The Zaragoza City Council will receive a visit this week from a delegation from the Canadian city of Ottawa. The trip is part of both cities’ participation in the European Union’s International Urban and Regional Cooperation (IURC) program in North America.

IURC is the world’s largest city-to-city collaborative program and an international reference network for urban innovation and sustainable urban development. Ottawa and Zaragoza have opened their doors to dialogue and association, benefiting from and exchanging good practice and identifying innovative models to achieve their goals. Both cities started working together in September 2021, participated in several technical calls and are now on their second study visit to work on the thematic areas of Transport and Sustainable Urban Mobility, Ecological Transition and Green Deal, Digitization of Tourism Destinations and Management of Waste and Circular Economy.

Ottawa already received the delegates from Zaragoza in May 2022 and this morning the deputy mayor of Zaragoza, Sara Fernández, received the Canadian delegation. The cities will continue to cooperate until December 2023 and develop an urban cooperation action plan that includes actions and pilot projects that can deliver a transferable result, as the main objective of the program is to demonstrate progress and concrete impacts.

IURC NORTH AMERICA

The European Union’s IURC North America Program partners with European cities with Canadian and US cities to facilitate knowledge sharing through online tools and face-to-face support, such as study tours, participation in thematic and networking events, and capacity development. The program is funded by the EU Partnership Instrument and has the strategic support of the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Regional and Urban Policy.

More information about ISIC NA: https://www.iurc.eu/north-america/