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QeC ERAN workshops
"Monitoring the Urban Dimension in EU Cohesion Policy: Spanish and Portuguese perspectives"
Introduction
Policy context
Conference proceedings
Key issues emerging
Conference programme and presentations
Download report (Word Document)
Introduction
Qec ERAN in partnership with CIREM, a Spanish network working on Urban Regeneration issues, organized a workshop on "Monitoring the Urban Dimension in EU Cohesion Policy: Spanish and Portuguese perspectives" . The event took place at the European Parliament offices in Madrid ( Spain) from 2 -3 April 2008.
 The event brought together a wide range of stakeholders involved in the new EU Cohesion Policy programming process for the period 2007-2013. It focused on the Spanish and Portuguese National Strategic Reference Frameworks and Operational Plans with presentations from the Spanish Ministry of Economics and Housing ( José Antonio Zamora Rodriguez, Director General of EU Funds) and the Portuguese Ministry on Spatial Planning and Urban Development, (Vítor Campos, Director General). Presentations from the European Institutions included Dirk AHNER, Director-General DG Region Policy, Jan Olbrycht, Vice President, European Parliament Intergroup on Urban Policy and Housing and Santiago García-Patrón Rivas, Deputy Head of Urban Action, DG Regional Policy.
The organisers also invited representatives from Spanish and Portuguese local authorities and community based organisation that have been implementing regeneration projects within the URBAN programme to share their experiences. The conference thus provided an excellent forum for participants to discuss their work, exchange experiences and to evaluate if the EU's goal of mainstreaming urban policy is being translated into local/regional plans.
For QeC-ERAN this conference marks the beginning of a series of events that it is proposing to hold on the theme of "urban dimension in EU cohesion policy" in different member states. The objective is to feed the outcomes of these events into the EU mid-term review of the new EU Cohesion Policy programming arrangements that will take place in 2009 and 2010.
These proposed series of events will look at three crucial questions as concerns the cohesion funds:
- Are member states making use of the greater decentralisation of decision making provided for in the Community Strategic Guidelines?
- Are Operational Programmes addressing urban disparities?
- Are we keeping an integrated approach to urban development?
More information on future events can be obtained from the QeC ERAN secretariat.
The conference report includes a detailed background to the policy context of urban policy at EU level in particular with view to Spain and Portugal, the conference proceedings, the main points/issue of debate that emerged from the meeting as well as the conference programme and the presentations that were made during the event.
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Policy Context
THE URBAN DIMENSION IN THE PROGRAMMING PERIOD 2007-2013
Urban actions 2007-2013
The importance of urban questions has been recognised under successive presidencies of the Union particularly at the informal Council in Rotterdam in November 2004 and in Bristol in December 2005. In addition, in its report on the urban dimension in the context of enlargement
(A6(2005) 0272 of 21.9.2005), the European Parliament welcomed the incorporation of sustainable urban development in Cohesion Policy.
In the new programming period, the Commission intends to reinforce the place of urban issues in the programmes 2007-2013 which implies several things:
to increase the importance of urban development in the programming process (NSRF and Ops);
- to promote the concept of integrated urban development;
- to valorise the URBAN acquis, but to open it to a broader range of actions;
- to fully include urban actors in the preparation and implementation of Operational Programmes.
Instruments and tools
1. URBACT II (2007-2013), the Urban Development Network Programme is a programme which aims to develop exchanges of experience between European cities within the new objective "Territorial Cooperation". It has enlarged the eligibility for cities comparing to URBAN II.
2. Regions for Economic Change is a proactive policy tool offered to Member States, regions and cities to help them implement the renewed Lisbon agenda through actions aimed at economic modernization.
3. JESSICA (Joint European Support for Sustainable Investment in City Areas) is a cooperation agreement between the Commission, the European Investment Bank and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development on financial engineering for sustainable urban development.
4. Urban Development Interservice Group. Created in December 2005, it is led by DG REGIO Director General. DGs participating are REGIO, EAC, EMPL, ENV, ENTR, INFSO, JLS, RTD, SANCO and TREN.
5. Urban Audit may help to design an intelligent urban policy in Europe today with its almost 300 indicators and 258 cities covered.
European Cities
The "State of European Cities 2007" report explains that in the period 1996- 2001, a third of cities grew at a rate in excess of 0.2% per year, a third saw their populations remain stable and a third experienced a notable decline in population. The strongest population growth rates were covered in Spain, where some urban areas saw average annual increases of 2% or more. Not just the natural growth of the population but also immigration has to do with this increase of population. Similarly, Portuguese cities have experienced high levels of foreign immigration, particularly from Portuguese-speaking Africa, Brazil and Eastern Europe.
