The European Green Capital Award exists since 2010. Every year, it rewards a city of more than 100,000 inhabitants that meets several environmental criteria in an innovative way, such as waste treatment, air quality management or the implementation of sustainable urban mobility. In 2015, the title of European Green Leaf was created. It rewards the environmental policies implemented by smaller municipalities (20,000 – 100,000 inhabitants).
This year, Lahti (Finland), Lille and Strasbourg (France) are the finalists for the European Green Capital 2021 title. For the European Green Leaf 2020 contest, the cities of Lappeenranta (Finland), Limerick (Ireland) and Mechelen (Belgium) have been shortlisted.
The shortlisted cities will now proceed to the final stage of the competition: convincing an international jury in June of their overall commitment to sustainable urban development, their capacity to act as a role model to other cities, and their strategy for communicating and engaging with their citizens. The winner of the European Green Capital 2021 title will win €350,000 and the one or two winners of the European Green Leaf 2020 title will win €75,000 to kick-start their green years.
These two awards are in line with the European Union's environmental policy, to which Life programme also answers, in particular, the new calls for proposals published this month for the year 2019.