METREX Autumn Conference 2026
11-13 November 2026 , Metropolitan City of Rome Capital
Beyond Mobility: Thirty Years of Connecting Metropolitan Europe
Please note that the programme is provisional and may still be subject to changes.
Who governs what falls between our institutions?
From mobility and climate resilience to food systems, housing, territorial intelligence and urban–rural relations, metropolitan authorities are increasingly called upon to address challenges that do not fit neatly within traditional administrative or sectoral boundaries.
This question will provide a common thread throughout the three-day programme, connecting the discussions of METREX Expert and Network Groups, the experience of individual participants, Rome’s metropolitan challenges, and the reflections on METREX’s past and future.
Why Rome, why now?
As METREX celebrates its 30th anniversary, the Rome Conference offers an opportunity to reflect on three decades of metropolitan cooperation while asking a forward-looking question: what role should metropolitan authorities play in governing the transformations reshaping Europe?
Mobility provides an important entry point, but the challenges facing metropolitan areas extend far beyond transport. Climate adaptation, digital transformation, demographic change, territorial competitiveness, housing pressures, food systems, urban–rural relations and expectations around quality of life are increasingly interconnected.
These interdependencies are particularly visible in metropolitan and peri-urban territories, where people, economic activities, services, environmental systems and mobility flows routinely cross administrative and institutional boundaries. Yet policies and governance arrangements often remain organised within separate sectors and jurisdictions.
The Metropolitan City of Rome Capital offers a particularly relevant setting in which to explore this challenge. Through European projects including BIO-INTEL-MOB, PROWD and FOODGaP, and through a portfolio of policy instruments currently being developed or reviewed — including the Metropolitan Strategic Plan, the Sustainable Urban Mobility Plan, the Climate and Energy Strategy, the Metropolitan Agenda for Sustainable Development, and urban–rural and food governance initiatives — Rome is confronting many of these interconnections in practice.
The Conference will therefore place Rome’s questions and policy instruments on the table for peer exchange, collaborative learning and collective reflection.
At the same time, the 30th anniversary allows METREX to turn this practical discussion into a wider political reflection on the role metropolitan authorities should play in the next phase of European territorial development.
One conference, three interconnected outputs
The programme is organised around three complementary strands, running throughout the three days and converging in the closing session on Friday. Together, they give the Conference a political, practical and commemorative dimension.
1. THE ROME DECLARATION
From metropolitan experience to a shared political position
The first strand gives the Conference a collective political purpose.
Starting from the framing question — Who governs what falls between our institutions? — participants will contribute throughout the programme to a concise Rome Declaration on the role of metropolitan authorities in the 2028–2034 National and Regional Partnership Plans.
The Declaration will emerge progressively from the Conference. METREX Expert and Network Groups will each be invited to contribute one key message from their specific perspective, while discussions, site visits and the Metropolitan Labs will provide practical evidence on where stronger metropolitan coordination is needed and what metropolitan authorities can contribute.
Output:
A one-page METREX political position on the role and recognition of metropolitan authorities in the emerging European governance and funding framework.
2. PEER RECOMMENDATIONS TO THE METROPOLITAN CITY OF ROME CAPITAL
From conference debate to practical metropolitan learning
The second strand translates the conference theme into practical peer learning.
Rather than presenting Rome only as the host or as a case study, the Metropolitan City will invite METREX members and partners to work directly on live metropolitan challenges and policy instruments.
The Thursday Metropolitan Labs will function as structured peer-review sessions, based on a short challenge brief or relevant policy document circulated in advance.
Each Lab will produce a small number of concise and actionable recommendations. These will serve a dual purpose: providing peer perspectives for Rome’s live policy instruments, while also generating practical insights that can inform the broader political discussion leading to the Rome Declaration.
Output:
A concise set of peer recommendations for Rome’s interconnected metropolitan policies and governance instruments.
3. THE ANNIVERSARY RECORD
Thirty years behind us — thirty years ahead
The third strand creates a collective record of METREX at 30.
