UBC Cities are invited to take part in UBC Safe Cities Commission meeting in Hamburg, 7-9 September 2026, and will be organized together with the EU Interreg CREWS project exercise. More information and registration will be provided closer to the meeting date.

The UBC Safe Cities Commission meeting will begin on Monday, September 7 at 15:00. The meeting will end on Tuesday, September 8 at 12:30. The main topics of the meeting are Volunteers in Crisis Management and the Results of the Questionnaire.

Additionally, the EU Interreg CREWS project will be presented.

The UBC Safe Cities Commission meeting will be followed by the CREWS project second pilot exercise that will take place September 8-9 to test the project results achieved so far.

The UBC Safe Cities Commission Meeting is intentionally scheduled directly before the exercise, so that members of the Safe Cities Commission can participate in the exercise on Tuesday afternoon and Wednesday (full day). Participation in the exercise is optional. As the UBC is part of the CREWS project as associated partner, participants of the UBC Safe Cities Commission meeting are kindly asked to also stay for the following CREWS pilot action in Hamburg. During the exercise (storm surge scenario), UBC Safe Cities Commission Members can be involved as spontaneous volunteers.

About the CREWS project

Within CREWS, 12 project partners are working together to integrate volunteers – both organised volunteers and spontaneous helpers – into crisis management by authorities. As part of this, a cooperation model, training sessions, and a digital tool for the registration and alerting of spontaneous volunteers are being developed and tested. More information: CREWS – Interreg Baltic Sea Region https://interreg-baltic.eu/project/crews/

Invitation to fill in a questionnaire

To help us strengthen the work of the UBC Safe Cities Commission and ensure that our activities reflect the needs and priorities of all member cities, we kindly invite you to complete a questionnaire. Your feedback will help us improve the content, structure, and relevance of future meetings, projects, and cooperation formats.

This survey may be filled in by any official representative of your city in the UBC, not only those directly involved in the Safe Cities Commission. We aim to better understand your city’s interests, expectations, and capacity for engagement so we can design more meaningful and effective collaboration across the UBC network.

Your insights are highly valued and will directly contribute to shaping future UBC Safe Cities Commission activities.

More information:
Kaspars Vārpiņš
UBC Safe Cities Commission Chairman
kaspars.varpins@liepaja.lv