Planning Aid for Scotland, the independent and impartial organisation, working across Scotland to enable citizens to shape their communities and engage more effectively with planning, has launched a new initiative called Young Placemakers.

Public finances are scarce and the overall budget of the EU's 2014-2020 multi-annual financial framework has decreased for the first time in history. Both public authorities and private partners face the major challenge to guarantee targeted and long-term investment for qualitative growth and jobs in Europe's regions and cities.

The first European Citizien Initiative ever - Water is a Human Right - cleared all the hurdles of the legislation and has collected over 1.5 million signatures across Europe. Eight countries have passed the minimum number of signatures required and the initiative continues counting.

Today Europe celebrates the 63rd anniversary of the Schuman Declaration. Sixty-three years ago, on 9 May 1950, the then French Foreign Minister Robert Schuman made the first move towards the creation of what we now know as the European Union (EU).

Territorial cooperation needs more flexibility and less bureaucracy to deliver growth, that is one shared objective of a seminar of the Committee of the Regions Commission for Territorial Cohesion Policy (COTER) held in Porto at the end of April. The meeting sought to clarify how European Territorial Cooperation (ETC), and more specifically the European Grouping for Territorial Cooperation (EGTC), can boost regional development and better deliver growth and jobs.

More than 500 students came to the auditorium at the Catholic University of Leuven in Belgium to hear Jürgen Habermas, the renowned German philosopher speaking about the Eurozone Crisis. Amid the audience was a journalist from the German international broadcaster Deutsche Welle who outlined Habermas's thoughts in a recently published article.

Probably your Google Homepage has already reminded you that it is Earth Day. A Day to focus on climate change issues. This can seem like a remote problem for our leaders, but the fact is that it's already impacting real people, animals, and beloved places. These Faces of Climate Change are multiplying every day. Fortunately, other Faces of Climate Change are multiplying too: those stepping up to do something about it. 

In 2010, Stockholm became the first winner of the European Green Capital Award. Since then, the city has kept up the momentum and has set an ambitious target of becoming wholly independent of fossil fuels by 2050.

The ongoing financial crises, growing energy instability and resource scarcity mean it is imperative we shift to sustainable economies. This can only be achieved by switching to renewable energy, improving energy efficiency and focusing on sustainable development. Explore how municipalities can embrace clean, sustainable energy solutions at Local Renewables 2013.

“A European Union of culture preceded and nurtured the economic and political European Union that we know today; and given that culture always was, and still is, more than ever, the cement that binds Europe together", explained José Manuel Barroso, President of the European Commission at the RESEO Spring Conference in Vienna.