference was attended by considerably more media repre-sentatives than expected – a good sign for the conference and an upbeat way to begin the year and place key EU topics.

An artist’s impression: Our key visual for the 2014 EUROCITIES conference shows how Munich can become more “green” and more energy-efficient. Symbolically at least, because there will not be any wind turbines in the heart of the city. But perhaps on the outskirts? Together with the logo, the key visual will figure prominently on all informa-tion about the annual conference.

Sensitizing people to EU themes

Unusual angles on the city were also the theme of an exhibition staged jointly by the Department of Labor and Economic Development and the Department of Public Order and Dis-trict Administration: Back in 2011, young people between the ages of 15 and 25 from European cities such as Munich, Warsaw, Oslo, Madrid and Stockholm took photographs of their city as part of a com petition organized by the EUROCITIES network. The winning picture for Munich, submitted by Mahir Cetin, was determined by online voting on jetzt.de, the youth website of influential daily Süd-deutsche Zeitung. Alongside many other winning entries, the photo went on display at “my city – my view”, an exhibition that toured eight German cities.

Beating the drum for the European elections An unusual poster campaign is draw-ing the attention of Munich residents to the European elections on May 25, 2014. Produced by the Europe Direct Information Center and bearing the motto “München Mischt Mit” (which one might translate as “Munich’s in the mix!”), a set of outsized posters appeared at 100 venues throughout Munich for the first time in January and will do so again in May, just before the elections. Students at the Macromedia University for Media and Communication developed the post-ers in autumn 2013, while Ströer Deutsche Städte Medien made the billboard space available. The DJ motif is intended to make young people in particular aware of the European elec-tions. As well as seeing it, however, local residents can also hear the post-ers’ message: Entering the QR code shown on the posters opens a link to Munich’s Europe rap – which you can also hear here: https://soundcloud.com/muenchen-mischt-mit.


Something like 10,000 visitors attended the Europe Day event on Munich’s Marienplatz on May 4, 2013. They came to talk, dance and listen to popular local bands.

Info stands set up in Munich by organi-zations such as the EU Parliament and the Europe Direct Information Center for Munich and Upper Bavaria were the scene of heated debates about such topics as the euro and the threat-ened privatization of the drinking water supply. Yet at the same time, many questions focused on issues like stays in other EU countries and EU-wide consumer protection.

The City of Munich organized the Europe Day event in cooperation with the representations of the European Parliament and the European Com-mission in Munich, as well as with Europa-Union München e.V. Dieter Reiter, head of the Department of Labor and Economic Development, put the rationale behind this event in a nutshell: “We want Europe Day to be a celebration of a unified Europe. We want to make people aware of the European idea and how it benefits them. And these are goals that we achieved very well indeed.”

Broadcasting company Bayerischer Rundfunk (BR) was in on the action for the first time: Visitors showed off what they know about the EU in a quiz organized by the B5 aktuell radio news

The voice of the people heard on Europe Day

format. A broad spectrum of questions were asked. A few examples: “How well do you know who is responsible for what? What is the EU Commission responsible for? What is the Parlia-ment responsible for?” In two rounds of interviews conducted by moderator Birgit Kappel as part of the popular BR show “Jetz red i, Europa” (“My turn to talk, Europe”), members of the European Parliament Barbara Loch-bihler (Bündnis90/Die Grünen) and Bernd Posselt (CSU) joined with repre-sentatives from Lithuania (which held the presidency of the EU Council at the time) and Croatia (the 28th member of the EU) in fielding ques-tions from the public.

Earlier, dance troupes from Croatia, Ireland and Lithuania and a Lithuanian singer had come down from the stage on the Marienplatz and mingled with the enraptured crowd, encouraging them to join in with the dances. Then, when all the on-stage talking was over, several Munich bands – The Naughton Sisters, Tula Troubles and, in closing, one of the hottest local bands of the moment, Moop Mama – whipped the crowd into a real frenzy.

