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Candidate Eurocities executive committee

TALLINN

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EUROCITIES Tallinn’s candidacy to the EUROCITIES Executive Committee 2020

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Mihhail Kõlvart (born in 1977) is the Mayor of Tallinn since April 2019. Previously he has served as the Chairman of Tallinn City Council (2017-2019) and the Deputy Mayor of Tallinn (2011-2017), responsible for education, culture, sport and national minorities. As the Mayor his ambition is to combine innovative technological solutions with green and sustainable way of life.

Mihhail Kõlvart has a degree in business law. He is the deputy Chairman of the Estonian Center Party.

Mr Kõlvart has a black belt in Taekwondo and he has won a bronze medal from the International Martial Arts Games. His students have several times won medals from European and World championships. He is a member of the Executive Committee of the Estonian Olympic Committee and the president of the Estonian National Taekwondo Federation.

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Tallinn has been a member of EUROCITIES since 1998, participating between 1999 - 2004 in the activities of the East-West Committee that was responsible for integration between EU member states and Eastern European countries before the EU enlargement. Tallinn has participated in different working groups of all Forums and is the member of the Executive Committee since 2018.

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The participation in EUROCITIES activities has been declared a priority in Tallinn. We do have the political will and necessary resources to contribute to the work of EUROCITIES organisation on Executive Committee level.

Knowledge Society Forum Tallinn has its representation in the Forum since 2003 (former Telecities Committee), we hosted the Forum meetings in 2005, 2010 and 1 2014. Tallinn had the Forum Chair position in 2009 and 2010. Tallinn has focused on the topics of reducing digital social gaps through computer education; development of public e-services; public Wi-Fi networks in cities etc. Today the priorities include designing proactive public e-services and improving data interoperability.

Mobility Forum Tallinn started to participate actively in Mobility Forum in 2012, when we introduced the idea of free public transport 2 to the Forum members during the March meeting in Helmond. In October 2015 Tallinn hosted the Mobility Forum meeting “Inclusive Public Transport”. At present our priority topics are carbon-free public transport and automated vehicles.

Environment Forum Tallinn has participated in Environment Forum since 2004. We hosted the 2007 Forum meeting that focused 3 on the environmental questions connected with rapid economic growth. Changing the mind-set of people to raise awareness of climate issues in the community is one of the key topics.

Economic Development Forum Tallinn Enterprise Department has participated in the activities of 4 the Forum since 2002. Our focus is mainly on business development and creative industry in the context of circular economy. In October 2009 Tallinn hosted the EDF meeting “How to Support Innovation”.

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Social Forum Tallinn Social Welfare and Health Department has actively taken part in 5 the Forum activities since 2008.Meetings of Smart Social Inclusion Working Group were held in Tallinn in October 2008 and in September 2015. Tallinn participated in the preparation of EUROCITIES National Action Plan on Social Inclusion 2008-2010. Our main activities today are connected with the Smart Social Inclusion, Housing and Homelessness Working Groups, key topics include affordable housing and inclusion of people with disabilities.

Culture Forum Tallinn Culture Department has taken part in different Culture Forum working groups since 2005. The main emphasis has been on 6 promoting and supporting creative industries. The Culture Forum meeting focusing on innovative models of cultural governance and partnerships in cities was held in Tallinn in spring 2017.

Cooperation Tallinn participates in the working group of the European Urban Agenda. 7 Cooperation Platform meeting was held in Tallinn in spring 2019.

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A list of priorities Tallinn will address at EU level during our three- year term on the executive committee As a member of the EUROCITIES Tallinn continues to do everything in its power to ensure that the network will remain an organisation truly representing of the interests of cities from all parts of Europe in the political dialogue with the EU and other European institutions and agencies and to keep its position as a key player in securing greater recognition of the contribution of cities to the economic competitiveness and social cohesion of Europe.

We also want to emphasise the role of EUROCITIES organisation on mutual learning so that member cities across the network are able to benefit from each other’s expertise and knowledge.

The priorities Tallinn would especially like to address on EU level are:

Sustainable renovation of public and private buildings to support 1 decarbonization and clean energy. EUROCITIES strategic goal: Localising global challenges

Building sector is one of the largest energy consumers in Europe as buildings are responsible for about 40% of the EU final energy consumption and account for 36% of CO2 emissions. In order to reach climate goals of EU Green Deal it is vital to improve their energy efficiency. Renovation Wave initiative announced by the European Commission in spring 2020 will be a very ambitious set of measures and tools. Cities need to be included in the preparation process as equal partners, ensuring sufficient input from the local level. Located in the Northern part of Europe, Tallinn has tackled with the challenge of increasing energy efficiency of the building stock for decades. Being a historical city with oldest still inhabited houses dating back to the 14th century and several protected areas of 100- year-old wooden buildings adds heritage issues to the equation. With long-term experience in and continuous need for sustainable renovation of building stock Tallinn will advocate this priority topic on EU level, using among other connections the good working relationship with European Commissioner for Energy Ms Kadri Simson.

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Sustainable and innovative urban mobility EUROCITIES strategic goal: Healthy and moving cities. 2 The majority of atmospheric emissions in Tallinn are generated by traffic. Since 2013 Tallinn has been advocating the positive impact of free public transport, today we have a goal to make it also carbon-free by the year 2035. We have already started – all public transport powered by electricity uses only renewable energy.

By 2025, we will have 350 of new biogas buses on our streets. So in 4,5 years, our public transport fleet will be running on renewable electricity, compressed biogas or is hybrid.

