TOCEMA Europe started out as an Interreg IIIC European funded project which was initiated in March 2005 by the AMCV (Association du Management de Centre-Ville), Belgium, with the support of the Walloon Region.

For two years, this project gathered a large and diversified partnership composed of towns and cities, regional authorities and public equivalent bodies such as national associations of Town Centre Management (TCM). At the end of the project, this formal partnership was upgraded to a fully operational network and organisation.


As described in the Cooperation Agreement signed by the founding members, TOCEMA's objectives are the following:

• To value and foster initiatives in the TCM sector by creating and developing the TOCEMA Europe Quality Mark,

• To encourage the development of new projects in Town Centre Management associations (public and private partnerships), throughout cities and regions of Europe,

• To create an effective network, capable of initiating a European dynamic and of developing exchanges of experiences and a ‘compendium' of good practices when relevant. The network will promote inter-regional and transnational co-operation by defining and setting up similar or related projects that would benefit wide target groups,

• To give guidelines for the concept and development of Town Centre Management at European level by designing a common identity and methodology with clear-cut common criteria which will be internationally recognized and understood; thus contributing to the coherence of this sector of activities and of the tasks linked to TCM.