Strong cities are crucially important for EU social, economic and territorial cohesion, since approximately 70% of the EU's population already live in cities and suburbs. The significance and potential of Europe's cities in driving growth, innovation and integration is undisputed. Ahead of the adoption of her opinion on 'Concrete steps for implementing the EU Urban agenda' by the CoR plenary session, we spoke to Hella Dunger-Löper, Berlin State Secretary for European Affairs, Germany, and CoR rapporteur for the EU urban agenda.
What are your hopes for the EU urban agenda?
I would like the urban agenda to ensure that in future the European institutions take urban issues into account as a matter of course from the beginning of the legislative process. It is high time to recognise that 70% of the EU's total population live in urban areas. This is not about drawing a line between town and country, but about also strengthening cooperation between urban and rural areas based on an effective European urban agenda.
What factors do you see as critical to the agenda's success?
The success of the EU urban agenda will depend on the political will and determination of the European institutions and the Member States. Assuming this will exists, then there are three factors that will be key to the success of the European urban agenda, namely transparency, participation and binding force. The process of framing and implementing an EU urban agenda absolutely must be transparent, so that all those involved, as well as external parties, can see what is going on and influence the process at any time. Participation is important because the urban agenda must be organised as a multilevel governance process. The binding force aspect is almost self-explanatory. Over nine years since the Leipzig Charter, which was based on an integrated approach, no further declarations of intent are needed. On the contrary, specific and binding implementation efforts are now called for from all those concerned, in particular the European Commission, to ensure that the urban agenda is effective.
What experiences with urban policy in Berlin could be transferred to the European level?
Berlin's experience with urban governance has been excellent, involving tangible shifts in the relationship (and understanding) between state and society, and citizens and local authorities. The aim is to facilitate new municipal and regional management, new forms of participation, and greater involvement of stakeholders, private players and businesses in planning, providing and financing public services. Another objective is to make better use of available social capital and innovation. One well-known project in Berlin is the "neighbourhood mothers", for example, where women with a migrant background support other migrants in everyday life, in areas where for instance the role of social workers is limited because of language barriers and trust issues. Experiences such as these are useful at European level. A global way of thinking can also be adopted, since after all the majority of urban centres are outside Europe. Thus as part of its activities in the Metropolis network, Berlin has developed a public database where cities across the world can feed in their project experiences, and also find information about the experiences of other cities.
