The European institutions underwent a big renovation round in 2019: a new European Parliament was elected in May and a new Commission was formed and finally came into office in December. This has been a great opportunity for the cycling community to make sure it is well represented in the key decision-making powers in Europe.
In April 2019, we published our Election Manifesto: Cycling for the 2020s. It included 4 policy goals and 10 recommendations for the decade to come.
Based on that document, we campaigned MEP candidates from all over Europe to pledge they would support cycling in the Parliament, if elected. Over 400 of them declared the would be willing to "support the cause of cycling during the 2019-2024 European Parliamentary term". Our post-election analysis also confirmed the support is cross-party.
79 out of those 404 who signed ECF pledge were actually elected. Meaning that more than 10% of the current Members of the European Parliament committed to being cycling champions. More than any other European elections, the ones in 2019 were characterised by a strong mandate to green policies.
In July, Ursula von der Leyen is appointed President-elect of the European Commission. In her nomination speech, she promised a "green deal" for the EU in her first 100 days in office and said she wanted Europe to be first the carbon-neutral continent by 2050.
ECF organised Vive le Velo, an introductory event that allowed the new Brussels cycling community to gather and start planning future actions together.