Rather than concentrating the anniversary in a single ceremony, participants will be invited throughout the Conference to contribute to a collaborative reflection on the Network’s past, present and future.
The anniversary programme will combine memories, visual storytelling and future-oriented reflection. Through short interviews, a member exhibition, postcards and letters to 2056, and a collaborative Futures Wall, participants will look back at how metropolitan regions and METREX have evolved over the past 30 years while imagining the priorities and transformations that should shape the next 30.
Output:
A collective record of METREX at 30 — connecting what the Network has learned since 1996 with the metropolitan Europe it wants to help shape by 2056.
Please note that the programme is provisional and may still be subject to changes.
18:00–18:45 — Walking visit: the Metro C archaeomuseum-stations
Meeting point: Colosseo/Fori Imperiali Metrostation (info will follow)
Transfer via metro.
19:00–20:30 — Informal welcome drinks
Venue: tbc
Drinks at own expense.
Please note that the programme is provisional and may still be subject to changes.
08:30–09:00 — Registration and welcome coffee
Late arrivals can register at any point during the day.
09:00–09:15 — Welcome
Thematic introduction and presentation of the conference structure.
09:15–09:45 — Speed networking
One question: What is the hardest boundary you have to govern across?
Format: Three rotations of seven minutes.
Starting from the conference framing question, participants (individually or gathered per member organization) are invited to identify the most difficult boundary they face in their daily work.
This will represent the first step in exploring the conference theme through their own metropolitan experience.
09:45–11:15 — Expert and Network Group working meetings — Round 1
Expert and Network Groups are invited to reflect on the conference framing question, discuss its implications from their perspective and identify one key message contributing to the Rome Declaration.
Each group nominates a rapporteur.
11:15–11:45 — Coffee
11:45–13:15 — Expert and Network Group working meetings — Round 2
Expert and Network Groups are invited to reflect on the conference framing question, discuss its implications from their perspective and identify one key message contributing to the Rome Declaration. Each group nominates a rapporteur.
13:15–14:15 — Lunch
14:15–18:00 — Site visits
18:00–19:00 — Official Opening Ceremony and 30th Anniversary of METREX
Venue: Palazzo Valentini (tbc)
Introduction to the conference framing question.
Rome’s question to Europe:
How can metropolitan authorities reconnect territories, policies and people in order to govern interconnected transitions and improve everyday life?
19:00–21:00 — Dinner
20:00 — Daily summary published
Please note that the programme is provisional and may still be subject to changes.
08:30–09:00 — Registration and welcome coffee
09:00–09:10 — Opening of the day
09:10–09:55 — Anniversary keynote: thirty years of metropolitan Europe, and the next thirty
09:55–11:00 — The Rome Perspective — a challenge session
From sectoral policies to integrated metropolitan governance. How the Metropolitan City of Rome Capital is connecting the Metropolitan Strategic Plan, the PUMS, the Climate and Energy Strategy, the Metropolitan Agenda for Sustainable Development, and its urban–rural and food governance instruments.
11:00–11:30 — Coffee break
11:30–12:45 — Local case – discussion
12:45–14:15 — Lunch break
14:15–16:15 — Metropolitan Labs
Parallel working sessions
Each lab works on a real CmRC document, or dilemma circulated one week in advance.
Each lab is chaired by a moderator and observed by a rapporteur.
Metropolitan Lab 1 — Proximity, accessibility and everyday life: beyond the 15-minute city
On the table: the metropolitan PUMS and accessibility in low-density municipalities.
Anchor project: PROWD.
Is mobility always the answer, or should metropolitan policy focus on proximity? What role for local centres and community-based services? How are territorial cohesion, quality of life and climate objectives reconciled? What transfers to other metropolitan areas?
Metropolitan Lab 2 — Metropolitan intelligence for the next generation of governance
On the table: the data and monitoring architecture of the Strategic Plan.
Anchor project: BIO-INTEL-MOB.
How can authorities use data, AI and digital twins in decision-making? What are the risks of data-driven governance? Can technology deliver climate-neutral mobility and better everyday life at once? What territorial intelligence is actually needed?
