Markkula:"Let's agree an EU Urban Agenda without wasting another 20 years"

Met dank overgenomen van Comité van de Regio's (CvdR) i, gepubliceerd op dinsdag 2 juni 2015.

"After 20 years of debate there is still no coherent EU urban strategy. Despite 75% of citizens living in cities, there is a lack of consistency across EU policy initiatives which is holding back urban development and modernisation. The time has come to move forward and the forthcoming Riga Declaration should mark a turning point in this drawn out process". This was the main message delivered by the President of the European Committee of the Regions (CoR), Markku Markkula, at the Cities Forum 2015 in Brussels today.

The event, organised by the European Commission, gathered EU institutions and stakeholders whom assessed the progress made towards the establishment of an EU Urban Agenda. Speaking at the event President Markkula said that what was needed was, "A genuine cross-cutting of the urban dimension in the EU decision-making process" and not "a specific EU strategy or programme". For this reason, the CoR has previously called on the European Commission to draw up a White Paper that would give all European policies and legislation an urban dimension. This would be the key step to deal with and overcome the lack of consensus among member States that had blocked the process so far.

However, some recent signs suggest the stalemate could be coming to an end. The European Parliament's Committee for Regional Development has drafted a report on the issue which should be adopted by September. The Latvian EU Presidency will present a Declaration on 9 June at the Informal Cohesion Council where EU ministers responsible for Urban Development will, for the first time, be called upon to commit to develop a shared EU Urban Agenda.

Speaking about these developments the EU Commissioner for Regional Policy - Corina Crețu i - underlined the relevance of the progress made in recent months, “After 20 years of debate we are no longer discussing if we need an Urban Agenda but how we can start making it happen. The EU's ambitious objectives will only be reached with the support and active participation of its cities. The Urban Agenda is about enabling cities to fully contribute to our shared priorities and deliver concrete benefits for citizens."