Valencia and Zaragoza, finalists for the Accessible City Award 2026

Piacenza (Italy), Rennes (France), Salzburg (Austria), Valencia (Spain) and Zaragoza (Spain) have been announced as finalists for the Accessible City Award 2026. These cities demonstrate a strong and sustained commitment to making urban life more accessible for people with disabilities, in areas such as access to the built environment and public spaces, public transport, facilities and services, as well as information and communication technologies.

Commissioner for Equality and Preparedness Hadja Lahbib said: “Each year, the Accessible City Award showcases the remarkable efforts of cities across Europe to create inclusive and accessible environments for people with disabilities. This milestone is not only a celebration of progress made, but a call to further improve accessibility and ensure that all citizens can participate fully in urban life. The extraordinary work of these cities shows that it can be done.

For this 16th edition of the Award, 51 cities applied. Among them, 18 candidates were shortlisted by national juries and the five finalists were shortlisted by an EU jury. In light of the current challenges related to housing supply across Europe, this year’s edition also includes a special mention for “housing accessibility”. The Commission may award additional special mentions to candidate cities that demonstrate exceptional achievements in specific areas.

The winners of the Accessible City Award 2026 will be announced at an award ceremony on 5 December 2025 during the European Day of People with Disabilities Conference, jointly organised by the European Commission and the European Disability Forum. Journalists can register to attend in person. The ceremony will start at 9.00 a.m. CET and will be broadcast live with international sign language interpretation, audio description and English subtitling.

More information: European Commission Representation in Spain