The Pact of Free Cities originated as a cooperation agreement between the mayors of Bratislava, Budapest, Prague, and Warsaw—Matúš Vallo, Gergely Karácsony, Zdeněk Hřib, and Rafał Trzaskowski respectively—signed on 16 December 2019 at Central European University in Budapest.[1] The goals of the signatories include sharing information about best practices in urban development, mitigating the housing crisis, and global warming. Since 2019, the pact has grown to include dozens of cities, mostly in Europe but also including Los Angeles in the United States.