On Wednesday, 24 October, the Government of Navarre has joined to ECF’s network Cities & Regions for Cyclists, confirming its interest in promoting cycling infrastructure, bicycle tourism, and the sustainable development of rural areas.

The promotion of cycling as a means of transport or recreation in harmony with the environment and local development is a transversal strategy for the Government of Navarre. This was also demonstrated by the integration of cycle tourism as a mean to create economic growth in rural areas in the programme of the Region’s Working Day on Green Entrepreneurship on 23 October.

Based on its special status as a Chartered Community with prerogatives in the field of tax policy, the Government of Navarre is also considering introducing fiscal incentives for cycling in the framework of a comprehensive energy transition and climate change law. This would set a positive precedent for the rest of Spain.

Regarding cycle tourism, Navarre’s membership reinforces the Atlantic on Bike project (a European project with the participation of 6 countries whose objective is the creation of a tourist destination around the EuroVelo 1 cycle route) and Ederbidea (a cooperation project with Gipuzkoa province and the French Atlantic Pyrenees Department to promote mobility by bicycle), on which the Department of Economic Development has been working in recent years, especially in the adaptation of cycle routes, also for tourist use. Therefore, the public company Nasuvinsa, through Lursarea, Agencia Navarra de la Sostenibilidad, was considered best placed to sign the adhesion that affects several of the departments of the Government of Navarra.

The objective of the Cities & Regions for Cyclists network is to establish a global community of cities and regions working to promote cycling and to encourage the exchange of knowledge among them for:

• placing the bicycle at the centre of urban and regional planning and political thinking;
• inspiring and catalysing more cities and regions to take concrete steps in promoting cycling, learning from each other and avoiding the dilemma of having to "reinvent the wheel";
• exchanging knowledge, solutions and strategies, thus promoting policy initiatives and practical work on the ground;
• promoting and supporting a change in planning policies and practices in cities and regions, and to introduce a bicycle-friendly perspective into these processes.