Focus on Valletta at Brussels meeting

Valletta will be one of the topics discussed during a conference in Brussels as part of the Urbact Programme that aims to develop exchange of experiences between European cities.

Urbact, a Community Initiative Programme, facilitates the networking between cities from all the European Union's member states with the aim of drawing lessons from the analysis of their experiences and policies implemented locally and propose innovative approaches to any difficult issues.

Malta will be one of eight countries that will be presenting a report based on one of its cities - Valletta in this case - during the conference that will be held in Brussels tomorrow and that falls under Urbact's Support for Cities Initiative.

The report aims at presenting an assessment of the multi-disciplinary environment that sets the stage for Valletta's revitalisation with a view to establish the prerequisites for a series of goals that will be outlined in detail during the conference.

The report was compiled by expert Paulius Kulikauskas and a working group composed of Valletta mayor Paul Borg Olivier and José Abela from the Valletta local council and Malcolm Borg and Rafael Orsini from the Ministry of Urban Development and Roads.

The Support for Cities Initiative, part of the Urbact Programme, was conducted between September 2006 and June 2007, involving 43 cities across eight EU member states and 31 external experts from across Europe in order to work individually with the cities to provide support on developing integrated urban projects or strategies around a range of problems identified by the cities.