The Polish cities of Gdańsk, Kraków, Rzeszów and Warsaw are in a group of 16 cities which have qualified for the European Green Capital Award 2023.

Among the nominees are also Belgrade (Serbia), Cagliari (Italy), Dublin (Ireland), Gaziantep (Turkey), Helsingborg (Sweden), Izmir (Turkey), Košice (Slovakia), Logrono (Spain), Skopje (North Macedonia), Sofia (Bulgaria), Tallinn (Estonia) and Zagreb (Croatia).

The cities will be assessed by independent experts in twelve categories including water quality, sewage management, city energy balance, urban transport, public space management, green development and noise.

The award is presented to cities which consistently achieve high environmental standards and are committed to further improvement and sustainability.

The title of the European Green Capital is awarded to cities with populations above 100,000, two years in advance of the award year (in 2020 for 2022, in 2021 for 2023).

The finalists will be announced in April. The winner of the competition will receive EUR 600,000, and the finalists will get EUR 200,000, which they can spend on projects related to sustainable development.

In the past, the southern Polish city of Kraków had also qualified for the European Green Capital Award 2022 title, placing fifth.