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Energy Independence as a Municipal Matter: What the Forum in Portugal Showed
Guimarães — a city in northern Portugal with a population of 157,000 — hosted three hundred representatives from thirty countries at the annual Energy Cities forum in April. The forum ran for three days, from 28 to 30 April, and was built around the theme "Nurturing the Roots." Behind the title lies a concrete situation: the next EU budget promises cities fewer resources, and this was felt in most of the discussions. The organisation's president and mayor of Leuven, Belgium, Mohamed Ridouani, said that without genuine inclusion, the most vulnerable are left without protection and the most powerful without limits.