During the last decades cities received more and more recognition for holding the key for Europe’s resilient economic strength and social cohesion, being stimulus and motor for wellbeing in many important aspects of life.

At the same time - although having different historic, economic, social and environmental backgrounds - European cities are currently confronted with several similar challenges: economic difficulties (resulting from long lasting structural changes or the unprecedented financial crisis), increasing need for action due to changes of demographic, cultural or migration patterns, social inequalities and environmental problems.

For fully playing this role and successfully addressing the multitude of severe challenges, in order to achieve a sustainable urban development, cities need to organise and steer complex integrated, cross-sectoral and participative urban development processes. It was against this background, that the Leipzig Charter (as well as its preceding policy papers) was adopted on the Informal Ministerial Meeting the German EU Presidency in May 2007, in Leipzig.

Almost one and a half years later, during the French EU Presidency, the implementation of the Leipzig Charter and the achievements within the field of integrated, sustainable urban development were reviewed. On the Informal Ministerial Meeting in Marseille, the decision was made that more efforts needed to be undertaken: hence a European working group, creating a tool to foster the implementation of the Leipzig Charter, called “reference framework”, as well as a URBACT working group – LC-FACIL - to interact as local testing ground for the first group were established.

At the working group’s first Meeting in Leipzig, July 2009, partners defined the aims of LC-FACIL: 

• Create a common understanding about benefits of integrated approach and promote it
  - Promote idea that crisis / reduction of funds will even more require integrated approaches
  - React towards current challenges as climate change and economic crisis (within the content of the Leipzig Charter)
• Use “reference framework” – Monitoring and Evaluation as outcome orientated tool - ONE tool - to underline the main idea
  - it can serve to prove the benefits of integrated approaches
  - it can serve to control the linkage between strategy and reality
• Express needs of cities (from the practitioners point of view) towards different levels
• Further discussion (and exchange among partners) on what is needed for the implementation of integrated approaches on city-level: Strategy, Governance, Methodology, Monitoring and Evaluation, Cooperation and Implementation.

Since almost a decade the City of Leipzig has actively gathered experiences with strategy building and implemention of integrated, sustainable urban development. At the same time the City was and is aware of the important role of all partners of urban development and the necessity of a participative approach towards its citizens.

The scope of the URBACT-programme to foster integrated approaches through exchange processes between cities and within cities stakeholders seemed to underline quite well the objectives of the city in this field.

The commitment of the city towards the Leipzig Charter, as overarching European policy, and the possibility to enhance its implementation was a particular reason for Leipzig to enter the "URBACT-adventure".

• Learn about the current status of implementation of integrated, sustainable urban development throughout Europe.
• Exchange with European level about the situation and needs of the cities for the implementation of the Leipzig Charter and the strengthening of the urban dimension within European funding politics.
• As a result we hope to gain a common understanding of the necessary tool set for integrated urban development according to the Leipzig Charter.