Janko Večerina, President of Sindikat Biciklista opened the meeting and welcomed the delegates to the Croatian capital, highlighting the importance of holding such an event in a city like Zagreb, which will surely act as a catalyst to further strengthen the ongoing cycling developments. Henk Swarttouw, ECF President, welcomed the participants and thanked the local hosts, as well as the ECF members for their ongoing support and advocacy action, particularly with regard to the landmark signing of the EU Cycling Declaration, an achievement the whole community should be proud of. Jill Warren, ECF CEO, in turn also gave a warm welcome, thanking the Board, Staff and members for their support and dedication in advancing ECF’s agenda. 

ECF was very grateful to host Mr Andro Pavuna, Head of City Office for Municipal Government, Transport, Civil Protection and Security at the City of Zagreb, a proud member of ECF’s Cities & Regions for Cyclists, for a keynote speech. A keen cyclist himself, Mr Pavuna outlined the improvements to the city’s cycling infrastructure in recent years. Following a big earthquake four years ago, the reconstruction of the city is now being used as an opportunity to reallocate space to active mobility. Recognising the importance of cycling as an inclusive mode of transport, especially in the era of galloping inflation, Mr Pavuna explained that the city is focusing on improving the quality of infrastructure, separating cyclists from both pedestrians and motorised vehicles, and creating comfortable junctions, crossings and traffic lights. Finally, Mr Pavuna announced that in the next few days construction will start on a brand-new cycle highway underneath a railway overpass, with the removal of car parking foreseen as part of the development. Another project is the installation of cycling infrastructure along the river, and a public awareness raising campaign. Closing his speech, Mr Pavuna invited delegates to “discover Zagreb on two wheels and two legs”, confident that together we can achieve our common goal of a more cycle-friendly and more people-friendly Europe.

Left: Keynote speech by Mr. Andro Pavuna, City of Zagreb / Right: Mr. Janko Večerina, Sindikat Biciklista, Mr. Tomislav Tomašević, Mayor City of Zagreb, Henk Swarttouw, ECF 

ECF in 2024 and beyond

Jill Warren, ECF CEO and Jan Vermeulen, ECF Board Member and Treasurer presented last year’s annual and financial reports as well as the organisation’s plans for the year ahead. In presenting the ECF Annual Report 2023, Jill placed special emphasis on arguably the most important advocacy success of ECF in recent years, the European Declaration on Cycling, which is expected to act as a strategic compass to pave the way to more support and funding for cycling.

On an international level, ECF once again took the global cycling movement to the UN COP conference, successfully putting cycling on the agenda for transport decarbonisation. For 2024, ECF priorities are to deliver on the objectives of our ECF 2030 Strategy by further advancing our core policy and legislative work, engaging in new projects, strengthening and expanding the ECF Members and Networks, developing new routes and services for EuroVelo, and executing a successful Velo-city 2024 Ghent. Finally, ECF welcomed three new Associate members since the last AGM; BYCS (Netherlands), Batumi Cycling Network (Georgia), and the Association of Slovenian E-bikers (Slovenia).

On the first day of the meeting, the ECF Board led an interactive workshop to receive input from members for ECF’s mid-term strategy 2030 review. The review aims to address challenges and opportunities that have arisen since the strategy was drafted pre-pandemic, and to reflect our increased level of ambition of the past few years. Four focus groups were held with topics ranging from fundraising to global engagement to membership development, with valuable insight offered by participants for the furthering of the Board’s work on the review.

On the second day, a panel discussion on How to make cycling an election issue was held featuring speakers from Cycling UK, Fietsersbond Netherlands, Sindikat Biciklista, and FIAB, and moderated by Philip Amaral, ECF Policy and Development Director. ECF’s campaign for the upcoming European Elections was presented, and representatives of the ECF members gave their accounts, experience and lessons learnt from election campaigns in their own countries at the local, regional and national levels.

Participants on a cycling tour 

The delegates were graciously hosted on Friday evening by the City of Zagreb at the iconic Dverce Palace, where they were warmly welcomed by Mayor Mr. Tomislav Tomašević. The ECF AGM 2024 concluded with a guided cycling tour of the city on Saturday afternoon. 

ECF wishes to thank our hosts, Sindikat Biciklista and City of Zagreb, as well as Nextbike for providing the participants with bicycles for the duration of the event.

ECF also held Board elections this year. Our members re-elected Henk Swarttouw as President, Graham Watson and Sidsel Birk Hjuler as board members, and elected Silvia Casorran to a first term as board member.