It is widely recognised that cities are 2home to most jobs, firms and institutes of higher education and their action is decisive in bringing about social cohesion".
(COM(2006) 385 final, page 4)
As stated in State of European Cities 2007 "the question of the sustainable character of growth is particularly important in cities most exposed to problems of social exclusion, deterioration of the environment, wastelands and urban sprawl".
Regarding the 3 main goals of the revised Lisbon Agenda, cities must face up different challenges:
Making places attractive in which to work and invest : it is not always easy to facilitate accessibility and mobility, nor the access to service facilities. The development of ICT situation, the natural and physical environment and culture are more and more taken into account in order to evaluate a city.
Innovation and knowledge economy : cities should aim to retain or attract highly skilled workers. Cities with a high share of tertiary-educated inhabitants must have interesting employment opportunities and be more attractive places in which to live, than the suburbs. Concerning the transition of new knowledge to new application, it could be facilitated through a strong network between universities and local businesses. On the other hand, cities include affluent neighbourhoods but also deprived ones which creates big disparities in cities, linked to unemployment, poverty and crime.
More and better jobs : We can not forget the Urban paradox in terms of employment. "European cities concentrate both jobs and the jobless". (
Cities and the Lisbon Agenda: assessing the performance of cities, page 16
) The Lisbon Agenda sets the ambitious goal of increasing the European employment rate to 70%, by 2010. In 2001, only 10% of the Urban Audit cities had reached this level, with cities lagging behind the national averages. For this reason, cities must work to increase employability but also the levels of education. The gender dimension of the labour market should also be noted: in Urban Audit cities, women's participation in the labour force appears to supplement, rather than replace, the traditionally higher levels of participation among men.
(State of European Cities 2007 , page 7.).
The Urban dimension of the Spanish and Portuguese Operational Programmes
SPAIN
The urban and local development is conceived as a main axis in the ERDF Operational Programme 2007-2013. The main objective is to reinforce the local and urban development strategy following the European guidelines of the Cohesion Policy. In order to do so, different actions depending on the size of the municipalities are distinguished:
A) Concerning small and medium-sized municipalities (20.000-50.000 inhabitants), an integrated territorial approach will be implemented in order to achieve more economic, territorial and social cohesion. There are 2 objectives to be fulfilled:
1) To cohesion the territory through integrated projects of urban and rural regeneration which should cover the following fields:
- To foment the information society and new technologies;
- Economical promotion: creation of employment and economic opportunities through the productive diversification and improvement of infrastructures and local services;
- Improvement of the natural environment and environmental quality;
- Improvement of the accessibility and mobility;
- Protection and preservation of the cultural heritage;
- Promotion of the familiar conciliation and social cohesion.
2) To reinforce the participation of citizens in the management of public affairs and the improvement of local services.
B) Concerning bigger municipalities (50.000 inhabitants and capitals of province), an innovative urban initiative which will cover all the national territory and will continue with the URBAN initiative will be implemented, promoting integrated projects of sustainable urban development. Within every Regional Operational Programme a quantity will be established for doing integrated projects of development; normally, this quantity will be of 10 million euros, except for those programmes with a smaller financial allocation.
The actions in these areas will be concentrated in the following fields:
- To promote the improvement of the competitiveness;
- To foment the intern cohesion through measures which improve the most disadvantaged neighbourhoods;
- To improve the connections between cities;
- To integrate the most disadvantaged groups.
For those regions of the Convergence Objective, there is a specific axis oriented to the construction, reform and equipment of educational, formation, medical care and social centres addressed to cohesion the territory avoiding emigration.
Regions of the Competitiveness Objective will concentrate their activities in diversifying the local economy with actions for creating or improving economical sectors that help to increase the social level and the competitiveness.
Finally, Spanish Authorities are elaborating a "Spanish Strategy for the local and urban sustainability" ( in order to support the sustainable urban development through a national framework.
PORTUGAL
The Portuguese NSRF 2007-2013 follows 3 Thematic Agendas: the Human Potential Agenda, Competitiveness Factors Agenda and the Territorial Enhancement Agenda. Within the latter one, there are 4 dimensions: Strengthening of International connectivity, Accessibility and Mobility; Protection and enhancement of the environment; Cities Policy and, finally, Networks, Infrastructures and facilities for territorial and social cohesion.
