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| photo by Evan McDonough (PhD candidate, University of Luxembourg) |
During the European Week of Regions and Cities in October 2016, the European Commission presented a much awaited new edition of its ‘State of European Cities’ Report. By assessing and comparing demographic, economic, social and environmental trends at town and city level, the comprehensive report entitled ‘Cities leading the way to a better future’ reveals a series of key challenges and opportunities for European cities. It also introduces a new methodology for more accurately defining, quantifying and comparing degrees of urbanisation. When preparing the report, the European Commission collaborated for the very first time with the United Nations Habitat Programme.
Key insights
One of the main insights emerging from the
report is that European cities are generally relatively small with only two
megacities over 10 million inhabitants (Paris and London). With an average
urban density of approximately 3000 inhabitants/km2 cities in Europe have,
however, a healthy basis and a good starting position for coping with future
urban challenges. Second, the report shows that European cities attract new
residents coming both from within and outside of the EU. The main reasons for
such migration flows are related to education, employment and quality of life. As
a result of absorbing these new citizens, cities often face issues regarding
the provision of more affordable high quality housing, the expansion of public
services, the fight against discrimination and social exclusion and the
bridging of the gap between training offers and job opportunities. Third, the
comparison of city performances throughout Europe reveals that innovation and
economic growth are generally higher in cities than in rural areas. This
performance, however, requires high-quality research, good connections with the
private sector and an excellent business environment. Fourth, cities are well
placed to support non-motorised and public transport due to their high levels
of density. Huge efforts are still required by cities to increase the energy
efficiency of their buildings and to further reduce their greenhouse gas
emissions. Fifth, the report encourages cooperation between municipalities and
good urban governance across the various policy levels. Cities should be
granted sufficient autonomy and be given the necessary resources to exploit
their urban advantages.
EU Urban Agenda and
Habitat III
The provision of data on the performance of
European cities encourages cooperation and the transfer of best practices
between cities inside and outside Europe and provides valuable input for the
future development and implementation of the EU’s new Urban Agenda, consisting mainly in improving EU
regulations, elaborating workable financial instruments and enhancing the
knowledge base. The idea is to launch new forms of cooperation between cities,
Member States, EU institutions, NGOs and businesses. These partnerships will
focus on 12 key urban challenges with a European dimension such as air quality,
housing, migration and poverty.
The State of the European Cities Report constitutes
also an important contribution from Europe to the third United Nations
Conference in Housing and Sustainable Development (Habitat III) currently
underway. It particularly addresses the 2030 urban Sustainable Development Goal which aims at making cities safe,
inclusive, resilient and sustainable. The analyses in the report show how
European cities are forerunners with regard to adopting new courses of action
to tackle economic, social, environmental or governance issues.
Cities as a more
general subject of interest of global policies
The current interest in cities and urbanisation
is far from being limited to the aforementioned actions taken in the framework
of the European Urban Agenda or the UN Habitat initiatives on Sustainable
Development Goals. The United Nations’ World Cities Report published earlier this year
demonstrates that current urbanisation models are generally rather
unsustainable and that they need to be changed in order to better respond to
today’s challenges. UNESCO, in its turn, has issued a Global Report on Culture for Sustainable Urban Development. Based on an analysis of several international
study areas, the report explains for instance the vital role of culture as a
tool for poverty reduction, increased cultural diversity, resilience and
sustainability. At this point, it seems also promising to look at the recent Flagship
Report published by the German Advisory Council on Global Change (WBGU), which addresses the urban issue as
well. This study assumes that cities have a ‘transformative power’ that needs
to be unlocked in order to provide global sustainability.
In sum, all of these reports support the view
that developments in cities are crucial for a more sustainable development of
our world, while some even carry a notion of enthusiasm (or positivism, to say
the least) by claiming that cities are not the problem but rather the solution.
All of them, however, provide much inspiration to think cities and regions
further. With respect to these initiatives, it is safe to say that urban
development will remain high on the global political agenda for the years to
come.
Tom Becker
Research Assistant
University of
Luxembourg
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