2015•07•13     Guimarães

Xoan Vázquez Mao, Secretary-General of Eixo Atlântico do Noroeste Peninsular (literally, the Atlantic Axis of the Peninsular Northwest), António Cunha, Rector of the University of Minho and Amadeu Portilha, Vice-Mayor of the Guimarães Municipality visited UNU-EGOV on 13 July 2015.

The visit included the presentation of UNU-EGOV, the EGOV partnership between UNU-EGOV, the University of Minho and the Agency for Administrative Modernization, and the project on Smart Cities for Sustainable Development executed by UNU-EGOV and funded by the International Development Research Center (IDRC) from Canada and why the project is relevant to Eixo Atlântico. UNU-EGOV was represented by Tomasz Janowski (Head), Elsa Estevez (Senior Academic Programme Officer) and Nuno Lopes (Postdoctoral Fellow).

Eixo Atlântico is a trans-frontier association composed of 38 cities in the North of Portugal and Galiza (Spain) which main goal is to support the economic, social, cultural, scientific and technological development of its members. The official establishment of Eixo Atlântico on 1 April 1992, at the time where the European Union was also establishing the Single European Market and conceiving the Euro currency, was preceded by a formal cooperation link between the cities of Porto (Portugal) and Vigo (Spain), which quickly expanded to another 11 cities. Today, Eixo Atlântico works towards identifying, developing and managing projects and programs of interest to its members, and developing the region in the areas of: 1) inclusive growth in the fields of culture, sports and education, 2) smart growth in tourism, planning and innovation and 3) sustainable development of the territory.

Visit of Eixo Atlântico to UNU-EGOV on 13 July 2015, from left to right: Elsa Estevez, Amadeu Portilha, António Cunha, Xoan Vázquez Mao, Tomasz Janowski and Nuno Lopes