The Portuguese Cities Policy is oriented to 4 specific objectives, starting on the basis that cities are a key reference point for the territorial integration of competitiveness and cohesion:
1. To qualify and revitalise the distinct spaces that comprise each city:
- Integrated re-qualification and reinsertion actions in critical and peripheral neighbourhoods;
- Actions to regenerate and re-functionalise areas which have been abandoned or become obsolete;
- Integrated actions to economically enhance areas of notable urban value.
2. To strengthen and differentiate the human, institutional, cultural and economic capital of each city:
- Creation of urban facilities and differentiating infrastructure in terms of insertion into national and international networks;
- The structuring of urban networks for shared enhancement of resources, potential and knowledge and large-scale cooperation with other European cities.
3. To qualify and intensify the integration of cities into their regions in order to promote more sustainable and complementary relationships between urban and rural spaces and to provide the whole of each city/region with greater development potential:
- to structure agglomerations;
- to prevent further sprawl;
- to gain urban mass through proximity cooperation;
- to foster complementarities and agglomeration economies;
- to rationalise and qualify the facilities and services that a city provides to its region.
4. To innovate to find solutions for urban problems:
- re-use of infrastructure and facilities to the detriment of new construction
- development of new associative dynamics and new forms of public-private partnerships
These 4 objectives will be achieved via intervention typologies aimed at the structuring urban centres in the territorial model defined in the National Programme for Spatial Planning Policy (PNPOT) and concretised and developed by the Regional Spatial Planning Schemes (PROT).
Besides the Urban Networks for Competitiveness and Innovation, addressed within the framework of the Thematic Operational Agenda for Competitiveness Factors, the Thematic Operational Agenda for Territorial Enhancement includes the following typologies:
- Innovative Solutions for Urban Problems, which will support the development of pilot projects and demonstration projects namely, in fields like urban mobility, management of public spaces and buildings, energy efficiency…
- Partnerships for Urban Regeneration, aimed at supporting integrated urban regeneration operations;
- City-Region partnerships, whose objectives are to frame and give coherence to material investments aimed both at cooperation between neighbouring urban centres and cooperation between urban centres and supporting rural areas.
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Conference proceedings
The conference was opened by Ignacio Samper , Director of the European Parliament office in Madrid, Oriol Homs i Ferret, Director of CIREM and Lionel Martijn, Vice President QeC ERAN.
The morning session focused on providing the general policy context at EU level including presentations from Dirk Ahner, Director-General DG Region Policy, Jan Olbrycht, Vice President of the European Parliament Intergroup on Urban Policy and Housing and Haroon Saad, Director of QeC ERAN.
 "Mainstreaming the urban initiative does no mean that the urban dimension has been lost, on the contrary, the European Commission is very much interested in further encouraging the urban dimension. (...) The EC will continue its dialogue with those Members States that have not given enough importance to the urban dimension in their operational programmes"
Dirk Ahner, Director General DG Regional Policy , Madrid conference
Delegates then heard about the current Operational Programmes and National Strategic Reference Frameworks in Spain and Portugal from José Antonio Zamora Rodriguez , Director General of EU Funds , Ministry of Economics and Housing ( Spain) and from Vítor Campos, Director General , Ministry on Spatial Planning and Urban Development ( Portugal.)
José Antonio Zamora Rodriguez , Director General of EU Funds, Spanish Ministry of Economics and Housing, representing the Spanish Operational Programmes and NRSF at the Madrid conference, 2-3April
Vítor Campos , Director General, Ministry on Spatial Planning and Urban Development, Portugal,presenting Operational Programmes and NSRFs for Portugal, Madrid
The afternoon session consisted of presentations of case studies from Spanish and Portuguese local authorities that have successfully implemented regeneration projects within the framework of the URBAN programme. These ranged from projects promoting social cohesion in urban sustainable development (Donostia, San Sebastian), improving public space management in Madrid, to fostering participation of woman in the local decision making process (ProIgual, Huelva) to name a few. A full list and link to the presentations made during the event is annexed below.
On the second day Professor Jesus Leal Maldonado from the Universidad Computense de Madrid gave a detailed overview of the current trends, issues and challenges faced by urban regeneration in Spain and in particular in the city of Madrid. His colleague Jorge Malheiros form the University of Lisbon provided a similar overview of the situation in Portugal.
One of the main challenges faced by both Spanish and Portuguese cities is demographic change. In Madrid in the 80s for example the young population (0-35 years) was higher than the population group 35-85 years, nowadays this trend has been reversed.
 "For the first time we no longer have a "ring-fenced" element of cohesion policy that is focussed on tackling urban disparity it is therefore paramount to our work to ensure that Member States have indeed included an "urban dimension" into their Operational Programmes and NSFRs"
Lionel Martijn , Vice President QeC ERAN, Madrid conference
These fundamental developments have complex consequences for local and regional authorities. Certain regions and cities will soon be, or already are, facing difficulties in supplying essential goods and services, such as health care, urban planning, transport and tourism services.