A date for your diary: The 2014 Europe Day event is scheduled for May 9 and will be back on the Marienplatz!

One aim of the City of Munich’s European activities is to encourage local populations throughout Europe to be both informed and active. The Europe Direct Infor-mation Center for Munich and Upper Bavaria (EDI) – a project run by the Department of Labor and Economic Development in conjunction with the Gasteig Municipal Library – is an important tool of this strategy.

The Europe Direct Information Center for Munich and Upper Bavaria opened at the Gasteig Municipal Library in 2009. It is the first port of call for questions relating to consumer protection, travel, insurance, the recognition of certificates and political matters relating to the EU. The EDI also organizes numerous events to fuel local and regional debate about the European Union – an approach that was rewarded with further funding in 2013. The EDI’s applica-tion for funding in the funding period from 2013 – 2017 obviously convinced the EU Commission, which provided annual funds totaling EUR 25,000.

European Year of CitizensIn 2013, the 20th anniversary of European citizenship was recognized by the “ European Year of Citizens”, a theme also picked up by the EDI in the context of its “Europe Forum”. Staged in the Europe Lounge at Munich’s Gasteig Municipal Library, this series of events featured eleven evenings of lectures and discussions dealing with topical issues in the EU. Around 1,000 visitors attended in total.

On one of the evenings, Dr. Joachim Ott, who leads the European Commission project group “ European Debate”, told visitors how they can access better information about their rights as European citizens and how they can play a practical part in shaping the Union. Practical examples of

what it means to be an EU citizen and the impact of citizen-ship were supplied by Alexander Meindl from health insurer AOK Bayern, who talked about the European health insur-ance card, and Silke Reinmöller from the City of Munich’s Department of Public Order and District Administration, whose subject was freedom of movement.

Issues such as the food scandal surrounding horse meat in lasagne were also addressed. What can Europe do about such incidents? In the past, the EU’s agricultural policy focused mainly on ensuring an adequate supply of food for the peoples of Europe. Today, however, the primary aim is to enable food producers to supply sufficient quantities of high-quality foodstuffs for European consumers, as well as to ensure compliance with very strict animal welfare and environmental protection standards. The resultant ques-tion – “Quality, not quantity?” – was also addressed by the forum.

Network meeting for people involved in European activitiesIn September, more than 40 people from all over Munich who are involved in European activities got together for a network meeting at the EDI. Ahead of the reception, which was used mostly for personal exchanges, the European Affairs Team at the City of Munich invited those in attend-ance to join in a moderated brainstorming session focused on the 2014 European elections. The session came up with exciting ideas about how the people involved in local government EU activities can intensify their collaboration and help boost the electoral turnout – for example by intro-ducing an interdisciplinary calendar of EU-linked events for Munich.

Preparations for the 2014 European electionsTo set the tone for the forthcoming EU elections, the Black Box at the Gasteig Municipal Library also homed in on the subject “ European elections 2014 – Where is the EU head-ing?” in December. The EDI and the Europäische Akademie Bayern e.V. [Bavarian Europe Academy] presented the candidates who will be standing for election to the European Parliament on behalf of Bavaria. Markus Ferber (CSU), Thomas Händel, (Die Linke), Nadja Hirsch (FDP) and Barbara Lochbihler (Bündnis 90/Die Grünen) seized the opportunity to talk to the gathering about the key themes and objectives of the work of the new European Parliament and the European Union as of 2014.

Details of forthcoming events are posted on the web atwww.muenchen.de/europe-direct

Europe Direct Information Center for Munich andUpper BavariaMünchner Stadtbibliothek Am GasteigRosenheimer Straße 581667 MünchenPhone +49 (0)89 480 98 33 [email protected]

The Europe Direct Information Center:A chance to meet, experience and understand Europe


Ukraine has the highest rate of new HIV infections in Europe. The agglomeration around the capital Kiev is particularly hard hit by the disease. In response, a project on how to deal with HIV and AIDS was launched in October 2013 within the framework of a partnership between Munich and Kiev that dates back nearly 25 years.

