The European Commission's Sustainable Urban Mobility Plan Award was launched in 2012, successfully repeated in 2013 and presented for a third time in 2014. The aim of the award scheme is to encourage the adoption of Sustainable Urban Mobility Plans (SUMPs) by local authorities across Europe and to reward outstanding achievements in each year’s SUMP Award thematic priority area.

The 2014 edition looked at monitoring the implementation to improve the SUMP. The 2014 winner was the German city of Bremen, which was recognised for its creative methods in monitoring and evaluating its SUMP. In addition to excellent planning and providing tools for monitoring and evaluation early, Bremen co-operated closely with local stakeholders, peer cities and networks during the preparation of its SUMP, which was adopted in 2014. 

Bremen had to hold-off strong entries from finalists Dresden (Germany) and Ghent (Belgium). Dresden was praised for its highly systematic approach for the development of a monitoring and evaluation framework, is strong in its provision of tools and has carefully selected relevant indicators.

Ghent has built up almost 30 years of SUMP practice and was recognised for its outstanding data collection from local authorities and other sources that enable it to create a high-quality monitoring and evaluation process.