From Planning to Practice: Varaždin Brings Together Regional Leaders in Sustainable Urban Mobility

The City of Varaždin hosted the two-day regional event "From Planning to Practice: Mobility, Public Spaces and the Voice of Citizens" on 10 and 11 June 2026, bringing together around 100 representatives of cities and municipalities, ministries, the transport sector, academia, civil society organisations, network members, and experts from Croatia, Slovenia, and South-East Europe.

Prior to the conference programme, the 13th General Assembly of the CIVINET Slovenia-Croatia-South-East Europe Network was held on 9 June. The network consist of 245 cities and stakeholders involved in sustainable urban mobility planning and management from Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Montenegro, and North Macedonia, with associate members from Albania and Kosovo. Its goal is to facilitate knowledge exchange, share experiences and good practices, and encourage joint projects in the field of sustainable transport and mobility.

During the Assembly, members adopted the Policy Framework and Roadmap for Integrated Sustainable Urban Mobility for the Western Balkans, an important document outlining directions for the development of sustainable urban mobility in the WB6 region in line with relevant EU legislation and the Trans-European Transport Network (TEN-T) policy.

Following the Assembly, the conference was officially opened by the Mayor of Varaždin, Neven Bosilj. The Mayor expressed his pride that Varaždin was hosting a conference on urban mobility bringing together participants from many countries, confirming the city's position among the leaders in sustainable urban mobility development.

"Whenever we renovate streets and transport infrastructure, we pay special attention to cyclists. Varaždin is a city of bicycles, and developing cycling infrastructure remains one of the key priorities of our transport policy. We continuously work to create a safer, more accessible and sustainable transport system for all citizens. It is also important that Varaždin has been included in the TEN-T network. As one of Croatia's five urban nodes, we are expected to develop an intermodal transport centre connecting rail, road, air and other modes of transport. This further strengthens our transport and economic role and improves our connection to European transport corridors. We are among the few Croatian cities that have a Sustainable Urban Mobility Plan, which has guided our work over the past four years. We will soon begin its revision to address new needs and challenges. In addition, we expect to introduce electric buses in the coming months and transition our public transport system from diesel to electric vehicles. This demonstrates our commitment to the green transition, emission reduction and improving the quality of life for our citizens," said the Mayor.

Lidija Pavić Rogošić, Director of ODRAZ, highlighted that the CIVINET network has spent the past 12 years connecting stakeholders from national and local levels, including universities, civil society organisations and the private sector. - "We bring together different stakeholders to exchange good practices on planning sustainable mobility in cities and to promote new approaches to mobility planning that ultimately contribute to a better quality of life in greener and less polluted urban environments," she said.

The keynote lecture, "Mobility, Public Space and the Voice of Citizens", was delivered by Jana Šarinić, Head of the Chair of Urban Sociology at the Department of Sociology, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Zagreb.In her presentation, she emphasised the importance of understanding citizens' needs in urban planning processes and the links between mobility, public space and cultural activities.

"Today I have the opportunity to share experiences gained through more than twenty years of work on urban development, public space and people's relationship with the city. Through numerous research projects, we have encountered both positive and challenging aspects of urban change, all of which have provided valuable insights and demonstrated how important it is to understand citizens' needs," she said.

The first panel discussion focused on political courage as one of the key elements of sustainable urban and climate-resilient transformation. Participants included Miroslav Marković, Deputy Mayor of Varaždin and Member of Parliament, Milenka Mila Knežević GIZ, and Nikša Božić from the Zagreb Institute for Physical Planning.

The second panel, "Citizens: The Key to Positive Transformation", was opened by Petra Grgasović from Erkon. Among the panellists was Martina Cesar Kelemen, Head of the City of Varaždin Department for Construction and Communal Affairs. Following the panel discussions, participants were presented with practical examples linking public space and mobility, including digital methods for involving citizens in planning processes. In addition to panels, lectures and presentations of good practices, the programme also included study visits. Participants visited the InterACT Green project site along the Drava River and explored examples of sustainable and climate-resilient mobility solutions implemented in Varaždin.

The second day featured the Urban Mobility Academy for Climate-Resilient Cities, dedicated to behaviour change, stakeholder communication and the use of digital tools in mobility planning. The programme included a lecture by Lidija Pavić Rogošić on encouraging behavioural change, as well as workshops on multi-level communication, the use of data and digital tools such as Copernicus, presented by Karl-Heinz Gaudry Sada from the Global Disaster Risk Management Project (GIZ). Participants also worked with the City Layers platform, using a mobile application to map climate-related challenges in the streets of Varaždin, such as urban heat island effects, and to propose improvements to transport infrastructure. In addition, they developed communication plans for climate-resilient transport and public-space solutions.

The two-day regional event was organised by ODRAZ (Secretariat of the CIVINET Slovenia-Croatia-South-East Europe Network) within the project "Green Agenda: Supporting Western Balkans to Adapt to Climate Change (WB Adapt)", funded by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development and implemented by GIZ in cooperation with the Transport Community, NALAS and the CIVINET Slovenia-Croatia-South-East Europe Network. The event was also supported through the CLIMove project, funded by the European Climate Initiative (EUKI) of the German Federal Ministry for the Environment, Climate Action, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety (BMUKN).