The two cities have engaged in dialog about HIV prevention since 2010. The idea is for Munich to pass on its experience with preventive work, medical treatment and care for infected persons to its twin city. Excellent networking and close collab-oration between all players at local government level is seen as a power-ful factor of success in Munich, so the aim is to follow this pattern in Kiev too. Since collaboration began, munici-pal and civil society experts from both cities have worked together to devise exchange programs. To improve Kiev’s long-term handling of HIV/AIDS and overcome the stigma attached to the diseases, it is vital to train and sen-sitize both medical staff and social workers to the issues involved.

More intensive networking Supported by Germany’s Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development, the project “Deal-ing with HIV/AIDS in Kiev – Training for medical staff and social workers” was therefore launched with a scheduled runtime of two years. The aim of this project is to train and sensitize local government employees involved in

medical care and social work to help improve the way the diseases are han-dled. There are also plans to step up networking and collaboration between municipal and civil organizations and advice centers in Kiev in order to tailor the services on offer more closely to the needs of patients and high-risk groups.

The project will focus on training multi-pliers in both target groups: municipal social workers and doctors. Several different phases will be completed over the two-year period. To begin with, project staff will inventory and analyze existing training programs, relevant organizations, available skill sets and collaborative structures. On this basis, an advanced training con-cept will be drawn up to sensitize and enable the target groups to deal with sufferers from the disease. In Kiev, this advanced training will then be provided to multipliers in cooperation with non-government organizations. Subsequently, a specialist program in Munich will provide more in-depth training to selected participants.

The importance of structured collabo-ration between civil and municipal advisory centers and care facilities and between the medical and social ser-vices sectors as the basis for effective HIV work at local government level is the overriding theme of the entire project. In a closing round of expert talks, a wider professional audience in Kiev will discuss networking issues and how the training provided can be anchored in future activities.

Kiev: New cooperation project on dealing with HIV and AIDS

Tourism expert in Kiev

Even after the last ball was kicked in the 2012 European Champion-ship soccer tournament, the City of Munich has maintained its close links with twin city Kiev in the field of advice on tourism.

In the run-up to the European Championships, the Munich Office of Tourism had already passed on the experience it gained at the 2006 Soccer World Cup to its colleagues in Kiev. The focus of this exchange was on the structure of and procedure for information for domestic and international visi-tors, as well as on international press work and media support in the field of tourism. The purpose of the exercise was and is to achieve long-term improvements in the quality and structure of tourist information in Kiev, and to build up an array of sustainable tourism offerings. Cooperation continued in May 2013, when the City of Kiev thanked Munich for its assistance and appointed Else Gebauer from the Munich Office of Tourism as “Ambassador to Kiev”.

To realize the project, the City of Munich applied for support from the program “Sustainable Municipal Development Based on Partnership Projects” recently launched by the Federal Ministry for Economic Coop-eration and Development. The minis-try agreed to cover 90 percent of the total project cost of EUR 59,000 under the aegis of this program. www.muenchen.de/rathaus/Stadt-politik/Partnerstaedte/Kiew.html

Launched in May 2010, the SEGMENT research and implemen-tation project (SEGmented Market-ing for ENergy-efficient Transport) was funded by the Intelligent Energy Europe (IEE) program. Headed by the Department of Public Order an District Administration, the project was brought to a successful conclusion in 2013.

The aim of SEGMENT was to persuade people to change their travel behavior and adopt more energy- efficient forms of transportation. To maximize the impact, two distinct seg-mentation techniques were applied: To begin with, consumers in “life change situations” (such as a move to another area or a change of job or school) were targeted. This target group was then broken down further by attitude to transportation. As a result, it was possible to tailor specific campaigns to each target group.

Three campaigns in MunichIn Munich, new arrivals in the city, students preparing for a move to further education and migrants learn-ing German in the city were

targeted,as they were assumed to be the groups most amenable to informa-tion and change relating to sustainable mobility. In the course of the project (2010 – 2013), three separate cam-paigns were developed, implemented and evaluated in Munich.

