European needs for urban statistics Mireille Grubert EUROPEAN COMMISSION DIRECTORATE-GENERAL FOR REGIONAL POLICY Urban Actions and URBAN Community initiative European needs for urban statistics Mireille Grubert

Summary 1. Urban and European regional policy 2. A need of information at three levels 3. Priorities for the future 4. Next steps

1. Urban and European Regional policy The European Union is highly urbanised Existing Union policies have an important influence on urban areas But coherent urban policies still very limited

Urban in Regional policy can help EU policies become more responsive to urban needs help create tools that cities and towns can use to their own benefit Urban issues are becoming increasingly international

Two policy papers Towards an urban agenda in the European Union, May 1997 Sustainable urban development in the European Union, a framework for action, Oct. 1998 http://www.inforegio.cec.eu.int/urban

Urban in Regional Policy Structural Funds for the 2000-2006: EUR 195 billion in Objective 1 in Objective 2 in objective 3 CI URBAN II

Objective 1 GDP/inh. less than 75% of EU average EUR 135.9 billion Urban areas are part of some Objective 1 programmes

urban Objective 2 Areas in socio-economic decline industrial rural fishery activity

Objective 2 EUR 22.4 billion Integrated programming 18% of total population including 10 % industrial 2 % urban

Criteria for Urban in Objective 2 Unemployment rate Level of Poverty Deteriorated Environment Level of Criminality Low Level of Education

Objective 3 Horizontal Adaptation and modernisation of education, training and employment EUR 24.5 billion

CI URBAN Economic and social regeneration of cities and neighbourhoods in crisis in order to promote sustainable urban development. 2000-2006 Eur 700 70 programs

URBAN II 2000-2006

Urban information at EU level Action 23 of Framework for action: improving comparative information on urban conditions The Cohesion Report The Labour Force survey The European spatial development perspective (ESDP) The Urban Audit

In the programmes Introduction of indicators in Structural Funds programmes Objectives 1 and 2 URBAN INTERREG Regional Programmes of Innovative Action

2. A need of information at three levels Cities at EU level Comparison between cities Disparities inside cities

Cities at EU level The Second Cohesion Report Europe is highly centralised Will be reinforced by accession A possible widening of disparities must be prevented Growth centres are needed to achieve polycentric development

The Pentagon London Paris Milan Munich Hamburg 20 % of territory 40 % of population 50 % of GDP

6 categories of regions Dominated by a large metropolitan area Densely populated with dispersed development High density of population in urban areas but containing rural areas Rural areas under the influence of a metropolitan area Rural areas with small and medium sized towns Remote rural areas

Some caracteristics of European urban regions More than 44 % of the population of the EU lives in cities with more than 50 000 inhabitants Only 22 of these cities have more then 1 million inhabitants The most prosperous regions in EU are virtually all urban

Comparison of cities between themselves. The Urban Audit According to the types of cities Central / peripheral North / South According to developments in different areas Economic activity Employment Use of public transport Level of education Good indicators required

Disparities within cities Often more important than disparities between cities Unemployment, poverty A main issue for cohesion policy Disparity is a threat for sustainable urban development URBAN II: a Community Initiative for regeneration of neighbourhoods in crisis

URBAN II: Criteria for the selection of sites Long term unemployment Low economic activity Poverty and exclusion Need for conversion Immigrants Low education and skills Criminality Demographic trends Rundown environment

URBAN II: Context and monitoring indicators Socio-economic context indicators: Minimum set (11): demography, education, enterprises, transport, etc. Optional (4): communication and information technology, social infrastructures, etc. Monitoring indicators (10): number of jobs created, new enterprises, etc.

3. Priorities for the future Priorities should be based on three factors political technical financial Cohesion Policy is our main target

4. Next steps Make use of information gathered in the Structural Funds programmes Implementation of Urban Audit 2

Urban Audit 2 Fill the gaps in the first Urban Audit Collect information on a regular basis: Eurostat and the official statistics

Urban Audit 2 Improve the content of information economic activity communication and information technology education and training Widen the spectrum with other cities

Widen the spectrum of cities with Paris and London a few big cities in accession countries medium sized cities less than 250 000 inhabitants

Choice of cities A balanced representation of each country in terms of population of each type of cities in terms of population size