Debrecen4U September 30, 2025

Finals this week: Debrecen in the TOP3 in the competition for the title of European Green Capital

The city is competing with the cities of Heilbronn in Germany and Klagenfurt in Austria for the title. The winner will be announced on October 2 in this year’s European Green Capital, Vilnius, Lithuania.

As previously reported by Dehir, the European Commission has selected Debrecen as one of the top three candidates in the international competition for the European Green Capital.

In addition to Debrecen, Heilbronn in Germany and Klagenfurt near Lake Wörth in Austria make up the TOP 3.

One of the city’s challengers is Heilbronn, which achieved the highest score in the areas of air quality, water, noise, climate change adaptation, and the circular economy. Its holistic urban planning, which integrates noise management into the “2030 Landscape Plan” and the “Mobility Concept,” reflects a high benchmark for a sustainable city with strong citizen involvement.

Klagenfurt am Wörthersee performed very well in most environmental indicators, especially in the areas of air quality, water and climate change mitigation. The city was also praised for its plans to expand sustainable district heating and invest in environmentally friendly logistics, such as electric cargo bikes, to further improve air quality.

Among the TOP 3 cities, Debrecen was described as a leader in sustainability and achieved the best result among the finalists competing for the title of European Green Capital 2027.

Debrecen’s application for the title of European Green Capital showcases the city’s most significant green projects and good practices.

In the “cívis” city, the city government announced the new environmental policy in 2019, which began the change in attitude towards sustainability and green matters, which laid the foundation for applying for the title of European Green Capital. 

In recent years, the Green Working Group was formed from young local professionals, the Future of Debrecen movement was launched, 10,000 trees were planted in the city, the planting of another 10,000 trees has already begun, water reached the Tócó stream within the framework of the Civaqua program, green buses were put into service, the Green Watch Environmental Monitoring System began operating, the people of Debrecen received rainwater collection barrels and composting bins, and numerous awareness-raising events helped shape the green thinking of the people of Debrecen.

The Green Codex was prepared as part of the cooperation between the University of Debrecen and the city, combining the city’s most important strategies and formulating 50 sustainability measures.

The “flagship” is the Green Watch Environmental Monitoring System, which is uniquely innovative even in international comparison and significantly contributes to ensuring that the natural environment and the city’s residents can live safely alongside the city’s dynamic development.

The next good practice is the presentation of the Future of Debrecen movement’s awareness-raising actions and the contribution of the active green community to the greening of the city.

Among these are the Civaqua program and the gray water project, which is particularly important due to industrial developments. The continuation of the program was discussed in Debrecen last week.

15 kilometers of water pipelines, a balancing reservoir at Tócó, water retention structures, pumping station development, and the Vezér Street reservoir—these were completed in the first phase of the Civaqua program for a total of HUF 16 billion. The large-scale, ecological development will solve the long-term water supply of Debrecen and its surroundings with the water of the Tisza River.

In the continuation of the program, the water supply of the Great Forest and the revitalization of the Fancsikai and Vekeri reservoirs will also be implemented. The second series of developments will cost more than HUF 40 billion, which, like the first, will also be implemented from government and EU funds. Preparations are progressing well, and the development areas will be precisely demarcated within a week or two.

It is also thanks to the ecological development that Debrecen was among the finalists of the European Green Capital competition.

The Prime Minister also spoke about Debrecen’s green aspirations. The BMW plant in Debrecen was handed over on Friday, where Prime Minister Viktor Orbán highlighted that the factory alone will create 3,000 jobs in Debrecen, and he congratulated the city on the fact that industrial development is being achieved in such a way that Debrecen has been included among the three finalists of the European Green Capital competition.

After the Prime Minister, Mayor László Papp also responded to Médiacentrum Debrecen regarding the upcoming final.

“Since we crowned last week with the handover of the BMW plant, I hope we will start this week with winning the title of European Green Capital, but the fact that we are in the TOP 3 is already a huge achievement in itself. In Debrecen, the past 10 years have been fundamentally about economic development, but we knew and were aware throughout that we can only be successful in terms of economic development if the city’s livability, environmental protection, and sustainable aspects are at least as important, and we pay sufficient attention to these. We did this, and thanks to this, Debrecen is among the finalist cities,” he stated.

The winners will be announced in this year’s European Green Capital, Vilnius, Lithuania, on October 2. The award also comes with a cash prize of EUR 600 thousand.

Source:dehir.hu | Photo credit:DMJV