For people moving to the city, the information packages made available to new arrivals were thoroughly overhauled on the basis of research conducted.

A dedicated section on leisure activi-ties puts new arrivals in just the right mood for sustainable mobility in the city. The project “On your bikes – Set – Go!“ helps fourthgraders learn how to make their way to school on their bikes and how to keep them roadworthy. While this is to show kids

that riding a bike can be great fun, it also teaches them how to safely ride and confidently handle their own bikes. A brochure titles “Munich – my city. Smart and safe ways to get around.“ includes teaching materials on “Mobil-ity in Munich“ specifically developed for migrants. This is to link social involvement and integration to the con-cept of a sustainable mobility culture.

Learning from partnersMunich’s cooperation partners in Hounslow (UK), Almada (Portugal), Sofia (Bulgaria), Utrecht (Netherlands) and Gdynia (Poland) also each devel-oped campaigns for three distinct target groups in order to maximize the benefits gained from pooling experi-ence and learning together in the course of the project. The latter aspect involved reciprocal on-site visits to get a feel for the political and planning culture and gain an understanding of structures and projects in the various partner cities.

Steering towards greener mobility


Comparison of mobility costs in Europe

As the MORECO project moved into its second phase in 2013, the focus shifted more towards implemen-tation. Cost calculators have now been developed for all the studied regions and were presented at workshops in Mantova and Torino. One of Munich’s aims is to improve and promote the cost calculator of the MVV, Munich’s Transport and Tariff Association. Furthermore recommendations for house hunters and regional stakeholders based on the already existing accessibility atlas will be elaborated.

The new cost calculator now being used in Salzburg is a particularly inter-esting tool that takes account of various aspects of the infrastructure. Meanwhile, Munich is working to improve the mobility and residential cost calculator that has already been in service for some time. Thanks to MORECO funding, the Bavarian capital was able to commission a second study – entitled “Recommendations for action by public institutions in response to the rising cost of mobil-ity” – in 2013. The findings will be ready in good time before the project is wound up in June 2014, and will supplement the recommendations for action already prepared for private households.

MORECO was also represented at Munich’s climate-related event series, which focused on mobility, in autumn 2013. The lead partners from Salzburg delivered addresses as part of a public presentation. Other activities in Munich included preparing a presen-tation of the findings to EU institutions in Brussels in January 2014 and reach-ing agreement on a presentation at the German Public Relations Society’s New Year Reception in 2014.

How expensive will it be to travel to work?Within the framework of MORECO, European partners concern them-selves with the relationship between mobility and residential costs for private households and public insti-tutions. The people in charge of the MORECO project seek answers to questions such as: “As a private individual, what financial burdens must I expect after moving to my new home?” “How expensive will it be to travel to work and to other infrastruc-tural facilities from my new home?” “Which mode of transportation will be the cheapest?” The project is funded under the aegis of the EU’s Interreg B Alpine Space development program. It began in summer 2011 and will run until summer 2014.

Over the past three years, pilot trials in seven European cities have investigated how energy is managed in buildings. One of those cities is Munich. The hope was that, in the long term, aerial thermo-graphy would enable heat escaping from buildings to be identified more quickly and more accurately. The EU project EnergyCity came to an end in 2013. The material it gathered is now being analyzed and used to plot energy loss maps.

In summer 2010, ten European partner organizations – including the local governments in Munich, Budapest, Prague, Bologna, Treviso, Ludwigs-burg and Velenje – agreed to work together on the EnergyCity project. With the aid of financial assistance from the European Union, techniques were developed to estimate the loss of heat energy using aerial thermography.

In March 2011, two thermal images were produced for an area of Munich’s Neuaubing district that is in need of modernization. The area also combines different types of buildings, from single-family dwellings to multi-story blocks. The first step was to gather information about the building type, the type of heating, structural aspects and other energy-related mat-ters (such as primary energy demand) for all 746 buildings. Thermographic images were produced on winter nights when there was no snow cover, adjusted for atmospheric influences and then combined with building parameters to plot energy loss maps.

