We received several recognitions at the award ceremony of the international competition Emerging Europe Awards 2019 in London. For the LGBT certificate we received the first award for the best equality-friendly initiative; in the category business-friendly cities we are sharing the first place with Prague in the quality of life subcategory.

LGBT-friendly is the best equality-friendly initiative

In the category best equality-friendly initiative expert jury members recognised our project LGBT-friendly as the best.
LGBT-Friendly is an initiative of the City of Ljubljana developed in 2014 in cooperation with experts in the field and non-governmental organisations with the aim of raising awareness about the rights of LGBT+ individuals and creating an inclusive environment for all.
Within the framework of the initiative we award LGBT-friendly certificates each year, and their recipients commit, after completing their training, among other things, that their organisation will ensure better understanding of the basic human rights of LGBT people and an inclusive environment for LGBT staff. So far already 39 organisations received the certificate. The list of the certificate recipients and other details about the certificate are available here.

Emerging Europe Awards

This year, the Emerging Europe Awards, with which organisers reward excellence, highlight good practices and promote raising standards in the region of »emerging Europe«, were presented in 13 categories. The City of Ljubljana sent in eight projects in different categories, out of them six were nominated for an award and shortlisted (among ten finalists in individual categories):

• Tourism Campaign of the Year: Moustache Tour (Ljubljana Tourism)
• Renewal Project of the Year: Writing Room (Regional Development Office of the Ljubljana Urban Region)
• Renewal Project of the Year: Renovation of the area of Slovenska cesta, Gosposvetska and Dalmatinova ulica (City of Ljubljana)
• Young Empowerment Initiative of the Year: City Incubator (Young Dragons)
• Equality-Friendly Initiative of the Year: LGBT-Friendly Certificate (City of Ljubljana)
• Young Influencer of the Year: Timotej Kotnik, musician and music programme manager of the international festival »play with me« (City of Ljubljana)

About the Emerging Europe platform

Emerging Europe is a business, research and media platform for the exchange of ideas on how to strengthen cooperation between 23 countries of Central and South-Eastern Europe and the Caucasus to promote investments and development as well as ensure a better future in this area. The platform brings together representatives of governments and local authorities, businesses, investors, non governmental organisations, academic communities and experts, policy makers and other stakeholders ensuring the transfer of model examples of development into a broader international environment.