CIVINET Greece-Cyprus in the Spotlight

The CIVINETs - the CIVITAS national networks – form the backbone of the CIVITAS Initiative, working with cities on the ground on their sustainable mobility transitions, while connecting this work to the European level. What kinds of activities does this involve? How do they see their role as leaders of this network? How can member cities benefit from such a Network?

This month, we are happy to spotlight the CIVINET Greece-Cyprus! We sat down with Kosmas Anagnostopoulos, Katerina Nikolopoulou and Hara Liakou from CIVINET Greece-Cyprus, as well as with Emilia Tziva, Deputy Mayor of Heraklion Attica, one of CIVINET Greece-Cyprus’ most recent new member cities, to find out more.

Interviews carried out by Sanne Vanderstraeten /Mobiel21.

What do you see as the key tasks of a CIVINET secretariat?

CIVINET Greece-Cyprus: Our main task is to support the cities on their journey towards sustainable mobility. We do a lot of awareness-raising and capacity-building activities. We also provide legal advice to the cities, guide them towards funding opportunities, and offer technical support in their policies and public works. We also promote their work on a national as well as European levels.

Our focus at the moment is on citizen engagement, especially via the Outta Climate festivals that we have hosted. We aim to bring citizens closer to mobility issues. It is not just about raising awareness; it is about making people see what we are talking about.

What are the key benefits of the CIVINET network?

CIVINET Greece-Cyprus: In Greece and Cyprus there are no other networks that deal only with the topic of sustainable mobility. Our network is therefore unique; the cities and municipalities need us by their side. No matter how many engineers a municipality has or collaborations with consultancies, they don’t have any other way of focussing specifically on sustainable mobility. Other initiatives are more general.

CIVINET Greece-Cyprus also has a strong connected to the European Union. This makes it different to networks from political parties or private initiatives. This connected to the European level is very useful to Greek and Cypriot cities.

What do you hope to achieve as a member of CIVINET Greece-Cyprus?

Emilia Tziva / Heraklion Attica:  Our municipality, Heraklion Attica, joined CIVINET Greece-Cyprus because we need to find ideas of how to change our ways of living. We want to change the mentality of people. This is not so easy in Greece; the cities were created first, then the imagination came through. We want to benefit from other good practices to work towards a mindset shift. And we are lucky to be part of this network – we became member to change practices and find ideas. Also, we need to find funding.

What are the key mobility challenges in Greece and Cyprus?

CIVINET Greece-Cyprus: We are still struggling with the basics: how to improve accessibility for disabled, how to promote smooth walking in public spaces and how to bring cycling into society as a major means of transport in cities. Road safety, as well as efficient and reliable public transport are also some of the major challenges. Our cities are still very car-dominated - we ultimately need to work towards fewer cars in our shared public space.

Greek cities are old cities. It is difficult to apply innovate actions when space is protected or limited in size. Everything is so dense which makes it difficult to redesign.

We also have the islands. The main challenge is seasonality: in summer some islands increase in population by up to eight times of their usual permanent size in winter. In summer islands can often have the population of a large urban area but not the transport infrastructure of one. This, combined with the sensitive natural environment, makes tourism a huge challenge.

What achievements are you most proud of as CIVINET Greece-Cyprus?

CIVINET Greece-Cyprus: We started as an NGO six years ago with no budget. We now have an annual income of about half a million Euro. We developed large-scale asphalt art interventions. This initiative followed the principles of the European Green Deal and Bauhaus and enabled us to bring these principles to the local level.

We recently introduced the first micro-mobility hub for safe and smart bike parking, and we developed innovative strategies for circular economy and circular tourism in island areas. We introduced Sustainable Urban Mobility Plans (SUMPs) through a huge funding programme with the Ministry of Environment. Through this, we have worked a lot on citizen engagement, co-creation and participatory planning. Maybe the biggest achievement is the SIMPs – the Sustainable Island Mobility Plans - which are in the spirit of SUMPs but more tailored to the needs of islands. We would love to transfer this knowledge to the other islands of Europe.

We have also developed the concept of gender-based planning in mobility. We started this in the framework of the SUMP for Agios Dimitrios city. There we carried out a special consultation on gender in public space and mobility. It went very well. We also organised many events, webinars and three international conferences (including two CIVINET Forums).

What are the key mobility achievements and challenges for the municipality of Heraklion Attica?

Emilia Tziva / Heraklion Attica:  We have a lot of challenges ahead. But we have just (last week) made the first effort with a micro-mobility hub that we put in our main square. For us, we hope this is the first step towards recreating our city. We have a long road ahead of us; public transport is not well developed in Greece. Each family has two or three cars each for moving around, even within the urban area.

What surprised you the most from working in your CIVINET?

CIVINET Greece-Cyprus: While working on a SIMP with the central settlements of an island, when we visited for the first consultation, we knew there were a lot of mobility as well as resilience issues. We didn’t have many ambitious measures to propose. But the citizens did: they requested from us to pedestrianise the whole of the settlement and only to allow electric minibuses, scooters and bikes into the area. They exceeded our expectations. Unfortunately, however, the mayor and the city couldn’t find the funds for this. We saw this as a success, because we already have the public support for the idea, so this has potential for the long term.

When implementing the asphalt art interventions, we were surprised that there were no complaints. The only complaint was that we only involved the older children of the local primary and not the younger children too. We actually had children crying and begging to be part of it. It was a huge surprise to see how many children and families embraced this activity and made this space part of their lives. We really saw them take ownership of their streets.

What key message do you have for other cities looking to make their mobility systems more sustainable?

Emilia Tziva / Heraklion Attica: Another world is possible. First, we need to have the will. Then, through participation in a network like this one, you can find new ideas and recreate your way of life.

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Kosmas Anagnostopoulos is a civil engineer and urban planning expert. He is the Founder and Coordinator of CIVINET Greece-Cyprus.

Katerina Nikolopoulou is a political scientist and has been in the role of Director of Operations at CIVINET Greece-Cyprus for the past 4 years.

Hara Liakou’s expertise lies in environmental politics. She recently joined the CIVINET Greece-Cyprus as the Network Manager.

Emilia Tziva, is Deputy Mayor of Heraklion Attica, a suburb of northeastern Athens and CIVINET member.

Learn more about CIVINET Greece-Cyprus.

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