The municipality of Brasov has passed the first stage of the competition organised by the European Commission for the award of the title of European Green Capital 2026, the City Hall announced on Thursday.

Braşsov is the only city in Romania participating in this competition and one of the nine municipalities that have passed the first stage: Braga (Portugal), Cordoba (Spain), Guimaraes (Portugal), Heilbronn (Germany), Klagenfurt (Austria), Linz (Austria), Riga (Latvia), Rybnik (Poland).

"This is the second year in a row that Brasov has been selected in this competition, being the only one in Romania to reach this level in recent years. As I said last year, we have a lot of work to do, but we already have concrete results, so we managed to pass the first selection stage, in the company of some important cities in Europe, which honours us. This competition is not so much a fight for a title, but a road we have set out to travel in the shortest possible time, so that our city will have an increased quality of life and be a trailblazer in the implementation of green policies, a truly green city, environmentally friendly, attentive to the valuable natural heritage," said Mayor Allen Coliban on this occasion.

In the coming weeks, a panel of seven independent experts will evaluate each application form against seven environmental indicators.

Based on this assessment, the Commission will announce the finalist cities in summer 2024.

The winner of the competition, which will be announced on 24 October 2024 at a festive ceremony in Valencia (Spain), the current European Green Capital, will receive a prize of EUR 600,000 to implement key actions in seven areas with an impact on sustainability and to organise awareness-raising events with and for citizens, according to a press release issued by Brasov City Hall. AGERPRES (RO - author: Diana Dumitru, editor: Marius Fratila; EN - author: Adina Panaitescu, editor: Cristina Zaharia)