1. 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

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

3. 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

4. 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

5. 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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

16. URBAN II

17. 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

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

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

20. 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

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

22. 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

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

24. 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

25. 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

26. 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

27. 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.

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

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

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

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

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

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