France

Under the authority of the Prime minister, based on an inter-ministerial approach, the General Commission for Territorial Equality (CGET) is managing, implementing and coordinating territorial policies aiming to reduce territorial inequalities, to guarantee territorial continuity and to develop territories for the benefit of their inhabitants. With this respect, the CGET is responsible for designing, elaborating and applying the national urban policy (Politique de la ville) through a contractual approach (Contrat de ville) which concerns deprived areas. This territorial approach towards equality is also applied by targeting 10% of ERDF and ESF to integrated strategies developed in the Contrat de ville. In order to facilitate the implementation of these European funds a national urban network will be set up and coordinated by CGET, in strong association with the regional managing authorities.

In a large framework, national approaches towards sustainable development are supported by the Ministry for Housing, Territorial Equality, and Rural Areas through the Sustainable City Agenda (Plan ville durable) which supports a new way to design, build and manage the city, with national initiatives such as Ecodistrics (Écoquartiers) labels and Ecocities (Écocités).

Others national initiatives have been launched by the CGET in order to support small/medium urban areas through the Contrats de bourg which target the revitalisation of the centres of rural cities.