Nine greenways from France, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Poland, Portugal, Spain, and United Kingdom, have been awarded as reference of best practices in Europe. The Award ceremony was held in in Abanto-Zierbena, a small locality in Bizkaia province that lies in a unique natural setting, just 20 minutes from Bilbao.
The European Greenways Award was created in 2003 and has been held every two years since. The objective is to promote examples of best practices and to support their replication for other greenways all over Europe. The European Greenways Award is granted only to greenways under the Lille Declaration, as well as to initiatives already in existence.
EGWA has been delighted to receive 33 candidacies from 13 countries, the highest number of candidacies received so far and we warmly thank all participants for responding to the call.
In this 2025 edition the international jury meet online 18th June 2025, has awarded projects in three categories: “Excellence”, “Exemplary Initiatives” and “Green transition in Greenways”. This special award is part of the activities promoted by EGWA in the co-implem-entation of the Transition Pathway for Tourism, to recognise initiatives addressing green transition challenges in the greenways ecosystem, and to showcase how the green transition happens on the ground. Furthermore, the jury give a special Jury award.
In the Excellence cate-gory, on October 9th, Councillor Michael Collins picked up a Prize for Limerick Greenway.
“For creating a greenway that engages and supports local communities through economic and social development, while supporting biodiversity conservation. It has developed a Community Cluster model with local stakeholders to ensure that the greenway reflects and benefits the unique identity of each town it connects, through the greenway nodes.
The 40km Limerick scenic greenway, converted from a disused railway line, stands out as an exemplary application for its holistic, inclusive and forward-looking approach to rural regeneration, sustainable tourism and community wellbeing. It has achieved a great success, in terms of users and economic and social impact.”
Councillor Collins said “I was delighted to be in Bilbao for the 12th European Greenway Awards 2025. To receive 3rd prize out of all the European applicants is a wonderful achievement. We take great pride in our Greenway here in Limerick and as an avid user of the greenway on a regular basis it’s great to see all the hard work and commitments by our local authority being recognised.”