Articles

As closure for the Commoning Europe project BRAL will disseminate some of the key findings of the trainings in Brussels.

We decided to do this in collaboration with the CLT & Communa who receive the assignment by the Brussels Capital Region to make a study on the Commons in Brussels. So we will join in on their upcoming Commons Table event 12 of December in Brussels with a small presentation of Commoning Europe. In this framework of the study of the Brussels Region our friends are currently at the stage in which they are researching ways (tools and instruments) through which the Region can support commons initiatives in Brussels.

Register here and soon you will receive a more detailed program.

According to the United Nations everyone on the planet has a right to a healthy environment, including clean air. Still, air pollution continues to negatively impact human health, Europe’s nature and biodiversity, damaging agricultural crops, natural vegetation, historical buildings and monuments. 

Each year in the EU over 400,000 people die prematurely as a result of breathing toxic air. 

In 2022, ECAS and partners crowdsourced the ideas of thousands of citizens from 10 European cities on how to improve air. 

The ECAS-event “Love is in the Air! Improving Air Quality in Europe through Citizen Action” will present the main problems with air quality identified by citizens in their cities, their proposals for solutions and top priorities for environmental action on local, national and European level. 

REGISTER TO THE EVENT HERE BELOW!

This event will start by welcoming Minister Alain Maron to explain his upcoming environmental and democratic plans for Brussels. ECAS will hand over to him the citizens’ top priorities for the improvement of air quality. 

The following two panels will provide a forum to experts on air quality issues and campaigners in the European cities to discuss how citizens’ recommendations could become a reality and what are the lessons learnt on ensuring a more collaborative decision-making. 

Agenda and Speakers 

10.00 Welcome from Gilles Pelayo, Head of Unit, EACEA, European Commission 

10.10 Alain Maron, Minister of the Government of the Brussels-Capital Region, responsible for Climate Change, Environment, Energy and Participatory Democracy 

10.20 Citizen Handover of Air Quality Proposals to Minister Alain Maron 

10.30 Panel 1: Enhancing Air Quality in Brussels and Europe – What is the state of play and what are the plans for the future? 

Moderated by Elisa Lironi, Programme Director-European Democracy, ECAS 

• Prof. Dr. Catherine Bouland, Présidente de l’Ecole de Santé Publique de l’ULB and Directrice du centre de recherche en santé environnementale et santé au travail 
• Pierre Dornier, President, Chercheurs d’Air 
• Geoffrey Usé, Conseiller politique mobilités, Ecolo 

• Lieselotte Gevens, Mobilité & Environnement, BRAL – Brussels’ urban movement, Co-initiator of CurieuzenAir. 

Q&A with participants 

11.30 Coffee Break 

11.45 Panel 2: Can Citizen Participation Improve Policy-Making in Europe? – Lessons Learnt from Crowdsourcing Solutions for Tackling Air Pollution in Cities. 

Moderated by Andreas Müller, Managing Director, Democracy International, Germany 

• Petko Georgiev, Director, ProInfo, Bulgaria 
• Liia Hanni, Senior Expert on e-Democracy, E-Governance Academy, Estonia 
• Amina Murić, Deputy Director, Civic Alliance, Montenegro 
• Tessel Renzenbrink, Co-Director, NetDem, The Netherlands 

Q&A with participants 

12.55 Concluding remarks 

13.00 Lunch Buffet 

*The meeting will be held in English.

Download the Agenda as a PDF.

London - The Super Sewer

Samantha Freelove is Legacy & Sustainability Manager at Thames Tideway Tunnel, the company responsible for the construction of the Super Sewer in London. The city is currently building a huge tunnel underneath the city to stop the sewage overflows to the Thames by 2025. The tunnel will be able to hold a volume of 1,6 million m³ of water during rain events to reduce the volume of sewage overflows by 95%. Today, London discharges the astronomical yearly volume of 110 million m³ of polluted water in the Thames. In 2025, this will be reduced to 5 million m³ per year. The enormous project with a price tag of 5 billion euro will safeguard the natural environment from pollution and will protect the health of the citizens who use the river for recreation.

Watch the video for London on YouTube: Samantha Freelove - The Super Sewer in London.

Copenhagen - Cloudburst Management Plan

“It was difficult, but it has been done”, with these words Lykke Leonardsen, Head Director Resilient and Sustainable City Solutions at the city of Copenhagen, describes how they developed the Cloudburst Management Plan together with all actors and citizens. It became an ambitious 1,6 billion plan for urban rainwater management and it was initiated after a huge flood in the city in 2011. 350 different projects throughout the whole city will protect the city against floods in the future. Several parks become rain parks, streets become rain streets and at the end of the line some tunnels will lead the water underneath the city center into the harbor. The beautiful part of the plan is that Copenhagen uses it as an opportunity to create new quality public spaces for the citizens on top of the extra green areas. The execution of the plan is well underway and will take up to 20 to 30 years.

Watch the video for Copenhagen on YouTube:Lykke Leonardsen - Cloudburst Management Plan - Copenhagen.