Luxembourg, 11/06/2015 (Agence Europe) - Ministers with responsibility for cohesion policy, meeting on Wednesday 10 June, adopted a statement on the EU urban agenda. Small and medium-sized towns and cities will be highlighted.
The agreement reached on the Riga Declaration is a significant step in the development of an EU urban policy agency, said Latvian Minister for Environmental Protection and Regional Development Kaspars Gerhards. The declaration, he went on, highlights the importance of the role played by small and medium-sized urban areas, which have to be taken into account in the development and implementation of EU urban policy.
The Council identified a series of key areas and principles which will have to be observed by future Presidencies: recognition of the diversity of urban regions, the opportunities that they offer, closer integration of the urban dimension in drafting European policies and enhancing cooperation between these urban areas.
Seeking to provide reassurance, Regional Policy Commissioner Corina Cretu said that the goal of the EU urban agenda was not to transfer new powers to Europe. It would not, she said, impose further regulation and would not encroach on the principle of subsidiarity. On the contrary, the urban agenda was about putting in place better regulation and greater transparency. These comments were qualified by Committee of the Regions President Markku Markkula, who said that, nonetheless, it was acknowledged that there is no great coherence at European level between political initiatives and the wide variety of investment programmes. Territorial impact studies, he went on, must regularly be an integral part of the process of drafting European legislation.
The urban agenda seeks to help urban areas tackle the challenges they face, to provide impetus to job-creating growth and to meet the goals set out in the EUROPE 2020 strategy (see EUROPE 11326).
This was the first time ministers had met to debate this issue and they held discussions with high-ranking officials of the European institutions, including the European Commission, the Committee of the Regions, the European Economic and Social Committee and the European Investment Bank. EU candidate countries also attended the meeting, as did Norway and Switzerland.
The Commission has said that it would like agreement to be reached on a consolidated agenda in 2016, under the Dutch Presidency. (Pascal Hansens)