Santiago García-Patrón Rivas , Deputy Head of Urban Actions Unit, DG Regional Policy, European Commission, presented the new Regions for Economic Change initiative with particular view to the urban dimension.
The Regions for Economic change initiative was adopted in 2006 in order to introduce new ways to dynamise regional and urban networks and to help them work closely with the Commission, to have innovative ideas tested and rapidly disseminated into the Convergence, Regional Competitiveness and Employment, and European Territorial cooperation programmes.
 "There is a need within the EU institutions to move away from a sectoral approach to a more horizontal thinking. (...) It has been a mistake to remove the Urban Initiative from the current programming period. Now cities depend on the good will of regional representatives to address urban issues, whereas previously URBAN provided the structure for this." Jan Olbrycht, MEP
Throughout the two days of the conference del egates had the opportunity to discuss their work, exchange experiences and to evaluate if the EU's goal of mainstreaming urban policy is being translated into local/regional plans.
A number of key issues and points emerged from these discussions which are listed below.
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Key issues emerging
These are the main issues that emerged from the conference discussions:
- Cities function within both a local and global context, therefore there is a need for a more global vision of cities and to create new models that take into account this double role of cities.
- Delegates stressed the importance of good working relationships between cities and regions which must be build on trust and active involvement of cities in the programming process of EU Cohesion Funds. Unfortunately in some Member States such relationships do not exist fully resulting in a top down approach. However, the Fast Track programme (Urbact II) is a good example that cooperation between cities and regions can work in practise.
- Many of the presented case studies- projects had a strong focus on citizen’s participation and consultation. This is seen as an important issue for the success of urban regeneration projects as it gives the local community a feeling of empowerment. However delays between transfer of funds and start of a project can have a negative impact on the perception of the local population.
- Delegates voiced their concern that the EU's focus on innovation ignored the social dimension of it. There is a need for "social innovation" looking at new ways of how citizens interact with each other, including giving more importance to skills development.
- Importance to promote an "intercultural city" instead of a "multi-cultural", i.e. local authorities should actively promote intercultural activities within the city rather than "only" addressing the needs of various cultural groups.
- Risk in regeneration programmes that marginal groups lose out. Regenerated areas tend to become gentrified forcing the local population to move into other cheaper areas and thus moving the problems elsewhere. There is a need for deeper reflection on the concrete objectives and the actual results of regeneration projects.
- Euken Sesé ( San Sebastian) stressed the need to reflect on the current model of social service provision (passive policy) and to encourage social service provider to cooperate closely with entities working towards labour insertion, such integrated approach is lacking in many cities.
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Conference programme and presentations
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Conference presentations:
Case Studies:
- Santa Coloma de Gramenet , Esperança Esteve, Diputada al Congreso de los Diputados en España
- San Sebastián , Mr. Euken Sesé, Jefe delDepartamento deFomento, San Sebastián.
- Amadora , Mr. Jorge Miranda, Director of Education, Culture & Social Affairs of Municipality of Amadora
- Porto , Critical Areas Initiative, Mr. Vitor Campos, Director General for Spatial Planning and Urban Development, Portugal
- Madrid , Belinda Tato, Ecosistema Urbano
- Sevilla , Alicia Domínguez Núñez, Jefa de Servicio de Promoción y formación Empresarial. Delegación de Economía y Empleo, Ayuntamiento de Sevilla
- Urban Regeneration in Spain: Trends, Issues, Challenges, Prof. Jesús Leal Maldonado, Univerisdad Complutense de Madrid
- Urban Regeneration in Portugal: Trends, Issues, Challenges, Prof. Jorge Malheiros, University of Lisbon
- Albacete (part 1, part 2), Concha Prieto Sotos , Jefa de Sección de planeamiento urbanístico y paisaje urbano del Ayuntamiento de Albacete. Arquitecta. Técnico-urbanista. Luis Joaquín Martinez-Bargues, part 3 Jefe de Servicio del servicio de urbanismo, arquitectura y obras públicas. Arquitecto.
- Comunidad Valenciana , César Jiménez Alcañiz, . Gerente de la Oficina RIVA. Dirección General de Obras Públicas. Conselleria de Infraestructuras y Transporte.Generalitat de la Comunitat Valenciana.
- Huelva , Jesús Díaz Robles, Director del Área de Cooperación al Desarrollo Local. Diputación de Huelva.
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