Mayors of the capital cities of Visegrad Four group countries (V4: Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Slovakia) have addressed an open letter to German Chancellor Angela Merkel, in which they congratulate Germany on its Council of the EU Presidency and inform her about the current activities of the Free Cities Pact, announced Bratislava City spokesperson Katarina Rajcanova on Tuesday.
The Pact also asked Merkel to support the effort to improve the cities' access to direct financing under the EU 2021-27 budget. The mayors, who represent more than 5 million people and about 20 percent of the V4's economic output, pointed out that despite the impacts of the coronavirus crisis and climate change on urban populations, the cities are uniquely equipped to implement courageous measures to ameliorate the global crises' disruptive effects.
Attached to the letter is a document dated from May 2020, in which the mayors of Bratislava, Budapest, Prague and Warsaw list specific measures intended to lay the legal foundation for the so-called green financing of cities. "The document has drawn support from 29 cities representing almost 10 percent of the EU's population," added Rajcanova.
