Brussels, 31/01/2011 (Agence Europe) - The European Commission's promise of an “ambitious urban agenda” has the potential to radically reinvent EU cohesion policy, but only if it taps into the full capacities of cities and metropolitan areas. That was the main message from EUROCITIES Vice-President and Mayor of Warsaw Hanna Gronkiewicz-Waltz at the Fifth Cohesion Forum 2011 in Brussels.
She argued that the Commission's proposal had to fulfil five conditions to be successful in bringing forward the EU's cohesion policy. It must: (1) be based on compulsory urban earmarking in mainstream programmes; (2) remain as a development and investment policy for the whole EU; (3) involve cities at every stage of the process; (4) be channelled toward thematic priorities managed under partnerships; (5) improve financial instruments that don't exclude cities. “As outlined in our response to the Commission's fifth cohesion report, EUROCITIES' main message is, and remains, 'more urban, more impact'”, Gronkiewicz-Waltz said. (G.B./transl.rt)