The City Council opts for 20 million European funds aimed at consolidating the sustainable city model and enhancing the value of the heritage.

The Consistory competes for the aid with the project ‘Estepona, garden of the Costa del Sol, green and sustainable city’, which aims to improve public facilities and services.

The Estepona City Council remains committed to the sustainable city model on which it has been working for the last decade. To this end, and with the aim of implementing new initiatives that promote progress towards modernization and transformation based on sustainability, will apply for a grant worth 20 million euros within the new call for European ERDF funds for Integrated Action Plans of Local Authorities.

The Consistory opts for this aid in the framework of Sustainable Urban Development, under the European Regional Development Fund in the programming period 2021-2027 (with implementation period until 2029), with the integrated action plan ‘Estepona, garden of the Costa del Sol, green and sustainable city. The project budget is 20 million euros, 85% financed with ERDF funds and 15% by the City Council itself. The healthy situation of the municipal coffers, up to date in payments to both the Treasury and Social Security and with a record surplus, allows the city to compete for this new call for aid.

With this initiative, Estepona intends to follow a continuous line of progress towards modernization and sustainable transformation based on planning and strategy, betting on consolidating the revitalization of the urban center, as an emblem of revival of the city, and continue to be the Garden of the Costa del Sol. In this way, it aims to continue working on the model of green and sustainable city, promoting actions for the protection, recovery and enhancement of the natural, archaeological, historical and ethnological heritage of the city. It also aims to continue renaturalizing and regenerating the city with a continuous process of improvement and urban transformation, improving public facilities and services, and being resilient to climate change through prevention measures, awareness, efficiency and savings in energy and water consumption.

Thus, among the measures to be promoted within this new initiative are improving the provision of municipal services and facilities through a compact and balanced distribution throughout the municipality, providing new spaces for the development of sports and other healthy activities and adapting the existing ones to meet the demand for the future, prevent and reduce the various effects of climate change in the municipality, promote a low-carbon urban model with measures to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, boost and

promote local commerce and local products, or promote the integration of digital tools by the Public Administration.

Specifically, the Estepona Integrated Plan incorporates actions such as the creation of new river corridors, energy rehabilitation in public buildings, the development of photovoltaic systems in municipal infrastructures, the creation of green areas, new exhibitions, cultural and leisure events in Mirador del Carmen, sports projects or the commercial revitalization and recovery of urban spaces, initiatives that have taken into account the interest of citizens.

Estepona has been one of the Andalusian local administrations with the highest degree of execution of the European aid obtained in the 2016 call through the European Regional Development Funds for Sustainable and Integrated Urban Development (ERDF-EDUSI), with almost 90% of the total of the 10 million granted. The project, which was carried out with municipal co-financing at 20%, contemplated the consolidation of the old town as one of the main tourist attractions of the city, the improvement of public equipment and facilities and the modernization of municipal offices through the incorporation of new technologies.