Access City Awards: And the winner is…

The city of Breda in the Netherlands wins 2019 Access City Award for making the city more accessible to its inhabitants with disabilities and older persons.

The winner was announced at an EU event organized to mark the EU Day of Persons with Disabilities by Commissioners Thyssen and Navracsics together with the Chair of the EU jury, namely Jesús Hernández-Galán.

Other cities were also awarded:

• Evreux (France) – Second Prize, notably for the strong attention to invisible disabilities.
• Gdynia (Poland) – Third Prize, in particular for the emphasis given to cognitive impairments and recognition of diverse needs.
• Vigo (Galicia, Spain) – Special mention for reconciling a challenging landscape with accessibility
• Kaposvar (Hungary) – Special mention for continuing improvement

This year’s edition also included a special focus on the equal access to the EU cultural heritage to celebrate the European Year 2018. In this category, the two winning cities are:

• Monteverde (Campania, Italy) – Special Prize Accessibility of Cultural Heritage for the category of cities fewer than 50.000 inhabitants
• Viborg (Denmark) – Special Prize Accessibility of Cultural Heritage for the category of cities above 50.000 inhabitants:

Organized every year, the Access City Award is about raising awareness, inspiring other cities and learning from each other and these efforts will now be supported by the recently launched Access City Award Network.

For more information:

• Access City Award website
• European Commission’s press release

For many years, AGE has been involved to the Access City Awards: some of our members are part of national juries and one representative is also appointed in the EU jury. Liz Mestheneos took part in this year’s jury.