EventmanagementSmart Cities Marketplace 2025 at Barcelona Expo - EU for Resilient Green Cities

As lead partner for communication and events of the Smart Cities Marketplace, Steinbeis Europa Zentrum implemented the joint stand of the European Commission: EU for resilient green cities at the Smart City World Congress 2025 in Barcelona from 4-6 November, together with 26 partner organisations.

The European Commission officially opened its joint booth at the Barcelona Expo under the banner “EU for Resilient Green Cities” on the first day of the SCEWC. The opening session, featuring Georg Houben (DG ENER), Bettina Mogensen (DG ENV) and Alfonso Alcolea Martinez (DG ENV), welcomed visitors to explore how the EU works for and with cities to accelerate climate action, energy transition, and environmental resilience. The morning kicked off with a vital discussion on how public bodies can meet the EU’s 1.9% annual energy reduction target, exploring practical strategies for streamlining energy efficiency.

The SCM activities brought together city leaders, EU institutions, and innovation pioneers in Barcelona to show how European cities are driving the just and green transition.

Across all sessions, one message stood out: collaboration, citizen engagement, and regulatory clarity are key to unlocking sustainable urban transformation.

The Smart Cities Marketplace organised several sessions during the expo, discussing topics relevant to the development of inclusive and sustainable cities, ranging from energy management and sustainability efforts to replication opportunities, citizen-centric innovation, cross-sector collaboration and integrated urban strategies.

Key takeaways:

• Cities are at the frontline of climate action — and they need more than funding.
• Tackling energy poverty and ensuring affordability must be central to the green transition.
• Physical presence at events like SCEWC25 fosters real connections and collaboration.
• Achieving urban sustainability requires inclusive innovation, integrated planning, and strong citizen engagement—supported by EU initiatives and local experimentation.

Steinbeis Europa Zentrum and project partners presented some successful EU funded projects  like ATELIER, OPENLab and metaCCAZE. Our project partners of metaCCAZE  showcased its vision for connected, automated, and zero-emission mobility, and were part of the CIVITAS pillar. OPENLab was present with their own partner pillar and contributed to one of the conference sessions and to the booth programme with a booth session. ATELIER was present with their own partner pillar as well and contributed to a conference session.

The Smart City Expo World Congress (4-6 November 2025) in a nutshell:

• 190 Exhibitors
• 104 Attendees
• 143 Countries
• 592 Speakers

EU for resilient green cities stand in a nutshell

• The European Commission hosted presence featured a 150m2 boothand a collection of 26 partners, platforms, initiatives and projects,
• 6Conference sessions with 31 speakers,
• 26 booth sessionswith over 70 speakers,
• 5 international delegationshave been welcomed at the EC booth,
• Participation rate of 40-50 at the EC booth and 60-70 at each Conference session
• Continuous traffic from/to the booth and specifically in the two matchmaking areas,
• 2 matchmaking areas, one for IURC (engagement with around 200 stakeholders) andone for the Global Covenant of Mayors (with more than 60 matchmaking meetings),
• Large partner area forall 26 EC partners for their specific networking activities and to exchange with their stakeholders.

The 26 initiatives and projects represented at the European Commission’s booth were:

Smart Cities Marketplace (coordinator), ARV - Climate Positive Circular Communities, ASCEND, ATELIER, CINEA, CIVITAS, CLIMABOROUGH, Driving Urban Transitions Partnership, ENHANCE, European Green Capital / European Green Leaf Awards and Green City Accord initiative, European Urban Initiative, European City Facility, EU Capital of Smart Tourism Award or European Capital & Green Pioneer of Smart Tourism, European Capital of Innovation Awards (iCapital), Global Covenant of Mayors & Covenant of Mayors Europe, HADEA (CEF-Digital) - 5GSC (5G for Smart Communities), Smart Energy Cluster with the InEExS and GINNGER projects, IURC International Urban Regional Cooperation, NetZeroCities, NEUTRALPATH, oPEN Lab, PNO Innovation – Multimodal smart city mobility and logistics in a synchronised approach, RESPONSE, streamSAVE+, UP2030

The Smart City Expo World Congress remains a valuable platform to exchange ideas, meet peers, and forge new collaborations! We thank everyone we connected with this year and look forward to continued cooperation and impact!

The full programme can be found here: Programme Overview_EU for resilient green cities

More information on the conference session: EU for resilient green cities: Conference Sessions at SCEWC 2025 | Smart Cities Marketplace