The mayor made his remarks following a meeting Tuesday in Brussels with Patrick Child, the EU Commission's Deputy Director-General for Environment, which focused on the implementation of the European Green Deal for cities, and related European initiatives.

"In the same way, we want to strengthen the work of the network of all Green Capitals and launch a Centre of Excellence for Sustainable Governance," Kõlvart said.

Today's meeting was also a confirmation that our cooperation with the European Commission will be very close and meaningful," the mayor added, via a Tallinn City Government press release.

Patrick Child, the European Commission's Deputy Director-General for Environment, said the European Green Capital objectives are much broader than that of climate-neutral cities.

Child said: "The European Green Capital will also include nature conservation, urban green spaces and biodiversity."

"Cities therefore have a very important role to play in the implementation of the European Green Deal, and Tallinn, as the European Green Capital 2023, will play an advocacy role," he went on.

Tallinn's 2023 European Green Capital Action Plan and support for green innovation as one of Tallinn's priorities were on the table at the meeting, as was the European CleanTech Forum and the Green Technologies EXPO, to be held in Tallinn next November. 

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