1. Cohesion Policy and Cities
Lewis Dijkstra
Deputy Head of the Economic Analysis Unit,
DG for Regional and Urban Policy 1

2. Main points What is Cohesion Policy? What is the link to Cities?
Europe 2020
New Urban Agenda
City data is relevant for many other DGs
MOVE
ENV
Conclusion

3. Cohesion Policy,
Invest 352 billion euro in EU regions and cities
Most funding for less developed regions & MS
New in is
Focus on 11 thematic objectives linked to the Europe 2020 strategy
Integrated into the European Semester
Strengthened urban dimension

4. Funding distribution
Funding distribution based on official statistics including, GDP per head, unemployment, Europe 2020 targets, low regional population density
In the preparation, taking the presence of cities into account for funding distribution was discussed but dropped, in part due to lack of data and an officially recognised definition.

5. Cohesion Policy and cities
Cohesion Policy invests a large share in cities
Some large cities have their own programmes (London, Berlin, Brussels, Vienna, Bucharest…)
5% of ERDF is dedicated to urban development and is delegated to cities
Urban innovative actions (330 million EUR)
URBACT and a new Urban Development Network, support the exchange of experience

6. EU urban agenda - what is the issue?
Europe continues to be faced with challenges related to the economy, the climate, the environment, and society at large: most have a strong urban dimension
manifest themselves in and around cities - e.g., poverty, social and spatial segregation; environmental degradation; or
find their solutions in and through cities – e.g., resource efficiency; CO2 neutral economy; economic development and innovation; social innovation and integration
BUT
Policy response at European and national level has been slow and piecemeal - many but poorly integrated sectoral initiatives.

7. EU focus on cities and urban development
DG/ Agency
Policy/ regulation
Targeting cities/ local
Local projects
Studies/ research
Tools
Climate Action X
Competition
Communic. Networks, Content & Technology
Education and Culture
European Environment Agency
Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion
Energy
Environment
Eurostat
Home Affairs
Joint Research Centre
Justice
Mobility and Transport
Regional and Urban Policy
Research and Innovation
Health and Consumers

8. Public consultation on an EU urban agenda
The Communication "THE URBAN DIMENSION OF EU POLICIES – KEY FEATURES OF AN EU URBAN AGENDA" {COM(2014) 490 final} launched a public consultation on the EU urban agenda
The results and next are presented in the Commission Staff Working Document "RESULTS OF THE PUBLIC CONSULTATION ON THE KEY FEATURES OF AN EU URBAN AGENDA" {SWD(2015) 109 final/2}.
The next steps were presented and debated in the 2nd CITIES Forum on June 2.

9. Next steps – strands of action
Result orientation – focus on a limited number of priority areas
(i) relevant for Europe, (ii) areas where EU intervention will be of benefit, providing added value (iii) linking directly city actions with results, and (iv) realistic in terms of achieving results
Effective application of better regulation tools
TIA, stronger involvement of urban stakeholders
Improve coherence and coordination of EU urban related policies, align existing EU instruments with priority areas
Up-scaling of pilots, urban one-stop shop, etc.
Improve urban intelligence, benchmarking and monitoring
Consolidation of knowledgebase, knowledge-sharing

10. Taking the EU urban agenda forward
Make the EU urban agenda a priority – Recognition of the role of cities in the implementation of EU priorities
Horizontal and vertical policy coordination & integration – strengthen role of REGIO
Agree on objectives – defining priority areas
Agree on a working method – improve multi-level, multi-actor governance
Demonstrate results - developing the evidence-base, agreeing on targets, monitoring progress

11. Official Statistics and other sources
Recognise the city definition and degree of urbanisation
Provide a few demographic indicators annually
EC will invest in more data by
Continuing to support NSIs for additional city data
Investing in remote sensing (Urban Atlas, GHSL)
Support urban modelling (JRC LUISA)
Encourage more urban research (Horizon 2020, ESPON, WB, OECD …)
Investigate big data sources
In-house analysis

13. Chapter 3

14. Cities beyond Europe
World Bank - EC project to apply degree of urbanisation to the globe
UNECE census 2020 recommendations include degree of urbanisation
State of European Cities Report to be published in mid 2016 in support of Habitat III conference
Eurostat recommended to use city definition and/or degree of urbanisation for the urban Sustainable Development Goal

15. Conclusion Cohesion Policy works more and more with cities
Lack of an officially recognised definition and data is an obstacle to better take them into account
Many other EC services will use this definition and data
Globally there is a growing interest in this definition