„SMART CITY” - A CHALLENGE FOR THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE COOPERATION MECHANISM BETWEEN EUROPEAN CITIES

Through this article we wish to emphasize the concept of “smart city” proposed by a new model of ranking cities, especially designed for medium-sized cities. In the beginning we approached the undervalued potential and the urged to identify the development possibilities. The Smart City Ranking responds to these requirements, and comes with a strategic view for middle-sized cities to leave the shade of the big metropolises. Ranking using six characteristics is the innovative element of the model, but collecting and processing data can turn out to be difficult outside some principles, or values. That is why we proposed fundamental values like: transparency, responsibility, flexibility, sustainability, competitivity, benchmarking. The next part of the article approached the smart city final ranking and we used examples to explain some of the positioned cities in the hierarchy. It has been analyzed the best ranked city, Luxembourg, and after that Innsbruck and Ljubljana. Furthermore the attention was focused on the three Romanian cities included in the ranking, and was realised a diagnosed of the Cluj-Napoca city.