Winners
Winners of 2026 Award
For its fifth year running, this year's winners show what inclusion looks like when it moves from ambition to action. With focused teams, clear plans, and proven results, they’re creating communities where more people truly belong. On 21 April 2026, in Brussels, eight local authorities from five EU countries were recognised for their work at the award ceremony of the European Capitals of Diversity and Inclusion Award.
Learn more about their journey and their story below.
Winners 2026 - Videos
Cities with More than 50 000 inhabitants
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Józsefváros, Budapest’s 8th District (Hungary) Gold: Józsefváros, Budapest's 8th district (Hungary) - Józsefváros has built a borough-wide Equal Opportunities Programme with dedicated teams working on Roma inclusion, accessibility for persons with disabilities and equal access to public services. |
Leuven (Belgium) Silver: Leuven (Belgium) - Leuven tackles discrimination on multiple fronts through local regulations, staff training, and tools developed in collaboration with community organisations. |
Leiden (The Netherlands) Bronze: Leiden (The Netherlands) - Leiden backs its inclusion commitments with resources, strong coordination across city departments, and partnerships that reach every neighbourhood. |
Cities with Less than 50 000 inhabitants
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Errenteria (Spain) Gold: Errenteria (Spain) - In Errenteria, communities co-create inclusion policies. This co-governance approach has delivered measurable progress in labour inclusion and social participation. |
Orio (Spain) Silver: Orio (Spain) - Orio has woven inclusion into how the city is run, with clear targets, dedicated budgets, and oversight by residents themselves. |
San Xoán de Río (Spain) Bronze: San Xoán de Río (Spain) - A small municipality with big ambitions! San Xoán de Río invests in accessibility, support for older residents, and tackling the challenges of rural life. |
Specific Award – Building an Inclusive Labour Market for All
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Errenteria (Spain) Gold: Errenteria (Spain) - Errenteria's programmes help people get their skills recognised, formalise care work, and strengthen the local economy to ensure it benefits everyone. |
Orio (Spain) Silver: Orio (Spain) - Orio uses public procurement and local employment policies as practical tools to open up the labour market. |
Metropolitan City of Milan (Italy) Bronze: Metropolitan City of Milan (Italy) - The Metropolitan City of Milan runs large-scale programmes promoting gender equality at work and employment for persons with disabilities. |
Public Vote Award
Marsicovetere (Italy) - Chosen by the public for its strong local engagement and hands-on commitment to building an inclusive community.
Winners of 2025 Award
The nine winning towns, cities and regions stand out in a strong field of shortlisted candidates for their contribution to a more equal and inclusive Europe. They have demonstrated creativity and commitment in implementing a breadth of initiatives to advance outcomes of equal inclusion for people across the diversity of age, racial or ethnic origin, religion or belief, sex, disability, and LGBTIQ, and underpinning these with effective strategies, institutional structures and organisational systems.
The winners came from six EU countries and included Utrecht, Bilbao, Kraków, the Town of Mariehamn, Usurbil, Settimo Torinese, Braga, Gualdo Tadino and Zaragoza.
Learn more about their journey and their story below.
Winners 2025 - Videos
Less than 50 000 inhabitants
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🥇Mariehamn |
🥈Usurbil |
🥉Settimo Torinese |
More than 50.000 inhabitants
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🥇Utrecht |
🥈Bilbao |
🥉Kraków |
Specific Award – inclusive housing
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🥇Braga |
🥈Gualdo Tadino |
🥉Zaragoza |
Learn more from the previous gold winners
After receiving the gold award in 2025, these cities: Utrecht (NL), the Town of Mariehamn (FI) and Braga (PT) have been actively evolving their inclusion policies. How has the recognition impacted their approaches to diversity? What changes have they made over the past year? We invite you to read their stories in the articles below:
- Utrecht - Local authorities with more than 50,000 inhabitants
- The Town of Mariehamn - Local authorities with less than 50,000 inhabitants
- Braga - Special award for local authorities: inclusive housing
Looking for more inspiration? Do not hesitate to read about the 2024 gold winners:
- Zagreb - Local authorities with more than 50,000 inhabitants
- Corbetta - Local authorities with less than 50,000 inhabitants
- Ljubljana - Special award for local authorities that enable safe towns, cities and regions for women in all their diversity
In this Collection of best practices of previous shortlisted and winners of the Award, you can discover even more outstanding efforts and commitment of local authorities around the EU to promote equality, diversity and inclusion.