If we are going to build a greener, fairer Europe it is necessary to include the EU's big metropolitan areas in the process - this, in a nutshell, was the message conveyed by the stakeholders and researches who participated in an event on the role of big cities in cohesion policy organized by the ESPON programme, which specializes in analysing regional policies, in collaboration with the Portuguese EU Council presidency.
The debate was an opportunity to reflect on integrating the objectives of the cohesion policy into the planning and implementation of policies at the metropolitan level, and on the role cohesion policy can play in improving cooperation and governance dynamics for big cities.
The analysis was based on the evidence that came from two research projects: ESPON Metro and ESPON Imagine.
The first compared the extremely heterogeneous experiences of nine cities and metropolitan areas in different parts of Europe.
The second focused on an urban area of great significance for the EU, the one between Milan and Bologna.
"There are ongoing processes and new dynamics in the territories and functions that the current institutional framework is not able to govern", remarked Piero Bassetti, the founder of Globus et Locus, an observatory on glocalization.
He pointed out that these emerging needs, which span from mobility to logistics and the environment, represent a challenge "for institutions to redefine their own forms of governance" and require "new techniques of government".
Bassetti, therefore, considers it to be fundamentally important to develop "strategical networks and programmes at the European level that are able to govern the transformation of urban and regional scenarios".
On the other hand, Alfredo Corbalan, the EU Affairs Manager for the Brussels-Capital Region, thinks that the EU cohesion policy, which supports local-led development strategies and confers powers to local authorities to manage European funds, is "a key instrument to build trust and create ways to cooperate and make metropolises more sustainable".
According to Alessandra Barbieri, a manager for the municipality of Florence, in this context urban areas displayed "best practices in the national operational programming of funds on metropolitan cities in the period 2014-2020, conceived in the framework of the EU Urban Agenda for Cohesion Policy".
Barbieri thinks "it is necessary to capitalize on this experience" especially in light of the new challenges posed by the pandemic and the economic recovery. Metropolitan cities are ready "to do their bit in building a greener, more digital, resilient and social Europe," concluded Barbieri, "in part thanks to the direct role they can play in managing and monitoring the Next Generation EU programme funds".
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