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Cities of Tomorrow: visions and models
Governance challenges and policy implications
Iván TosicsMetropolitan Research Institute, Budapest
DG Regio Conference
25-26 October 2010
Brussels
What is the aim of our work?
• Minimum requirement: to prepare a Cities 2020 publication (to list, group and analyse the challenges according to city-types), similar to Regions 2020
• Additional wish: – to formulate suggestions, how the challenges
could be tackled – to link the suggestions to current EU politics
Challenges for urban development
• Challenges are more or less known: climate-change and energy-problems, problems of the globalizing economy, demographic changes, increasing migration and sharpening social inequalities.
• Separate analyses of them lead to different apocalyptic views: – collapse of the normal functioning of the climate– unmanageable problems of the ageing societies and of the
potential migrant flows, – sharp conflicts due to growing inequalities between social and
ethnic strata and/or different areas. • The potential answers to address these problems one-
by-one create conflicting interactions: the easiest answer on any of the problems usually makes things worse regarding the others.
The „economic” view
• Christaller said, cities are central places. Castells: the position of a country depends on the position of its most important metropolitan areas (e.g. Randstad defines the place of Holland in the world).
• Cohesion policy is for development, thus it has mainly to deal with metropolitan places.
• BUT: examples of fastly decreasing US cities; mono-functional collapsing cities in Belorussia… Europe can not afford such one-sided „solutions”
Increasing the economic competitiveness of a city might lead to growing social inequalities
Conflicting interactions between sectoral policies
Technical solutions against climate change are costly and threaten to financially crowd out the interventions towards social cohesion, territorial balance, solidarity.
Strong protection of un-built areas might lead to over-densification of already dense urban areas
Equalization policies favouring disadvantaged areas or social groups might have negative environmental consequences.
Giving up the control over trade development leads to decline of traditional shopping streets
European policy developments
• European development and the cities – EU2020 strategy approaches challenges in connected
way integrates smart, sustainable and inclusive – However, the role of cities is acknowledged only in
general, real work is along national reform strategies
• European Union policies post-2013 and the cities – budget priorities – cohesion policy, in which form to bring URBAN back– planning and implementation of SF programmes
The challenge for us: to prove that urban areas are crucial for EU2020
• from European level only the national states and regions can be seen, from national level only the regions and the largest cities
• regions are accepted as the basis for EU-wide territorial-cohesion policy
• the importance of the urban level is in general acknowledged but no specific European idea exists how to involve this level
• main idea: only cooperating functional urban areas can integrate the answers on the future challenges and implement EU2020
Problems to create cooperation in functional urban areas
• Democracy questions – election based systems 100 years old and challenged
• Administrative systems: boundaries do not express economic realities (Lyon example)
• in Europe we have to run the 21st century economy with 20th century governments and 19th century territorial boundaries
• New territorial realities have to be taken into account, the functioning urban areas have to get central role to play
How to achieve policy integration?
• The integrated approach can best be achieved on sub-national territorial base: FUAs, metropolitan areas, city-regions, rural-urban regions should serve as territorial basis
• Different policies have different territorial scope– economic: win-win on large territories, – environmental: zero-sum game on FUA level, – síocial: partly national-level and partly city level
issue…
• There are also arguments for variable geometry: create partnerships and sub programmes that correspond to local drivers
EU level interventions needed for integrated urban development
• For the success of EU2020 integrated planning (green and social economy strategies) is needed on the level of functional regions.
• This new approach needs policy guidance and financial support from the EU, initiating cross-sectoral and cross-territorial planning on the functional region level.
• This new orientation can be approached in many alternative ways, through different regulations.
Ideas for a new Cohesion Policy regulation
A) EU Integrated Development Framework Directive
B) In each country the Integrated Urban Development Priority has to be introduced as a compulsory axis of the ROPs, with prescribed minimal content and budgetary allocation
• based on Functional Urban Area level integrated strategic development plans,
• including area-based integrated interventions in smaller deteriorated areas
• applying specific programme management rules (cities or FUAs as beneficiaries, etc.)
Questions to be answered
• do you agree with the different content and spatial levels of city-regions?
• is a city-region existing in your place, how is it defined?• what is its role today: informal discussions, informal
planning, formal roles, …?• what should be the roles of the city region level in an
optimal case?• do you think that the national EU2020 planning can be
based on such city-region plans?• do you think that a compulsory EU regulation based on
city-regions would work out (capacity differences, differences in cooperation culture…)?
PLUREL analysis on policy integration
A) Government and planning systems• The potential strength of the higher level
public sector control over market processes B) Financial, sectoral policies and
regulatory tools • financing system, taxation, sectoral
policies, regulatory control over the land development process
C) Governance practices • vertical and/or horizontal links between
government and non governmental units in formal or informal ways
Towards Green Compact and Inclusive City-Regions
Europe should initiate and help national policies to develop, within which integrated planning on functional urban area level commences
• strengthening government systems and planning policies towards territorial integration
• weakening those financial processes and interests which help to create competition between local governments
• strengthening governance methods towards more integrated functioning on FUA level
Options for post-2013 EU regulations for better rural-urban development
1.Option: EU Integrated Development Framework Directive
2.Option: EU Rural-Urban Conditionality for the access of Structural Funds
3.Option: EU Community Initiative
4.Option: Open Method of Coordination for Development Planning in Rural-Urban Regions
5.Option: EU Reference Framework for Integrated Rural-Urban Development Planning
