The Mayor of Amaroussion
George Patoulis

Chairman of the Board
Hellenic Healthy Cities Network

Dear Friends from all over the world,

It is a great honour and privilege for the Municipality of Amaroussion and the Hellenic Healthy Cities Network to have been appointed to host the International Healthy Cities Conference “Health and the City: Urban living in the 21st Century”, which will be organised in Athens, Greece, on 22-25 October 2014.

This year’s international conference marks 25 years of implementation of the Healthy Cities programme in the European region of the WHO and the launch of the sixth 5-year phase, 2014-2018. It also marks the implementation of the new WHO agenda, “Health 2020”.

In the course of time, the WHO Healthy Cities Network has been a movement of inspiration, innovation, exchange of information and know-how and has brought the issue of health and quality of life to the top of the cities’ agenda.

The holistic approach of cities, the demonstration of the parameters affecting health and the way in which local authorities can influence and improve those parameters, have turned the Project into a substantially useful tool for politicians and city government executives. As years go by, the WHO Healthy Cities Network keeps developing and constantly gains new dynamics.

The Municipality of Amaroussion, located in the Greater Athens area, has adopted the project and has been utilizing the implementation of the “Healthy Cities” to the benefit of all its citizens.

The Hellenic Healthy Cities Network, is seeing a significant increase of its members (160 cities members at present) and aims at transferring knowhow to as many Greek cities as possible.

I firmly believe that this Conference, will constitute a milestone event, an opportunity to reflect on our past experience and get inspired for the future; it will be extremely useful to all of us and it will define our policy and strategy for the coming years.

It will be our great honor and pleasure to welcome you and host you in Athens.