EUROPEAN COMMISSION REGIONAL POLICY Urbanrural linkages Commission activities

EUROPEAN COMMISSION REGIONAL POLICY Urban-rural linkages Commission activities 2008 -2009 Władysław PISKORZ DIRECTORATE-GENERAL FOR REGIONAL POLICY Directorate for Policy Development Head Of Unit C 2 - Territorial Cohesion and Urban Development Meeting of Directors General Prague, 18 May 2009

EUROPEAN COMMISSION REGIONAL POLICY Urban-rural linkages: an old divide • Traditionally, urban and rural development have been shaped as different strands of spatial policy • Urban development was traditionally targeting growth poles and urban centres • Rural development is an off-spring of the Common Agricultural Policy of the European Union and is despite recent reforms mainly oriented towards the farming community

EUROPEAN COMMISSION REGIONAL POLICY Urban-rural linkages: New times require new approaches • The classical divide more and more obsolete • The promotion of competitive territories and sustainable and balanced development at regional level requires new thinking • Valorisation of experience already gained on the ground

EUROPEAN COMMISSION REGIONAL POLICY Urban-rural linkages: key developments • The European Spatial Development Perspective (ESDP) • The Territorial Agenda (including its Action Programme) • The Leipzig Charter • Green paper on Territorial Cohesion

EUROPEAN COMMISSION REGIONAL POLICY Urban-rural linkages and territorial cohesion: • Territorial cohesion: a place-based approach • Move away from administrative to functional areas • Example: Urban-rural territories (but also others…)

EUROPEAN COMMISSION REGIONAL POLICY Urban-rural linkages: Situations vary considerably across Europe • Diversity of situations across EU 27 • Some situations require cooperation across administrative borders – others not Example: Czech Republic, Sweden

EUROPEAN COMMISSION REGIONAL POLICY Seminars on urban-rural linkages: overall aim • To foster and stimulate the debate among stakeholders on urbanrural issues • To provide a platform by which experience from the ground can be disseminated and taken stock of. • To feed in to the discussions on the future Cohesion policy

EUROPEAN COMMISSION REGIONAL POLICY Messages from 1 st seminar on 17 September 2008 in Brussels • From urban and rural to functional urban-rural areas • Urban-rural context varies a lot across Europe (EU 15 ↔ EU 12) • Need to develop effective multilevel governance structures • Remoteness in a geographical sense ≠ remoteness in a relational sense • Better integration of European funding • Lessons learned from the URBAN and LEADER Community Initiatives • Initiatives offered to overcome the urban-rural dichotomy

EUROPEAN COMMISSION REGIONAL POLICY Messages from the 2 nd seminar on 23 January 2009 in Brussels • Which urban-rural areas? (metropolitan, remote including small and mediumsized towns, intermediate) • Case studies illustrated: Voluntary cooperation not always enough Spin-off effects (ex Lille: start with public transport, extend to other fields) Win-win situations (ex Lake Balaton) • The compact city (vision for the future or illusion? )

EUROPEAN COMMISSION REGIONAL POLICY Upcoming and future events • Budapest conference 11 -12 June 2009 on rural poverty • 3 nd urban-rural seminar: 1 July 2009? • Theme: Social cohesion How to address the issue of micro-pockets of poverty in urban and rural areas? How to develop cooperation between urban and rural areas to help in identifying methods to counter segregation and promote re-integration? • And then? Two seminars on local development planned (autumn 2009, beginning 2010)

EUROPEAN COMMISSION REGIONAL POLICY Urban-rural linkages Commission activities 2008 -2009 i http: //ec. europa. eu/regional_policy/conferences/ urban_rural/index_en. htm

EUROPEAN COMMISSION REGIONAL POLICY More information: Ø Cohesion Policy 2007 -2013: Factsheets http: //ec. europa. eu/regional_policy/atlas 2007/fiche_index_en. htm Ø INFOREGIO (DG REGIO website) http: //ec. europa. eu/regional_policy/index. fr. htm Ø Rural development site at DG AGRI http: //ec. europa. eu/dgs/agriculture/index_en. htm