The IV European Greenways awards have been given on October the 9th 2009 on the official ceremony at the Centre Culturel “TRIANGEL” in St Vith, (Belgium).
Download the press release
The international Jury for the IV European Greenways Award met on Brussels on September the 14th and selected the six greenways awarded in the 2009 edition. The Award proposes to promote examples of best practices in greenways, to encourage the qualitative development of these new facilities open to the general public in Europe, that are “Communication routes reserved exclusively for non-motorised journeys. These routes should meet satisfactory standards of width, gradient, and surface condition to ensure that they are both user-friendly and low-risk for users of all abilities. The use of disused railway lines and canal towpaths will be critical”.
This 4th award has been organized by the European Greenways Association (EGWA) and the Ministry of Tourism of the German Community of Belgium, with the support of the Walloon Region, Spanish Biodiversity Foundation and the DG of Enterprise and Industry of the EU. The EGWA has been delighted to receive 21 candidacies from 10 countries.
EGA was created in 2003 and has been held biennially in 2005 and 2007. In this edition the awards have recognised projects in two categories: Mobility and Sustainable development & Tourism.
The high quality of the projects presented made it difficult for the members of the jury to choose the winners. Finally the Jury decided to award the following projects.
Mobility Category:
- 1st Prize: Comber Greenway (UK) – An example of integrated mobility approach between Belfast and Comber. This award also wants to give support to their work, and to secure their future, as they are facing the proposal of converting the corridor into a route for Bus Rapid Transit.
- 2nd Prize: Pilsen Greenways (Czech Republic) – Example of an urban greenway that takes advantage of the natural radial network systems composed by 4 rivers for planning a secure urban mobility scheme.
- 3rd Prize: The jury declare this prize void
Sustainable Development and Tourism Category:
- 1st Prize: Via Verde de la Sierra (Spain). Example of Sustainable Development and tourism & local generation of employment in an isolated and depressed rural area.
- 2nd Prize: Voie Verte des Gaves (France). Example of promotion the tourism for all, with special actions developed to facilitate the accessibility for disabled people, near Lourdes.
- 3rd Prize : Voie Verte Questembert/Mauron (Dep. Morbihan) (France). Example of project for attracting tourism in interior areas and diversifying seaside offers.
The Jury decide to give a
- 4th Prize to Ecopista do Minho (Portugal).Example of promising greenway close of the international border.
Due to the high quality and excellence demonstrated by some of the candidates,the jury decided to give a special mention to two more projects that had an interesting and quality approach.
- Eifel-Ardennen « Vennbahn » greenways - (Belgium/Germany) Example of international Cooperation.
- Water Rail Way Linconshire - (UK) Example of Local Development component
A cycle ride took place on Saturday the 10th to discover the cross border greenways “Eifel- Ardennen”, implemented on the historical former railway known as “Vennbahn”, that connects Germany, Belgium and Great Duchy of Luxembourg.
The organization wishes to thank all the candidates for the quality of their work and the effort done to provide to the jury the best information for their decision