The findings of the Munich case study are as follows: 746 buildings with five visually identified roof types were

EnergyCity tracks down heat losses in Munich

investigated. Heat loss was divided into five classes, class 1 reflecting the best building energy management and class 5 identifying the worst energy losses. 31 percent of the buildings examined were assigned to class 3 (average heat loss), while 12 percent belonged to class 1, 22 percent to class 2, 25 percent to class 4 and 10 percent to class 5.

Carbon maps for local governmentThe thermographic images from Munich are part of the data material used in the framework of the Energy-City project to develop and produce carbon maps that show local govern-ments where heat energy is being lost. Since these maps are now avail-able to all partners for scientific purposes, they can, for example, also be used to compare the need to modernize energy systems in partner cities too.

www.energycity2013.eu


As in other areas, European law has a bearing on the City of Munich’s human resources management too. Yet local government in the Bavar-ian capital also goes beyond the requirements of European labor and civil service law and seeks to assume responsibility for its staff in line with the spirit of European standards.

To coincide with the International Day of People with Disability, the Training unit at the HR and Department of Human Resources unveiled its Inte-grated Training project. The project involves the provision of vocational preparation or initial vocation training by a regular vocational training center and linked to practical, on-the-job training at a company. This integrated approach to training gives disabled people a chance to get to know the primary labor market. An internship with the City of Munich also increases their chances of finding work when they complete their training. The EU too seeks to promote implementation of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities as part of its European Disability Strategy 2010 – 2020: A Renewed Commit-ment to a Barrier-Free Europe. Improving working conditions for people with disabilitiesIn its capacity as an employer, the City of Munich tackled the issue of creating working conditions that are conducive to people with disabilities at an early stage. Work on an integration concept began in 1999, followed a year later by work on a severe disabil-ity concept. In 2003, this came to

fruition in an integration agreement between the City of Munich, the German Representative Body for Severely Disabled Employees and the General Employee Council – an agree-ment that broke new ground in Ger-many. The UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities came into force in Germany in 2009. The above-average proportion of severely disabled persons now employed by local government can be seen as a tremendous achievement of this caring and inclusive personnel policy: In 2013, people with disabilities accounted for 7.4 percent of the local government work force – well above the 5 percent figure prescribed by law. Trainees of foreign descentThe City of Munich plans to steadily increase the number of new staff of foreign descent in both the short and the long term. An array of marketing activities (in particular visits to the consulates and embassies of mostly European partner countries) comple-mented by measures that specifically targeted multipliers enabled the proportion of new recruits of foreign descent to be increased sharply – to 19.3 percent – for the first time in several years in 2013.

The brightest minds for MunichWhy not recruit nursery teachers, doctors and other people in popular professions all over Europe? Here again, the City of Munich is treading new paths. For example, the HR and Personnel Management Department linked a German-language advertise-ment in Poland’s biggest daily news-paper, Gazeta Wyborcza, to the Polish translation of an interview with head of department Dr. Thomas Böhle.

Freshness and diversity in local government

International prize for climate protectionMunich recently won the worldwide Climate Leadership Award in the category “Green Energy”, which was awarded in 2013 for the first time by the C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group network and Siemens. The jury, which included star architect Daniel Libeskind and the former mayors of several European cities, was impressed by Munich’s sustainable urban development. The prize was awarded for the Renewable Energy Expansion Program launched by municipal utility Stadtwerke München (SWM), whose objective is, by 2025, to make Munich the first city of over a million people to produce as much green electricity as the city consumes. Deputy Mayor Hep Monatzeder was presented with the prize in London on September 4. Copenhagen was the only other European city among the ten prizewinners. “Single-Source Mobility” pilot project singled out by the EU CommissionAs part of its “Do The Right Mix” campaign for sustainable inner-city mobility, the EU Commission has presented awards for 21 projects and initiatives. The only German winner was Munich’s “Single-Source Mobil-ity” project. Funding of up to EUR 7,000 is available as a result. “Single-Source Mobility” is the first project in Germany to bring together different sustainable transportation offerings. The idea is to give local residents a taste for local electromobility that lets them dispense with private cars com-pletely. People who participate in the program can hire cars, bicycles and trailers and buy public transport tickets conveniently at any STATTAUTO station. The project was initiated by the Department of Public Order, WOGENO (a Munich-based