Tallinn supports strongly other means of mobility to guarantee accessible, safe, fast and sustainable opportunities for everybody. This includes redesigning streets today used primarily for car traffic into high-quality, enjoyable and comfortable human scale urban space through co-creative planning process, but also implementing innovative means of transport like self-driving vehicles into the city environment. The first regular autonomous bus line was opened in 2019. On August 31, 2017 the Prime Minister of Estonia Mr Jüri Ratas signed the Letter of Intent for Tallinn-Helsinki Hyperloop One connection. Tallinn's connection on EU level is the EU Director-General of Mobility and Transport Mr Henrik Hololei.

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Digitalisation of public services EUROCITIES strategic goal: Localising global challenges. 3 Continued urbanisation provides challenges in various fields: increasing demands on infrastructure; development of public and business services; creation of jobs; the impacts of climate; and the smart use of environmental resources. First and foremost, this creates many new opportunities for businesses, while also posing great challenges on the public sector in order to cope with the rapid infrastructure development, people’s changing mobility needs, energy consumption and environmental impacts – that is smarter city management.

Ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has proved us that each public service must be evaluated for its options for online or contactless provision. Virus is harming people, but does not harm technological solutions. Thanks to very well developed IT systems, it is easy for our people to work remotely from home and study contactless. Our public services continued to work during lockdown, and we were able to develop new solutions in a very short time.

Common legislation and standards, in addition to sufficient funding are essential for implementing innovative digital solutions in public services all over Europe.

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Tallinn. A brief overview.

Tallinn is the capital and the largest city of Estonia. It is located on Estonia’s north coast to the Gulf of Finland, 80 kilometres south of Helsinki. The maritime border of Tallinn is only a little shorter (46 km) than its land border (59 km). Tallinn occupies an area of 159.2 km2 and has a population of 446,000. The sea has influenced the development and natural environment of Tallinn. The Hanseatic town of Tallinn, which developed trade in a strategically important location, received its town bylaws in 1248. As a pearl of medieval architecture, the Old Town of Tallinn has been on the UNESCO World Heritage list since 1997. The network of parks established in the bastion zone surrounding the Old Town is unique from the viewpoint of the city’s development. At present, Tallinn has per capita 90 m2 of public green urban areas and 207 m2 of areas covered in vegetation.

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Almost one-third of Estonia’s population lives in Tallinn and the city’s GDP covers more than 50% of the GDP of the country. In the rankings prepared by the fDi magazine ‘Euro-pean Cities and Regions of the Future 2020/2021’, Tallinn ranked second among midsized cities in terms of business friendliness.

For more than 20 years Tallinn has been a leader in providing digital services globally and using them in everyday life. Its intelligent gov-tech solutions are widely recognized as a part of the e-Estonia concept. The vibrant startup scene has experienced the birth of unicorns and continuous innovation. The City of Tallinn is a testing grounds for new innovative solutions: several intelligent city solutions have already gone live, and self-driving buses and delivery robots are already on the streets. We support startup ecosystems and work closely with universities, incubators, clusters etc.

Our approach of Think global, Test in Tallinn is being used in the Tallinnovation concept to develop Tallinn into a smart city. New ideas from the public sector or private companies will provide the solutions, followed by rapid prototyping and cooperation. We see the public sector as being one of the first potential customers and will later support the entry of the service or product provider into the global market. As a city, we can provide dedicated business support for Smart City initiatives and actively share the experience we gain from actual case studies with other cities. Eurocities AGM 2020 11 of 14 4i

Tallinn is also a university city and a city of culture with 16 theatres and 10 institutions of higher education and science.

In 2011 we were the European Capital of Culture alongside Turku in Finland. In 2006, then Mayor of Tallinn Jüri Ratas initiated the idea of the European Green Capital. Tallinn is on final shortlist for EGC 2022 together with Grenoble, Dijon and Turin. Our strength is in biodiversity and digital transition.

As the capital, Tallinn is the junction of the aviation, railway and highway networks. Tallinn International Lennart Meri Airport with its 34 destinations will never be the largest in the world, but it can easily be the world’s cosiest airport. In 2019, over 3.2 million passengers and 10,000 tonnes of goods passed through Tallinn Airport. Port of Tallinn is the biggest port authority in Estonia and as far as both cargo and passenger traffic are taken into account, the biggest port on the shores of the Baltic Sea.

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A city can be truly sustainable only if we live in harmony with the surrounding nature. Tallinn is concerned about the steady decline of insects and especially pollinators. The numbers of insect species has shown decreasing number in all continents due to intensive use of pesticides and the effects of climate change. It is a paradox that cities have become a safe haven for insects – there is no active agriculture here and the use of pesticides is therefor much lower than in rural areas. Tallinn has joined the movement of European Pesticide Free Towns, we have mapped our use of pesticides and we are taking steps to reduce it systematically.

The butterflies, bees and other pollinators flying around the city need much more. That is why, Tallinn is investing in creating an Insect Highway, a 13 kilometre pollinator-friendly corridor. Planting pollinator friendly flowers and bushes to the area of the corridor is an inseparable part of the project. A wish to create an urban space suitable for all species that call Tallinn home has lived in our hearts since 13th century. It was exactly then when it was decided that no trees would be allowed to be cut in Aegna island – a sanctuary right in the city centre. 20% of Tallinn is covered with forest and we also have nature parks, landscape protection areas, unique alvars and bogs.

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Tallinn is a very attractive tourism destination, with more than three million foreign visitors annually. According to mobile positioning data 71% of the foreigners who visited Estonia came to Tallinn. Our Old City Harbour is the third cruise harbour (with about half a million cruise tourists each year) by the Baltic Sea after Copenhagen and St. Petersburg. As a maritime city, Tallinn has turned a lot of attention to opening the city up to the sea and rediscovering its identity as a coastal city. In recent years, many opportunities have been created for people to spend time by the seaside.

Tallinn's Christmas Market was voted best in Europe in 2019.

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