Budapest to Launch City Diplomacy Academy

The leadership of the Hungarian capital will launch a city diplomacy academy this fall, Mayor Gergely Karácsony has announced.

The mayor says the academy will provide a supply of city diplomats by introducing university students and recent graduates to international and city diplomacy, the Hungarian news agency MTI reports.

The head of the academy will be former Minister of Foreign Affairs and CEU professor Péter Balázs – a guarantee for the professional level.

According to the mayor, Budapest has been pursuing an active and ambitious city diplomacy since October last year, and the start of the academy is in order for this work to continue for many years to come.

Describing the city's diplomatic activities since last fall’s elections, the mayor says that they have built a European urban coalition and are jointly lobbying for direct funds at the European Union, “building a value-based free alliance of international cities on the basis of the Visegrád Four to protect our democracies. With the diaspora in Budapest, we exchange experiences on sustainable transport, smart cities, participatory budgets with our sister and partner cities around the world, we join the work of city diplomacy networks dealing with climate change.”