TheMayor.EU wins the 2021 European Citizen’s Prize

It is given by the European Parliament for outstanding achievements in several fields

We are glad to share with you that TheMayor.EU – the European Portal for Cities and Citizens - has won the European Citizen’s Prize for 2021 for our work in promoting the European values of transparency, cross-border cooperation and good governance at the local level.

Last week, our team was informed that our initiative was praised highly by the Bulgarian national jury and the Chancellery at the European Parliament during this year’s edition of the award contest. We are proud and honoured by this recognition which stimulates us to work even harder to show you the bright side of EU cities and the importance of their mutual collaboration.

TheMayor.EU brings city action into the spotlight

In 2017, Euro Advance Association launched the initiative "TheMayor.EU - European Portal for Cities and Citizens" with ambitions to improve understanding between citizens of the European Union, local authorities and EU institutions; to stimulate the exchange of good practices and experience between the authorities in Europe; to make efforts for modern, transparent and efficient urban governance more visible; and to increase trust in decision-making institutions.

Since then, we have shared thousands of stories of successful European projects that support the social, economic and technological development of European cities and regions; We have shown thousands of examples of constructive solutions to the challenges facing European cities and regions - among them, climate change, pollution, depopulation, technological backwardness, cultural heritage protection and more.

What we started as a project, four years later has become a sustainable initiative between local authorities in Europe and their citizens. Thanks to the work of the team at TheMayor.EU web portal, the good examples from European cities and regions have reached hundreds of thousands of inhabitants of the Old Continent and beyond. As a result, we hope, the European Union has become more comprehensible and more transparent to them.

Over the last year, our efforts to make European policies and vision for development more accessible to local communities have also been recognized by the European Commission, with the Portal becoming one of the first official partners of the New European Bauhaus initiative.

The portal continues to be interactive, open and free for the municipalities willing to present their decisions to a wider audience and for the citizens who want to learn about them. Each local EU administration can create its own profile and update it with information about the city and its initiatives. Through the "Add article" function, citizens and organizations, in turn, can send us news about interesting projects that have inspired them or that they have implemented themselves.

About the European Citizen’s Prize

The European Parliament awards the 'The European Citizen's Prize' every year to individuals or organisations, in recognition of their exceptional achievements in the following areas:

• Projects promoting better mutual understanding and closer integration between citizens of the Member States or facilitating cross-border or transnational cooperation within the European Union.
• Projects involving long-term, cross-border or transnational cultural cooperation contributing to the strengthening of a European spirit.
• Projects linked to the current European Year.
• Projects giving concrete expression to the values enshrined in the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union.

National juries composed of Members of the European Parliament, representatives of national civil society organisations and representatives from national youth organisations, pre-select up to five entries and propose them to the "European Citizen's Prize Chancellery”, which makes the final decision for each country. The Members of the Chancellery consist of the Chancellor (the President of the European Parliament), four Vice-Presidents, two former Presidents of the European Parliament, two eminent personalities, one representative from a pan-European civil society organisation and one representative from a pan-European youth organisation.

Boyan Tomov, Founder of TheMayor.EU and Chairperson of Euro Advance Association, will formally receive the award from European Parliament officials at an official ceremony later this year.