Prizes and awards

coope rative for self-managed, socially equitable and ecofriendly housing) and Munich public transport utility MVG. It is supported by three partners: STATTAUTO, Fidelio and the Pedelec Center. If the project proves itself over time, the plan is to boost the number of users and extend its offerings to other cities too.

“Fit for Europe” – A model projectBetween 2011 and 2013, seven local government employees in Munich made working visits to Edinburgh, one of the Bavarian capital’s twin cities. The “Fit for Europe” project was co-funded by the EU’s Leonardo da Vinci Program for lifelong learning; and the EU has now chosen it as a “good-practice project”. The European Union was full of praise for the commitment to work exchanges, the way partici-pants were treated, the excellent financial handling and the high quality of the project. On their visits, Munich’s municipal employees were able to compare their own experience with how the Scottish capital goes about economic development and how it expresses its commitment to Europe. Above and beyond this exchange on a professional level, improving language and intercultural skills was another important aspect.

Prizewinning personnel work The City of Munich won first prize in the German Education Awards for its exemplary education and talent management program. Under the patronage of the Federal Ministry of

Education and Research, two organi-zations – TÜV SÜD Akademie and EuPD Research Sustainable Manage-ment – presented this prize for the first time in 2013. Munich’s entry was in the category “Large Corporate Ser-vices”. The jury justified its decision as follows: “Recruiting, development and retaining employees are interlocking activities in the context of education and talent management. Sustainability and efficiency are ensured by compre-hensive controlling and hands-on transfer management. Moreover, the City of Munich also actively shoulders responsibility in both diversity and the integration of socially disadvantaged swathes of the population, thereby boosting the image of public adminis-trations.” In applying this policy, the City of Munich thus promotes the EU’s goal of lifelong learning at the corporate level.

Investing in healthcareYet another prize followed at year-end: The German Corporate Health Award in the category “Family Orientation” was presented by the Association of Corporate Health Insurers (BKK Dach-verband) in Berlin. Investing in corpo-rate health promotion and sustainable employment are also key goals of the European Network for Workplace Health Promotion (ENWHP), which has been active in these fields throughout Europe since 1996 (“move Europe”). The jury was especially impressed by the fact that same conditions apply for all relatives, from children to parents and grandparents who require nursing care. “This is an important prerequisite for the health of the 32,000 people who work for the City of Munich and for their family members,” said Dr. Frank Lehmann of the Federal Center for Health Edu cation (BZgA) at the awards ceremony.

2013


In light of the many and varied current challenges – EU cooperation with international partners such as the USA, Russia and China, for example, but also equally weighty issues such as the persistent financial crisis in a number of member countries – the European elections in 2014 will be among the most important the continent has seen for a long time. They will also go hand in hand with fundamental changes as the European Parliament is given more power both to chart Europe’s political course and in the context of day-to-day decisions. For the first time, the European Parliament will be the most influential body in the EU. Based on the outcome of the EU elections, it will also nominate the President of the European Commission.

The Lisbon Treaty itself already increased the powers of the European Parliament. Now, the Parliament can act as a lawmaking body in concert with the EU Council. Agri-cultural policy and both police and judicial collaboration on

criminal matters in particular have been subsumed under the Parliament’s remit. Popular participation too has been bolstered of late, with the European Citizens’ Initiative having been launched as a new instrument of participatory democracy in Europe.

