Thessaloniki, Greece - 23 September 2026
The CIVITAS Forum 2026 drew to a close last week in Thessaloniki, bringing together more than 500 policymakers, city representatives, researchers, practitioners and mobility innovators from across Europe. A key outcome of the Forum was the signing by the Municipality of Thessaloniki of a Letter of Commitment to Sustainable and Smart Mobility, reaffirming the city’s ambition to accelerate its transition towards climate-neutral, inclusive, resilient and connected urban mobility.
The Letter of Commitment sets out Thessaloniki’s intention to coordinate action across infrastructure investment, technological innovation, policy implementation and stakeholder cooperation, ensuring that individual initiatives work together to deliver greater impact. Among its priorities are reducing car dependency and improving public space, strengthening cooperation on sustainable transport across the wider metropolitan area, developing Thessaloniki as a green and multimodal gateway on the Trans-European Transport Network (TEN-T), and promoting data-driven and innovative mobility solutions.
The Municipality also commits to supporting Thessaloniki as a real-world testbed for innovative, connected and automated mobility, building on the city’s strong research and innovation ecosystem and existing experience with mobility pilots. This includes its participation as a partner city in CIVITAS projects such as UPPER, DISCO and CORESpaces, which are supporting the city in testing and advancing innovative approaches to sustainable urban mobility.
“Thessaloniki is actively transforming its urban landscape. Our administration is committed to an ambitious, green, and digital transition. We envision a more sustainable, resilient, and accessible city that elevates the quality of life for all residents, workers, and visitors alike. Urban mobility is at the very heart of this transformation,” said Stelios Angeloudis, Mayor of Thessaloniki.
Under the theme “Roots & Routes: Moving Forward to Competitive, Connected and Resilient Urban Mobility!”, the CIVITAS Forum provided a platform for European cities and mobility stakeholders to exchange knowledge, showcase solutions and explore how innovation can support the future of urban transport.
Three plenary sessions focused on competitive urban mobility, including innovation, industry and investment; resilient urban mobility, including climate adaptation and service continuity; and connected tourism mobility, exploring visitor flows and liveability in European cities. Projects and mobility initiatives from across Europe were also showcased, with innovative market-ready solutions presented throughout the week on the CIVITAS Agora stage.
The Forum further brought together cities and stakeholders through a meeting of CIVINET Greece-Cyprus, the Greek-speaking local network of CIVITAS, which promotes sustainable mobility and facilitates cooperation and knowledge exchange across Greece and Cyprus.
The CIVITAS Forum took place alongside EUROPEAN MOBILITY WEEK 2026, whose theme of “Mobility for Everyone” focuses this year on intergenerational fairness and the need for transport systems that respond to the needs of people across different stages of life, both now and for future generations.
The European dimension was reinforced by the participation of Apostolos Tzitzikostas, European Commissioner for Sustainable Transport and Tourism, who joined the Forum on 17 September. Commissioner Tzitzikostas delivered a keynote address on Connected Tourism Mobility: Managing Visitor Flows and Liveability in European Cities, before turning the discussion from European policy to mobility in practice through a series of activities linked to EUROPEAN MOBILITY WEEK.
As part of his visit, the Commissioner received a tour of Thessaloniki’s new metro system and met with students to discuss intergenerational fairness in mobility, connecting the EUROPEANMOBILITYWEEK theme directly with the experience and aspirations of Thessaloniki’s younger generation.
The CIVITAS Forum’s conclusion therefore comes with both a local commitment and a broader European message: creating sustainable and smart mobility requires cities to turn ambition into action, while working together across generations, sectors and borders to build transport systems that are greener, more resilient and accessible to everyone.
For more information about the CIVITAS Initiative, visit www.civitas.eu.
Media enquiries
Adam Oliver and Robyn Fleming
Email: communications@civitas.eu
