The future of Europe is built in cities
On 21-22 October, mayors and deputy mayors from Finland’s six largest cities attended the European Mayors’ Summit organised by the Eurocities network. During the summit, city representatives met with newly elected Finnish MEPs to discuss the priorities of the upcoming 2028–2034 EU budget.
The European Mayors’ Summit was organised in Strasbourg, the seat of the European Parliament, in connection with its plenary session. The summit presented the European cities’ priority areas for the coming years to the members of the European Parliament and built partnerships that will promote cooperation and provide information for the Commissioners-designate hearings that will start in November.
Finland's six largest cities – Helsinki, Espoo, Vantaa, Tampere, Turku and Oulu – communicated their views on the role of cities in securing EU’s competitiveness. The mayors pointed out that 75 per cent of European citizens live in urban areas. Cities are the engines of the national economy and the drivers of innovation and sustainable development. If the cities don’t have a seat at the table of EU policymaking, Europe will not succeed in its key goals: building a union that is more green, digital, social, competitive and based on shared values.
In addition to this important dialogue, unleashing the transformative power of cities requires that cities have a clear position as beneficiaries and implementors of EU funding. Cities need investments and cooperation for climate action, low-carbon energy, circular economy, accessibility and transport infrastructure. This requires a skilled workforce, digitization and the necessary infrastructure.
The new commission is expected to give its proposal for the Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF) for the years 2028–2034 at the start of summer 2025. President of the EU Commission Ursula von der Leyen’s guidelines for the preparation call for a focused policy-based budget that is more impactful, simpler and willing to revamp financing.
Efforts towards effectiveness, efficiency and simplification are worthwhile goals. Better synergy between different policy areas and financial instruments is also needed. For example, cohesion policy has provided means for sustainable urban development and the entire European single market by strengthening regions, while also taking into account their special starting points.
However, there is a risk that this simplification would lead to a centralized administration. In this case the subsidiarity principle, according to which all decisions must be taken as close as possible to citizens, would not be realized. This would contradict von der Leyen's promise to keep regions at the centre of the EU’s work.
The mayors and deputy mayors of Finland's six largest cities stress that in future budget discussions, Finland needs to strive to further strengthen the role of cities in EU policy. The focus should be on regions, subsidiarity and partnerships in the implementation of the EU policy.
