Estepona Welcomes Academy For City Of The Year

As reported in July, Estepona is the only town in Spain to be chosen to compete for the prestigious 2023 European City of the Year award. The winner is awarded by an independent, non-profit organisation, The Academy of Urbanism, which promotes and favours the recognition of towns and cities that are developing good practices in urban planning and sustainability.

The Mayor of Estepona, José María García Urbano, this week welcomed the evaluation committee of The Academy of Urbanism, which has selected the town as the only one in Spain to opt for recognition as European City of the Year 2023. The other two finalists are Amersfoort (Netherlands) and Exeter (United Kingdom).

The Mayor explained the transformation and modernisation that Estepona has undergone in the last decade, with projects and initiatives aimed at achieving a town with a higher quality of life and well-being.

The members of The Academy of Urbanism toured various locations in the town and said that Estepona has managed to be one of the three finalists for the ambitious pedestrianisation project that has been carried out in the old town, for the initiative to unite its entire coastline through the coastal corridor, for the pioneering network of public car parks at a cost of one euro per day, for its commitment to culture through facilities such as the Mirador El Carmen and initiatives such as the Route of Artistic Murals.

The Academy of Urbanism also talked about the courage of the town to be committed to improving quality of life through the project ‘Estepona, Garden of the Costa del Sol’.

The Mayor of Estepona, José María García Urbano, expressed his “enormous satisfaction” that an independent and prestigious international organisation such as ‘The Academy of Urbanism’ has “set its sights” on “the great transformation and progress in sustainability that Estepona has made” and considers the town to be a benchmark at European level for a modern, sustainable town, with quality of life and respect for the environment.

Previous winners of this award are Bilbao, Copenhagen, Lisbon, Berlin, Edinburgh and Rotterdam.