Report from the Welcoming Cities High-Level Event, Brussels
Published 2025/09/25
About the Conference
Over 15 municipal representatives from across Europe came together on 23–24 September at the European Parliament in Brussels for the high-level event “Welcoming Cities: Municipalities at the Heart of Reception and Integration”.
The goal: to demand more humane, inclusive, and solidarity-based migration and asylum policies, highlighting that local governments are on the frontlines of welcoming newcomers.
Event Highlights
3 panels on municipal leadership in inclusion, democratic migration governance, and co-creating migration policies.
1 session for civil society networking.
1 session for networking between municipalities and European Parliament and Commission representatives.
Demands to EU institutions
Municipalities formulated a set of clear demands to EU institutions:
Ensure local participation in national implementation of the Asylum and Migration Pact
Institutionalise ongoing dialogue between EU institutions and municipalities
Provide direct and systematic EU funding to municipalities for reception and integration
Expand safe and legal migration pathways and strengthen the solidarity mechanism with direct municipal involvement
Integrate municipal expertise in designing border procedures and reception infrastructure
Hosts
The event was hosted by Jaume Asens (Greens/EFA), Leoluca Orlando (Greens/EFA), Cecilia Strada (S&D), Estrella Galán (The Left), and Damien Carême (The Left), with support from the International Alliance of Safe Harbours (IASH) and the From the Sea to the City (FS2C) civil society consortium.