City Councilor Roman Jakic elected Chair of CIVITAS Political Advisory Committee
City councilor and president of the International Relations Commission, Roman Jakic, has been elected by a selection of European politicians as Chair of the CIVITAS Initiative’s Political Advisory Committee (PAC) for a two year mandate. The election took place on October 19 in Krakow, Poland, where this year’s annual meeting of the CIVITAS Forum Network took place.
Roman Jakic has been involved in the CIVITAS Initiative since 2003, and during the last two years as an active member of the PAC. The Political Advisory Committee is a group of highly motivated politicians, representatives of all 163 European cities involved in the CIVITAS Forum city Network. Its main role is to identify political priorities, offer political recommendations, address issues which are important for cleaner and better city centres within the realm of sustainable mobility and most importantly, represent the CIVITAS Initiative at meetings of high representatives of the European Union. The Committee’s actions are framed within a work programme which also guides the CIVITAS Initiative and which addresses politicians at both national and local government levels. All 163 members of the CIVITAS Forum city Network are eligible to become members of the PAC when the call for membership is announced every two years (members’ current mandates run from 2009-2011). The newly appointed PAC members are appointed by the European Commission, based on general representativeness and those member’s proactive role in supporting policies which are in line with the goals of the CIVITAS Initiative. The current serving Committee consists of 16 members. The City of Ljubljana is actively involved in the CIVITAS Initiative through the project: Mobilising Citizens for Vital Cities, alias CIVITAS ELAN. It is a common initiative of five European cities: Ljubljana, Gent, Zagreb, Brno and Porto. It is supported by the European Union through the 7th Framework Programme. The aim of the project is to build a durable, cleaner and energy efficient transport system. Its main focus is the development of user-friendly public transport systems that encourage cycling, walking and alternative energy resource use, alongside accessible services and citizen-oriented, simple and cost efficient public transportation.
