Romanian city of Brașov exits race for European Green Capital 2025
Brașov, a popular mountain city in central Romania, has exited the race for the title of European Green Capital 2025, with the three finalists being Graz (Austria), Guimaraes (Portugal), and Vilnius (Lithuania), as announced by the Brașov City Hall on Facebook.
"Brașov's journey towards the title of European Green Capital does not end here but is just beginning. [...] In the last 3 years, our city has taken concrete steps to address historical environmental issues, visible in official statistics," said mayor Allen Coliban.
The representatives of the Brașov City Hall stated that they will continue to implement the measures included in the Green Brașov Action Plan and will reapply next year.
"With every month, with every project, Brașov is developing in this direction. By the time of next year's candidacy, we will have even more arguments to support this endeavor - new bicycle lanes, new park developments, new renewable energy sources, new projects for greening public spaces, and new sustainable mobility policies. 'Brașov has reasons to be proud!' - this is the message we receive during every visit from abroad. We are confident that Brașov deserves to be the European Green Capital," the institution's representatives further wrote on their Facebook page.
Brașov City Hall submitted the application for candidacy in the European Green Capital 2025 competition in the spring. In June, Brașov's candidacy was admitted by the European Commission, along with the submissions from Brescia (Italy), Cagliari (Italy), Graz (Austria), Guimaraes (Portugal), Logrono (Spain), Novara (Italy), Poznan (Poland), Rzeszow (Poland), and Vilnius (Lithuania).
The European Green Capital award recognizes and rewards cities' efforts to achieve ambitious goals for environmental improvement and sustainable development. The winner of the European Green Capital will receive a financial prize of EUR 600,000 to implement key actions in six areas: waste, water, air quality, noise, biodiversity, and soil. The list of finalists was decided by an international group of experts, who based their choices on the analysis of several environmental indicators.
(Photo source: Sorin Colac | Dreamstime.com)
