Brussels, 02/05/2001 (Agence Europe) - Bordeaux, Bilbao, Utrecht and Turin are organising, on Thursday 3 and Friday 4 May in Bordeaux, a conference on European pilot schemes for urban renewal. The conference will allow the results of such programmes in these four towns to be noted, as well as in other towns taking part in the conference. The aim of the organisers is to "support a policy for urban development in a sustainable, balanced and jointly committed way". The Commissioner, Michel Barnier, will be at the conference on Friday.
The second chapter of the European urban pilot programme was launched in 1997 for 26 towns selected. In order to be eligible, the schemes should cover problems such as traffic congestion, waste treatment and urban renovation. They must also be innovative and be able to set an example. The total budget was EUR 163.2 million for projects financed up to 75% by the EU for regions eligible under Objective 1, 50% for Objective 2 regions and 30% for towns that do not receive aid from either of these two Community policies.
The European Commission has not yet set out the results of this second phase of urban pilot schemes, as all programmes are not yet complete. It is acknowledged by Community sources that it would have been more useful to make this assessment before adopting the Urban II initiative, intended to support urban projects for the period 2000-2006. The lessons learnt from the second chapter on urban pilot projects have therefore been more intuitive than exhaustive, and a certain number have been used for the adoption of Urban II guidelines. The pilot projects will have proved useful in that they have shown it is indeed useful for the EU to intervene at the level of towns, and to establish examples and build up experience. Thirty-three initial schemes had been launched as of 1990, to be assessed in a report published in 1996. There will, however, be no third section for urban pilot projects.
Urban II projects should be adopted towards month of November
Although the general framework of the Urban II initiative was adopted just one year ago, no project of this Community programme, whose scope should cover the years 2000 to 2006, has yet been launched. We learn from Community sources that it is "hoped that most will be adopted by the month of November", which would make it possible to use certain commitment appropriations earmarked for this year. The Commission has received the schemes, except from the United Kingdom. It is now studying the admissibility of proposals. It will then discuss projects in greater detail with the towns concerned and the Member States. It would seem that some towns have already floated projects - mainly feasibility studies - in the hope that these projects will be well accepted by the Commission before the end of the year.