On 21-22 January 2020, the municipality of Empoli welcomed a delegation representing several European public authorities with the aim of discussing redevelopment and innovation for urban areas and public buildings. This topic has been identified as one of the main urban priorities for the Tuscany region. Nonetheless, several actions have already been successfully implemented to solve this challenge, in particular in the Empolese Valdelsa region.

The Agency for the Development of Empolese Valdelsa (ASEV), host of this new meeting of the EURE project, presented two of these good practices to the visiting delegation, all partners of the project. They first discovered the project HOPE, in the old town centre of Empoli. HOPE consists in the recovery and redevelopment of a very significant public property of historic value, located in an area that is strategic both at urban level and further afield for the union of the municipalities of the wider Empolese Val d’Elsa district. The second example, Cittá+Cittá: Creativitá Inclusiva e Sostenibile, is part of the Innovative Urban Project developed by the municipalities of Poggibonsi and Colle Val d’Elsa. It includes actions to improve abandoned and deprived areas located between the south-western edge of Poggibonsi (District of Siena) with the purpose to act on all indexes of socio-economic identified by the area, including housing pressure, social exclusion, deterioration and pollution.

More good practices, implemented in Tuscany, were presented during a thematic seminar entitled “Integrated Urban Innovation Projects and Related Policy Instruments: Regional Operational Programme of ERDF 2014-2020 in Tuscany”. Check out the agenda and the presentations of the seminar here.

Discover more about the third meeting in Empoli reading the Press Release in EURE library.