Metropolitan Lab 3 — Reconnecting Territories: Urban, Peri-Urban and Rural Food systems, territorial resilience and metropolitan governance
On the table: urban–rural and food governance in the Metropolitan Agenda.
Anchor project: FOODGaP.
This project offers a very practical example of integrated metropolitan governance, linking urban-rural relations, territorial resilience, stakeholder participation and policy coherence.
How can metropolitan authorities help reconnect territories, actors and policies through the domain of the food systems (implying local supply chains, proximity services, logistics and connectivity)?
16:15–16:45 — Coffee
16:45–17:45 — Harvest plenary and first reading of the Rome Declaration
Rapporteurs from the ten Expert and Network Groups and the three Metropolitan Labs will present the key outcomes of their discussions, highlighting the main messages and proposed contributions to the Rome Declaration.
17:45–19:30 — Free time
19:30 — 30th Anniversary Dinner
Offered by METREX
20:00 — Daily summary published
Please note that the programme is provisional and may still be subject to changes.
The conference closes at 12:30; a farewell lunch is served until 14:00. Please book departures accordingly.
08:45–09:00 — Welcome coffee
09:00–10:30 — METREX General Assembly
Members only.
10:30–11:00 — Coffee break
11:00–12:15 — Closing plenary
Handover of the recommendations resulted from the Metropolitan Labs to the Metropolitan City of Rome Capital.
Main learnings from the three days, and what they mean for Rome’s interconnected policy instruments.
Adoption of the (draft) Rome Declaration. Signature by the President and the host; list of signatory regions published the same day and transmitted to the Presidency of the Council, the European Commission, the Committee of the Regions and members’ national administrations.
Announcement of the METREX Spring 2027 conference host.
12:15–12:30 — Closing remarks
12:30–14:00 — Farewell lunch
More info about the programme, moderators, and rapporteurs will follow soon.
On the table: the metropolitan PUMS and accessibility in low-density municipalities.
Anchor project: PROWD
The challenge
Is mobility always the answer, or should metropolitan policy focus on proximity? What role for local centres and community-based services? How are territorial cohesion, quality of life and climate objectives reconciled? What transfers to other metropolitan areas?
About PROWD — Proximity without Density
PROWD investigates how the “15-minute city” can be adapted to low-density urban and peri-urban areas: improving access to services, reducing car dependency and strengthening local communities through participatory planning.
Status: In progress.
More info about the programme, moderators, and rapporteurs will follow soon.
On the table: the data and monitoring architecture of the Strategic Plan.
Anchor project: BIO-INTEL-MOB
The challenge
How can authorities use data, AI and digital twins in decision-making? What are the risks of data-driven governance? Can technology deliver climate-neutral mobility and better everyday life at once? What territorial intelligence is actually needed?
About BIO-INTEL-MOB
BIO-INTEL-MOB integrates sustainable mobility and logistics with citizen-centric intelligent solutions. It explores how artificial intelligence, digital twins, mobility data spaces and innovative logistics can support climate-neutral mobility in peri-urban territories, combining technological innovation with participatory governance.
Status: Project starting.
More info about the programme, moderators, and rapporteurs will follow soon.
On the table: urban–rural and food governance in the Metropolitan Agenda.
Anchor project: FOODGaP
This project offers a very practical example of integrated metropolitan governance, linking urban-rural relations, territorial resilience, stakeholder participation and policy coherence.
The challenge
How can metropolitan authorities help reconnect territories, actors and policies through the domain of the food systems (implying local supply chains, proximity services, logistics and connectivity)?
About FOODGaP — Food Governance and Policies at local level
FOODGaP focuses on local food governance and stakeholder participation, with relevance far beyond food policy: urban–rural linkages, sustainable procurement, resilient supply chains and integrated territorial planning — an example of how food systems contribute to territorial resilience, social inclusion and policy coherence.
Status: In progress.
Further information, including the programme and registration details, will follow soon
