The urban dimensions of EU Cohesion Policy - Workshop

Nuestra compañera Sonia De Gregorio Hurtado organiza desde la Universidad Politécnica de Madrid el Workshop "The Urban Dimensions of EU Cohesion Policies" en el marco de la Regional Studies Association. El evento tendrá lugar los días miércoles y jueves 19 y 20 de mayo de 2021.

Para registrarse como espectador, puede utilizarse el siguiente enlace: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScU9mln3Wj7ikCnmNVe7E8FIyIG8nYAmHJqTtKGODkVMJ3VHQ/viewform?usp=sf_link

The urban dimension of Cohesion Policy (CP) has evolved from the 1980s to the present in close relation with the increasing policy awareness on the relevance of cities to advance towards to a more balanced, competitive and sustainable EU territory. In 2013-14, the DG-Regio was even renamed as Directorate-General for Regional and Urban Policy, confirming the growing importance of the urban dimension in the frame of CP. Over the course of the last four programming periods of the Cohesion Policy, urban issues gained importance in terms of budget, policy relevance, and visibility. The design of the new financial and policy framework for the 2021-2027 period seems to be advancing further in this direction, with urban tools and interventions becoming more and more prominent. Nonetheless, criticism arises on how the urban issue is being addressed within the overall EU policy scene and concerning domestic determinant factors.  Considering the EU complex urban policy background and the construction of the Urban Agenda for the EU, as well as the EU commitment to the UN New Urban Agenda and its Sustainable Development Goals (SDG), the urban dimension of the EU Cohesion Policy is becoming central, even more within the new European Green Deal and the post-COVID-19 perspectives. While growing in importance, the urban dimension of EU Cohesion Policy remains ill-defined and under-researched, especially with regard to some of its relevant dimensions such as its intersection with regional policy.

The objective of this workshop is to provide a space for academic and policy debate on the evolution and future of this important dimension of EU Cohesion Policy.

The workshop will focus on cutting-edge research and will aim to push forward the debate on the following questions:

• Unpacking the urban dimension: What is the urban dimension of Cohesion policy? What are its priorities? How it evolves over time?
• Linking CP to urban planning: What is the link between the urban dimension of CP and urban planning? Are there synergies between the two? If not, how to generate them? To what extent does CP contribute to the Europeanisation of urban planning and other correlated practices?
• Urban tools and integrated territorial strategies in the frame of CP: What is the potential of Integrated Territorial Investment (ITI), Community-Led Local Development and other city-focused tools for rendering the CP interventions more place-based? How can these instruments enhance institutional capacity to devising and implementing integrated territorial strategies for urban regions? To empower urban stakeholders? To connect cities to their peri-urban and rural hinterlands?
• Urban impacts of CP: What are the impacts of EU funds in cities? What are the outcomes of Article 7 of 2014-2020 ERDF regulation? What have been the effects of the earmarking of at least 5% of the national ERDF allocations to support integrated sustainable urban development strategies and giving new competencies in allocating funding to projects to urban authorities? How was this principle implemented across the European territories, and with what results?
• Building capacity: What have been the capacity-building effects of CP urban instruments, such as ITI, URBACT, Article 7 and the Innovative Urban Actions?
• Inequalities, inclusion, gender, immigration, cities and ageing: How is the CP performing to reduce inequalities and social exclusion in cities? How can the potential of urban dimension of CP be harnessed to support those goals in the post-COVID-19 period?
• Comparative analysis of the implementation contexts: What are the variations in approaches to the use of CP for cities across the EU member states and regions? Which actors and territories are able to take advantage of the CP urban dimension to a greater extent?
• Lessons for post-2020: What lessons can be drawn for the post-2020 period and the new urban political objective? Can the Urban Agenda for the EU be fully embedded in Cohesion Policy in the 2021-2027 period? What crucial role for the European Urban Initiative?
• Bringing EU Cohesion Policy ‘closer to citizens’: Is there any evidence that the urban dimension could favour citizen engagement (and by extension, citizen support for the EU)?
• How will be crucial topics such as housing and urban poverty, among others, addressed in the post-2020 period? Through what innovative approaches can CP better address the urban challenges of the post-pandemic Urban Europe? What role can be played by the New Leipzig Chart in that regard?