In the framework of the PACTE+ project, Christoph Mall and several project partners met for a kick-off meeting on 7 + 8 June 2022 in Brussels.
PACTE+ is co-funded by the Erasmus+ Programm of the European Union. The primary goal of the PACTE+ project is to encourage the cities Angers, Frederikstad, Graz, and Limerick to take a proactive approach to promote physical activity in order to improve individual and collective well-being.
The aim of the kick-off meeting was to bring the project partners together and to introduce the project. Specifically, about presenting the philosophy, the objectives and the main activities, giving the partners the opportunity to familiarise themselves with the project management, the budget and the main activities, and finally to jointly define and agree on the project phases, work packages, roles and schedule.
The PACTE+ project builds on an earlier project, the PACTE project launched in 2018. Over a period of 36 months, the PACTE project elaborated several targets for the development of active cities in Europe. Data extracted from the PACTE project in 2018 shows a worrying tryptic: while 210 million Europeans are physically inactive, at an annual cost of at least €80 billion, the study also found that 66% of local European decision-makers are unaware of this situation. Based on this observation, the PACTE partners have developed and created an interactive matrix that allows each municipality to develop a customised Active City Action Plan to transform itself into an Active City.
The cities of Angers, Frederikstad, Graz, and Limerick will now develop their individual Active City Action Plan and will hopefully many cities throughout Europe will follow.