EUKN - European Urban Knowledge Network - National policy responses to urban challenges in Europe

National policy responses to urban challenges in Europe

Introduction

Modern European cities have to operate in an increasingly complex and competitive environment. Enhancing urban competitiveness has become a major challenge for cities in Europe. Policy developed by city governments is formed to meet these challenges, but policies drawn up by regional/national governments also often directly influence cities and their position. Apart from that, European policy also increasingly affects EU cities. This publication of EURICUR presents the current situation relating to national urban policies in EU Member States in order to see how national urban policy directly influences European cities.

Description

The publication investigates the influence of national urban policy on cities in EU Member States. Three key questions structure the research:

What do national and regional authorities consider to be major issue for a desired development of their large cities?
What important changes have recently taken place in national policy responses to cope with these major issues?
What role is attributed to European policy with respect to urban development and urban policy making?

Background information

The research builds on a 1997 study into national urban policies which was published in 1998. The same 15 Member States of the EU and their urban policies are researched.

Conclusions

The research identifies several urban issues which are of major importance to European cities today namely, economic growth, increasing social polarisation, spatial fragmentation, immigration, urban safety, suburbanisation, housing, the development of polycentric cities and urban governance.
The national policy responses of the 15 EU Member States to urban issues are said to be different. The United Kingdom, France, The Netherlands and Belgium apply very explicit national urban policies; Germany, Finland, Sweden, Denmark, Italy and Portugal are giving increasing national policy attention to the development of cities while Ireland, Spain, Greece, Austria and Luxembourg give relatively little explicit attention to city development at the national level.
Several major trends in national urban policy-making are distinguised, being the attention on (local) partnerships and the importance of civil involvement, the attempt to come to a more integrated approach in the delivery of urban policies, the application of an area-based approach and the attempt to prevent intraregional competition.
Most national urban policies in the 15 Member States relate to housing and urban renewal to company social exclusion, the integration of ethnic minorities, safety, opportunity-led policies, flagship projects, spatial policies and the accessbility of urban areas.
European policies have direct or indirect impacts on European cities. Generally it is recognised that there are clear advantages of European urban subsidies and policies. However, the need for a European urban policy is not equally supported.

Publication date

//2007

Article info
ISBN: 9708-0-7546-4846-8

Links

Vist the EURICUR website

Document type

research

Themes

Urban Policy

Keywords