Leipzig Charter

Summary

The URBACT Knowledge Hub brings together good practices from across the EU, with the latest urban trends, to fill the gaps and make sure that the learning is within everyone's reach. First signed in 2007, the Leipzig Charter promotes the use of ‘integrated urban development’ policy and set out - for the first time in a single EU document - the key principles behind it. More than 20 years later, the context facing European cities has significantly changed. Since 2018 URBACT has participated in the European dialogue process to update the Leipzig Charter. Organised in collaboration with EUROCITIES and UIA, URBACT City Labs drew on on the direct experience of hundreds of cities to input into the New Leipzig Charter signed in 2020 during the German Presidency of the Council of European Union.

URBACT City Labs

Between September 2018 and January 2020 URBACT organised four City Labs. Their objective was to complement the work being undertaken by the German Presidency team to refresh the Leipzig Charter.

The Labs adopted an operational focus, exploring the implications for cities, and putting them at the heart of the process. They brought together city representatives and different levels of governance.

Each of the City Labs focused on one of the original Leipzig Charter principles – Participation, Sustainability, Integration and Balanced territorial development – and asked:

How does each Leipzig Charter principle look in 2020?
How are cities implementing the principles and where are effective examples of this?
Where are cities struggling, in relation to the principles?
How cities can be supported to build their capacities in relation to these principles?

Each City Lab generated a report and a video, showcasing the work of participating cities. These examples are designed to inspire and encourage other cities which are committed to achieving sustainable integrated urban development.

Read the City Lab papers:

City Lab #1 - Reflections on citizen participation
City Lab #2 - How are cities putting sustainable urban develoment into practice?
City Lab #3 - How are cities coping with integrated and inclusive policy-making?
City Lab #4 - How are cities implementing placed-based approaches?

Related articles:

The New Leipzig Charter

The New Leipzig Charter was adopted on 30 November 2020:

The New Leipzig Charter (full text)
Annex (List of Reference Documents)
Implementing the New Leipzig Charter (declaration of the Ministers responsible for Urban Matters and Territorial Cohesion)

URBACT is comitted to illustrating the New Leipzig Charter’s approaches of ‘Just’, ‘Green’, and ‘Productive’ cities by sharing more good practices and stories, and facilitating ongoing exchanges between cities.

City voices

“It is very hard to get the permission for actions that are non-standard. And there is no innovation without taking risks. We are overcoming the problem by implementing pilots.”

Karolina Medwecka-Piasecka, City of Birmingham

City Lab#3

“We need to think differently about how we measure success, about how economic investments can bring benefits for our citizens, and the impact it has on their health and wellbeing .”

Matthew Baqueriza-Jackson, Lead Expert Making Spend Matter

City Lab#3

"From the local perspective, it’s easier to spot where the problems are, and to find solutions to them."

Joanna Brzezińska, City of of Łódź

City Lab#4

“It’s important that gender issues are explicitly mentioned in the political agenda of the city.”

Katarzyna Wilkołaska-Żuromska, Warsaw Mayor’s Plenipotentiary for Women’s Affairs

City Lab#3

“Through metropolitan cooperation should emerge a metropolitan spatial vision. This would only function smoothly if a metropolitan law is adopted on the national level.”

František Kubeš, City of Brno

City Lab#4