Europe’s cities must seize the opportunities afforded by these changes. Specifically, Munich and its partners – especially in the context of EUROCITIES – will seek dia-logue with EU parliamentarians in order to persuade newly elected members too of the cities’ important role in actively shaping Europe’s future. The political course for the years ahead will then be staked out when new commissioners are elected in the autumn.

Together with EUROCITIES, Munich is developing a strat-egy to continue the successful collaboration with the EU’s commissioners witnessed in the past.

More power for the European Parliament

The EUROCITIES network boasts 140 cities from 35 European countries as its members. One of them is Munich. And from November 5 – 8, 2014, the Bavarian capital will play host to the annual EUROCITIES con-ference on the subject of “Energising Cities”. Representatives of cities from across Europe will meet up in Munich to discuss what must be done to make urban energy systems fit for the future. By pooling their knowledge and experience and engaging in model projects, Europe’s cities have a tremendous opportunity to press ahead in reducing carbon emissions and improving energy efficiency.

Around 450 participants, including many mayors and political represen-tatives of EU member states and EU institutions, will attend presentations and participate in discussions. In addi-tion, workshops and excursions will show exactly what Munich is doing in the area of energy-efficient urban development. The following items feature prominently on the agenda: § Networking for climate protection § Hands-on multimobility – Mobility stations § Energy-efficient and sustainable urban development in Freiham/Neuaubing

Munich welcomes Europe

§ Campaign to ramp up renewable energy § Local mobility and urban develop-ment (Pasing) § Mobility management program “München Gscheid Mobil” [“Smart Mobility in Munich”]

Collaboration with technology partnersThe goal of low-carbon urban develop-ment can be realized only in concert with potent and dedicated technology partners. The City of Munich is there-fore pleased to have recruited BMW, Siemens and the utility company Stadtwerke München (SWM) as its partners for the 2014 EUROCITIES conference in the Bavarian capital.

These partners will showcase specific projects focused on energy-efficient urban development. BMW is the city’s partner for mobility concepts, Siemens for ecofriendly traffic man-agement, and SWM, in its capacity as a power utility, for sustainable infra-structure development.

Preparations for the conference have been in full swing since 2013. Munich will provide a very pleasant setting for networking and project work, as well as laying on a cultural program with a strong local flavor specially for those in attendance.

www.eurocities2014.eu


Imprint

PublisherCity of Munich Department of Labor and Economic Development Herzog-Wilhelm-Straße 15 80331 München www.munich.de

Editorial OfficeAnke Schlee, City of Munich Petra Pintscher, Munich

Translation German – English Nigel Robinson, Fulda

Design and Layout Kochan & Partner GmbH, Munich

April 2014 Issue no. 283

Photo creditsCover Getty Images / Flickr Open and

Thinkstock.de/Artur Bogacki 3 Michael Nagy / Presseamt München 4 Michael Nagy / Presseamt München 5 Michael Nagy / Presseamt München 8 Stadtwerke München SWM 9 Anke Schlee, Bernd Klassen 10 A. Varnhorn / Deutscher Städtetag 11 Stadtwerke München SWM 14 München Tourismus 15 Städtisches Vermessungsamt 16 München Tourismus 17 Stadt Wien 18 Fotolia 21 Stadt Edinburgh 24 Jörg Siegmund 25 María Jesús Cervero Chamarro 26 Kontrapunkt e.V. 27 Andrea Huber 28 / 29 Julian Röder, Eva Jünger, Leonie Felle 30 Franziska Hasse 31 Anke Schlee 32 Sandra Spöttl, Anke Schlee, Tobias Hase 33 Europe Direct Informationszentrum 34 Landeshauptstadt München 35 München Tourismus 36 Referat für Stadtplanung und Bauordnung 38 Enno Kapitza

Under the guidance of Henriette Wägerle, this publication was created by the Department of Labor and Economic Development in cooperation with and with the input of all the departments and directorates of the City of Munich.

For questions and further information, please contact: [email protected]

www.muenchen.de / europa


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