provided by Research Papers in Economics
European Regional Science Association
38th European Congress,Vienna, Austria
28 August-1 September 1998
Leo van den Berg, Erik Braun, Jan van der Meer
European Institute for Comparative Urban Research
Erasmus University Rotterdam, The Netherlands
fax +31-10-4527986, [email protected], [email protected], [email protected]
National urban policy responses in the EU:
towards a European urban policy?
Abstract: "Europe’s towns and cities remain its primary source of wealth creation and the
centre of its social and cultural development. However there are rising problems relating to
rapid economic adjustments. It is clear that new efforts are necessary to strengthen or restore
the role of Europe’s cities as places of social and cultural integration, as sources of economic
prosperity and sustainable development, and as bases of democracy" (European
Commission, 1997). The environment of cities has become increasingly competitive and
complex. Cities need to anticipate and respond quickly to opportunities and threats that
influence their position structurally. Although city governments develop policies and
strategies to meet the challenges, at the same time higher layers of government pursue
policies that influence the position of cities. National governments draw up financial and
policy frameworks and create conditions in which cities have to manoeuvre and design their
own policies. Although the European Commission recognises the important role of cities for
regional development, until now European urban policy initiatives have been blocked by a
majority of national governments, as a consequence of the principle of subsidiarity. The
objective of our contribution is to compare current developments as far as explicit urban
policies in the member states of the European Union are concerned. However, the scope
will not be limited to explicit policies alone. National policies with a substantial impact on
urban development will be dealt with too. In this paper we compare national urban
frameworks (the national urbanisation pattern and the administrative framework) and we
deal with the questions like: what do national authorities consider to be main issues for, and
challenges to their cities?; and how do national governments respond to these issues and
challenges by policies targeted to the role and function of cities? The results of our
investigation into current national urban policies are for an important part based on fifteen
national case studies produced by colleagues from each of the member states, according to
the framework mentioned before. This contribution summarises the main findings of the
comparison. These results might produce ingredients for a future urban policy at the
European level.