Contribution to the 5th Cohesion Report Now Available
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09 October 2017Within the framework of the public consultation on the future of the Cohesion policy and the 5th EU Cohesion Report published in November 2010, a group of urban experts (Laura Colini, Jean-Loup Drubigny, Melody Houk, Claude Jacquier, Oriol Nello, Peter Ramsden, Paul Soto, Philip Stein, Ivan Tosics) involved in the URBACT Programme has produced a 
Download THE 2020 STRATEGY AND COHESION POLICY SUPPORTING CITIES Contribution to the 5th cogension Report (388.11 KB) entitled 'Cities supporting the EU 2020 Strategy and Cohesion Policy – The 2020 Strategy and Cohesion Policy supporting Cities'.
According to the authors of this contribution, the Lisbon Treaty made an important step bringing territorial cohesion back into the equation alongside economic and social cohesion. However, it does this without specifically redefining the role of the urban component as a key to realising essential objectives. In this respect the 5th Cohesion Report represents a real window of opportunity to re-examine the relationship between EU strategies, intermediate levels of governance and ultimately cities, in driving progress to achieve the goals of improving economic, social, environmental conditions and reducing disparities. It would indeed appear that the Report provides a clear opening to embrace such a position. In this sense, those concerned with urban issues can only welcome a number of statements included in the document, emphasising the need to seriously take the urban dimension into account in its three dimensions, place, people and institutions.
However, local development in general, and in urban areas (cities and towns) in particular, do not get real attention, neither in the Cohesion Report, nor in the EU2020 strategy. Both documents relate exclusively to the national level, while the sub-national levels seem to be forgotten again.
The signatories have chosen to address the following questions which touch upon the role of cities and towns:
- How can Cohesion Policy take better account of the key role of urban areas and of territories with particular geographical features in development processes and of the emergence of macro-regional strategies?
- How can the partnership principle and involvement of local and regional stakeholders, social partners and civil society be improved?
In this contribution, the authors address these questions through 2 main entry points:
1) The "URBAN/ URBACT ACQUIS" and the necessity for Europe to develop a new framework to deal with urban challenges
2) The innovative potential of cities and the conditions to activate this potential
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