""Sustainable and inclusive city" in the heart of the meeting of the ministers for urban development in Marseilles"

"The ministers first took stock of the implementation of the Leipzig Charter, devoted to integrated urban development and distressed areas. The Urban Development Group, bringing together European representatives of urban development ministries, which worked on tools enabling the principles laid out in the Leipzig charter to be transposed into State policies, proposed that the ministers build a "reference framework" for sustainable and inclusive cities which would be both a methodological thesaurus and a tool for exchanging experiences. Its aim would be to associate all actors, break down barriers between sectoral policies and create links between national, regional and local policies. The ministers agreed to involve the local authorities in these talks as they are primarily responsible for implementing urban policies in practice. The European Commission presented its analysis of the urban dimension of the cohesion policy for the 2007-2013 period, in particular the actions for urban development selected by the heads of the operational programmes that direct the use of EU funds under the European Union's regional policy. At the end of the meeting, while emphasising the importance of voluntary action, even more essential in the context of the current crisis in Europe, the urban development ministers adopted a joint statement devoted mainly to the reference framework for the implementation of the Leipzig Charter, sustainable and inclusive urban development policy, and considering climate change in cities. This meeting of urban development ministers will be followed by the Cities’ Forum ('Forum des villes') on 2 and 3 December 2008 in Montpellier, during which local authorities will, in turn, have an opportunity to discuss the implementation of the Leipzig Charter. Read more:

• French Presidency of the EU - website 

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