<h6><strong>Ane Barcos</strong></h6> <h4><strong>The city of Bilbao has been recognized with the Silver Award in the 2025 European Capitals of Inclusion and Diversity Awards, in the category of municipalities with more than 50,000 inhabitants. This award, granted by the European Commission, highlights the intersectional and values-based approach the city has implemented in key areas such as employment, education, transport, security, youth, and sport.</strong></h4> The awards ceremony took place this Wednesday in Brussels as part of the launch of European Diversity Month 2025, an annual campaign to highlight and celebrate the efforts of cities and municipalities across the European Union in combating discrimination and promoting inclusive environments. In this edition, Bilbao shared the spotlight with Utrecht, Netherlands, which won the Gold Award for its comprehensive diversity and inclusion strategy, and Krakow, Poland, which received the Bronze Award for its policies supporting diverse groups in public spaces and social services. Although this award does not include a monetary prize, its value lies in the visibility it provides to the winning cities and the institutional recognition of their inclusive policies. The European Capitals of Inclusion and Diversity Awards celebrate and highlight good practices in creating inclusive and discrimination-free environments. The jury also recognized other European cities and municipalities in various categories, such as those for localities with fewer than 50,000 inhabitants and the specific award for inclusive housing. In the small municipalities category, the Gold Award went to the city of Mariehamn (Finland), while in the area of inclusive housing, Zaragoza received the Bronze Award for its multidimensional approach to preventing homelessness and improving access to housing for diverse individuals. These awards are part of the European Commission's efforts to advance toward a "Union of Equality," framed within strategies such as the Action Plan against Racism 2020-2025 and the LGBTIQ Equality Strategy 2020-2025. This initiative recognizes the work of cities that implement measures to prevent discrimination based on sex, racial or ethnic origin, religion, disability, age, or sexual orientation. The selection process included a detailed evaluation of each application, assessing aspects such as the quality of the initiatives, the level of institutional and citizen involvement, and attention to intersectionality. As a complement to these recognitions, the Commission recently launched two public consultations to define future European equality strategies, focusing on the LGBTIQ community and the fight against racism. These consultations will be open to citizen contributions until the end of June and the beginning of July, respectively.
