Special Report: Sneak preview of the Conclusions of 3 Projects!

SUITE: promoting decent, sustainable housing for all
SMEs, and particularly start-ups, are central to the economy in many European cities, yet they all too often face difficulties financing their projects. For two and a half years, the eleven partner cities in the FIN-URB-ACT project focussed on developing local strategies and instruments to support SMEs through partnerships with various public and private actors.

"The experience showed us that banks are not interested in this kind of project, particularly in the context of a financial crisis," explains Patrick Fouguette, Lead Expert for the FIN-URB-ACT project. "As the Managing Authorities were they main source of funding, the partnership between the cities and their Managing Authority was key to this project," he summarises.

In addition to the final conference held in Gliwice (Poland) on 15th March, there was a symposium focussed on cooperation between cities and Managing Authorities, which was held in Brussels on 9th and 10th February, with representatives of the European Parliament and Commission. Following this meeting, several recommendations were drawn up to promote the institutionalization of city-Managing Authority partnerships.

"This cooperation was far from being natural in a certain number of cities. One of the project’s big lessons was the contribution made by the URBACT II methodology and the proof of its effectiveness," says Patrick Fourguette. "Cities and Managing Authorities have complementary roles to play: the former to put together the projects and the latter to finance them. The cities understood that they did not need to have the financial skills or to play brokers, but, on the other hand, their ability to federate and coordinate local actors around an integrated project was absolutely crucial." For several cities in the network, this partnership has already taken the form of financing for projects to support SMEs. Aveiro (Portugal) raised €1M in structural funds. Edinburgh (Great Britain) created a lending fund shared by nine other counties in its region. As part of its municipal micro-credit fund, Leipzig (Germany) multiplied its capital by four thanks to the participation of a public finance group.


NeT-TOPIC: designing new urban models for intermediate cities within metropolitan areas

, which was held on 2nd March in L'Hospitalet de Llobregat (Spain), the network presented a summary of the three main areas of work that served as the basis of their approach to developing a new urban model: strategic thinking prior to developing a new idea and centrality; possible paths to renovate urban areas and industrial buildings; and finally, the need to integrate discussions and actions at a metropolitan level with a goal of sustainable development.

For Fernando Barriero, building public-private partnerships to transform abandoned industrial areas into dynamic urban clusters is one of the key lessons from the NeT-TOPIC project: "These are heavy investments that the cities cannot finance along. However, these public-private partnerships require finding a consensus so that the private actors do not impose a development model that contradicts the long-term urban strategy." The project's Lead Expert also highlights the importance of creating a framework for metropolitan governance: "This phase in building a new urban model should make it possible to find complementarities on a metropolitan level and to integrate the needed diversification strategy into the whole."

Final reports online soon!The detailed conclusions and recommendations from these three projects will be published with their respective final reports. You will be able to consult them shortly on the URBACT website.

Read more:

• SUITE - URBACT website
• NeT-TOPIC - URBACT website
• FIN-URB-ACT - URBACT website