At the GovTech 4 Impact World Congress 2026 in Madrid, city leaders, institutional partners and international organisations came together for the first edition of the Mayors’ Leadership Forum, an initiative focused on accelerating the digital transformation of cities through coordinated GovTech action.
The Forum brought together representatives from cities across Europe and the United States, alongside organisations including CEMR, the European Commission and the LDT CitiVERSE EDIC, with a shared objective: moving beyond fragmented digital initiatives towards a more coordinated and scalable GovTech ecosystem.
A central outcome of the Forum was the launch of the GovTech Manifesto and its accompanying Action Plan, which outline a practical framework for how cities and public administrations can collaborate more effectively around digital transformation.
Rather than focusing only on technology adoption, the initiative positions cities and regions as active market shapers, capable of driving innovation through coordinated demand, shared standards, procurement strategies and interoperable digital infrastructures.
The Manifesto highlights a growing challenge across Europe: while investments in AI, data spaces and digital infrastructure continue to increase, public sector innovation often remains fragmented, difficult to scale and slowed down by complex procurement and compliance processes.
The proposed approach focuses on creating the conditions needed for implementation at scale. This includes:
- Shared and reusable solutions for common societal challenges
- Coordinated procurement approaches between cities
- Interoperable GovTech market infrastructures
- Compliance and validation mechanisms
- Stronger public-private collaboration ecosystems
- Continuous learning and capacity building for governments
The accompanying Action Plan translates these ambitions into seven concrete implementation building blocks, designed to be developed collaboratively by participating cities and institutional partners over the coming year.
A recurring message throughout the Forum was that the challenge is no longer technological capability, but governance, coordination and execution capacity.
As cities face increasing pressure linked to climate adaptation, housing, mobility, public services and digital sovereignty, the Forum reinforced the idea that collaboration between cities, regions and European institutions will be essential to scale innovation in a structured and sustainable way.
The initiative is designed as an operational coalition rather than a one-off discussion platform. Participating cities and partners will now work on translating the Action Plan into practical implementation pathways, with progress expected to be presented at the next edition of the Forum.
For the LDT CitiVERSE EDIC, the Forum confirmed the growing need for shared European implementation frameworks that help cities move beyond isolated pilot projects towards scalable deployment. Many of the themes discussed, including interoperability, coordinated procurement, sandboxes and capacity building, are closely aligned with the operational approach currently being developed through the EDIC ecosystem.
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