More than 130 participants joined the first EU Mayors’ Digital Assembly, which took place on 15 June 2023 during the Brussels Urban Summit, to discuss the political decisions that need to be taken now, to ensure a sustainable digital tomorrow.

The Mayors’ Digital Assembly is the political advisory body which provides strategic orientation to the Living-in.EU movement. It is the only assembly that brings together mayors from over all Europe. Living-in.EU is run by the five main networks on smart cities - Eurocities, OASC, ENoLL, ERRIN and CEMR, and is supported by the European Commission.

“From the city hall to the streets”, stated Seppo Määttä, Mayor of Oulu and co-chair of the Mayors’ Digital Assembly. “Without the involvement of cities in realizing the digital transformation, we will never reach the last mile to the citizens.” Cities play a crucial role in ensuring that the social and economic benefits of technology reach all citizens.

That fits perfectly with the vision of Living-in.EU ‘Building the European way of Digital Transformation for 300 million Europeans’. Through co-creation with citizens, we aim to bring the economic and social benefits of this transformation to all local communities and implement an inclusive digital Europe.

“We must avoid digital poverty”, according to Lluisa Moret i Sabidó, Mayor of Sant Boi de Llobregat and co-chair of the Mayors’ Digital Assembly, by assuring that everyone can join the digital transformation. Cities and regions must build ecosystems for that. “This assembly must stimulate that cooperation and must coordinate between the European institutions. Networking, creating links between cities, so that our voice is heard.”

Living-in.EU tries to fulfill this role by offering tools and standards that provide guidance to cities and communities. LORDIMAS is such a tool which helps to assess local digital maturity. It is developed as part of the Living-in.EU initiative, in collaboration with the Committee of the Regions, the European Commission, and ESPON. This instrument will be launched on 2 October in all EU languages.

The Living-in.EU movement connects and shares expertise and experience and builds capacity through marketing and communication and projects. Our focus is on organizing the supply side for the development of solutions (e.g., local data platforms, local digital twins (LDTs)) and delivering support to cities and communities (signatories) to implement digital transformation on a local level and in the different ecosystems.

We want to invite you to join Living-in.EU. We already have over 150 signatories and 130 supporters and growing. During the first EU Mayors’ Digital Assembly four new signatories joined the movement: the cities of Rzeszów (Poland) and Tallinn (Estonia), and Centre-Val de Loire and Pays de la Loire regions (France).

In the days leading up to the Mayors’ Digital Assembly, the cities of Tarragona, Manresa, Sant Feliu de Llobregat, Lleida, Matosihnos and Esplugues de Llobregat, as well as the regions of Flanders and Frankfurt Rhein-Main, joined the movement. This brings to twelve the number of communities that have joined the movement since the beginning of the year.

Are you next? Please go to our platform Living-in.EU and sign or support the declaration ‘Join Boost Sustain’.

Did you miss the event? You can watch the recordings here in English and French.