Berlin won the Access City Award 2013

On 3 December 2012 Berlin (Germany) was proclaimed as the winner of the Access City Award 2013.

The Award Ceremony took place in Brussels during the European Day of Persons with Disabilities Conference in the presence of Vice-President of the European Commission Viviane Reding and Vice-President of the European Disability Forum Erzsebet Földesi.

The Access City Award recognises and celebrates cities with over 50 000 inhabitants which take exemplary initiatives to improve accessibility in the urban environment.

The application phase for the Access City Award 2013 closed with 99cities from 20 EU member states joining the competition.

After a pre-selection at national level, a European Jury composed of experts in accessibility and representatives of the European Commission and the European Disability Forum selected one overall winner, two finalist "runners-up" and four special mentions.

The two finalist "runners-up" are (in alphabetical order):

Nantes (France) and Stockholm (Sweden).

The European Jury also decided to attribute special mentions in each of the four key areas of accessibility. These went to:

Pamplona (Spain) for the built environment and public spaces 
Gdynia (Poland) for transport and related infrastructures
Bilbao (Spain) for information and communication, including new technologies
Tallaght (Ireland) for public facilities and services

Europe's population, including 80 million people with a mild to severe disability, is concentrated in cities and urban areas. Moreover, Europeans are steadily ageing – which means that more and more of us suffer from reduced mobility. In this context, accessibility has important social and economic benefits.

The award is given to the city that:

• has demonstrably improved accessibility in fundamental aspects of city living:
  • the built environment and public spaces;
  • transport and related infrastructure;
  • information and communication, including Information and Communication Technologies (ICT);
  • public facilities and services.
• is committed to continued improvements in accessibility in a sustainable way;
• can act as a role model and encourage the adoption of best practices in all other European cities.

For more information please contact:

European secretariat of the Access City Award

secretariat@accesscityaward.eu

Tel / fax +48 22 826 84 05