Brussels, 18/11/2004 (Agence Europe) - At its conference on 11 November in Vienna on the theme “Reconciling economic competitiveness and social responsibility”, the European association Eurocities (which represents 120 European cities) adopted a political declaration, the “Vienna Declaration”, which lays down its proposals to better meet the needs of the 100 million Europeans who live in cities and urban areas. The “Vienna Declaration will be given to the ministers responsible for urban policy in the enlarged EU, who will be meeting informally on the 29 and 30 November in Rotterdam, as well as to President Barroso and the Commissioners with portfolios which relate to urban issues (employment and social policy, regional policy, environment, transport, culture and education, information society, enterprise and industry, single market and services) and to MEPs.
Many of the proposals in the declaration concern ways in which to develop and strengthen dialogue between cities, European institutions and national governments, building on commitments already made by the European Commission and the promises contained in the European Constitution, including the subject of participatory democracy. Among the specific Eurocities demands are: 1) to the Council of the EU and to member states to: - set up a system to evaluate the member states' urban policies in order to compare and assess the urban impact of European policy; - agree a multi-annual cooperation programme on urban issues with a set of common objectives for national urban policy; - organise an annual meeting of ministers responsible for urban policy in the enlarged EU, as well as a high level meeting directly before each Spring Summit with representatives of the Presidency of the Council of the EU, the European Commission, the EP, the Committee of the Regions and associations representing local and regional authorities; - 2) to the European Commission to: -organise an annual meeting of the Presidents of the Commission, the Committee of the Regions and associations representing local and regional authorities, and regular meetings between the Commissioners responsible for policies with urban or regional impact; - establish its own Task Force on urban issues; 3) to the European Parliament to: - ensure dialogue with local and regional authorities; - investigate the possibility of drawing up an inter-institutional agreement on this theme; - establish an Inter-group on urban affairs. (For details, see http://www.eurocities.org ).