This open access book presents a unique interdiscplinary analysis of urban projects promoted by the EU from a comparative perspective This book presents cross-sectional and cross-time analyses at the territorial level targeted by these initiatives focusing on the design, theory and impacts of urban projects developed under the framework of initiatives promoted by the European Union. The book includes a new methodology to analyse the design and theory of urban plans (the comparative urban portfolio analysis) and quasi-experimental strategies to perform impact assessment at the neighbourhood level (the territorial target of those initiatives). Although empirical analyses focus on examples in Spain, the resulting analytical and methodological outcomes of these studies can be applied in a broader context to analyse integral urban policies in other countries.

Urban areas are strategic spaces for the promotion of sustainable development and socio-spatial cohesion in Europe. Around 75 per cent of the European population lives in urban areas, generating about 80 per cent of the European GDP. However, urban areas also face the challenges of poverty and social exclusion in some neighbourhoods, as well as socio-spatial segregation processes or environmental problems. Due to this relevance and these challenges, since the 1990s, the European Union has been shaping a policy area through different initiatives to promote development and social cohesion in cities. Nowadays, EU urban initiatives-also termed the urban dimension of the Cohesion Policy-include different initiatives supporting local plans to promote sustainable urban development, initiatives seeking innovative solutions to urban problems, or the sharing and increasing of capabilities among national and local policymakers and practitioners through different collaborative networks across Europe. However, since the URBAN Initiative in the 1990s, the most traditional and relevant initiatives have been the 'urban integrated strategies'. These are plans designed and implemented at the local scale, and applying the integrated strategy in public policies aimed to fulfil the goals proposed by the EU through its cohesion policy at the local scale across Europe. Analyses of the legal framework and documentation for these initiatives at the EU and member state level, as well as in-depth case studies, have provided analytical ideas and information about this growing dimension of the European cohesion policy. The New Urban Agenda (United Nations) and the Urban Agenda for the European Union indicate new urban policies based on the integrated strategy require evidence-policy analyses to ensure better policy design, implementation and the accomplishment of objectives. The current book aims to offer some policy evidence, analytical ideas and research strategies aligned with this goal. We do so by analysing the actual nature of integrated urban strategies promoted by the EU and their added value in terms of improvements in their policy design, implementation and effects at the local level. Have these strategies applied the integrated strategy proposed by the EU? Are there changes pointing to the existence of improvements and learning effects about the integrated strategy across time? Have these strategies improved the living conditions among residents in targeted urban territories.

Since the beginning of the 1990s, regions and urban areas have become a primary target of EU Cohesion Policy. For a number of European cities, especially in the less developed regions, this has resulted in a unique opportunity for the implementation of extensive development projects, as well as delivering innovations in urban policy and local governance. Through the detailed observation of planning processes which took place in four European cities – Porto (PT), Malaga (ES), Palermo (IT), and Thessaloniki (EL) – this book explores the different ways that EU intervention can affect the policy process locally, from the regeneration of decayed neighbourhoods and the creation of key services for improving the quality of life, to the establishment of new governance relations and increasing the institutional capacity in local government. The book also provides a critical reflection on the impact of EU urban policy in reducing regional disparities and the extent to which Cohesion Policy has helped cities to open new pathways for local development. With a special focus on the EU’s marginal regions, this book is a guide to understanding how EU policy has affected urban change and local development across Europe. The chapters in this book were originally published as a special issue of the journal Urban Research & Practice.

First published in 1998, this collection of essays compares the implementation of urban policies in 15 different countries across the European Union, with most articles’ contributors hailing from their subject nation. The contributors include experts in geography and spatial, town, transport and urban planning, and their contributions reflect fundamental changes in the economy, technology, demography and politics of European towns and cities. They ask four main questions: what the urban development pattern is, what administrative and financial relations between national authorities and cities exist, which issues the national authorities consider to be prominent and how this impacts on the national urban planning policies. Through the provision of national perspectives, they ask what can be learned through the comparison of how each region has tailored its perspective and strategy.

This theoretically rooted and research-based book provides insights on the JESSICA funding model which – unlike the traditional non-repayable aid – focuses on supporting sustainable urban development projects in a repayable and recyclable way. Looking through the lens of the JESSICA financial engineering mechanism used in urban transformation, it examines the functioning and performance thereof and formulates policy recommendations for the future. The aim of this volume is to contribute to a deeper understanding of the JESSICA sustainable funding model by exploring its repayable assistance mechanism to support sustainable urban development projects. The authors make several noteworthy contributions to the literature on EU cohesion policy and shed light on the use of the repayable instruments within public interventions, while providing, for the first time, a critical analysis of the JESSICA sustainable funding model from the holistic perspective which is especially relevant for supporting sustainable urban development. Financial Engineering in Sustainable Funding of Urban Development in the EU provides policy-significant findings that are important for EU cohesion policy in the field of repayable assistance to be reinvested in the long term in urban and regional transformation.

By propagating a specific ideal of the 'European City', the European Union significantly influences development policy in the continent's urban regions. Officially, the EU does not have a remit to do so, but the future of its cities is is seen as crucially important for the future of the Union itself. The EU Commission has therefore favoured strategically a 'multi-governance' model for urban development, which has gradually increased the influence of local and regional 'actors' on national urban policies - mediated by an extensive lobby and 'discourse network' largely under the supranational Commission's guidance. The Dossier outlines how this strategy developed from the 1990s onwards, culminating in the 2016 'Pact of Amsterdam'. It presents an analysis of all relevant documents of the last three decades, describes the main 'actors' of EU urban development and traces the 'consensual method' of urban policy in contemporary Europe. It also presents an overview of practically all EU-financed or co-funded projects in European cities since the 1990s and their rationales of EU cohesion, environmental and climate change mitigation policies in favour of urban-regional development.

Reflecting on two decades of ’competitiveness-oriented’ urban policies in Europe, this book investigates the current challenges cities face to sustain their economic position and how this can be balanced with social progress and environmental improvements. Complementing previous surveys on local and urban development and competitiveness-based strategies, this volume provides longer term views on the evolution of such policies at the city level, from the personal perspective of city officials in eight European cities. More concretely, it looks at how the urban dimension in EU policies have evolved over time, the kinds of urban policy supported by the EU over the last two decades and how cities have been involved with this process. The book investigates the portfolios of competitiveness-oriented policies which have been developed by European cities and how they see the link between urban/spatial development policies and sustainable competitiveness. Finally the book fleshes out a number of challenges and initiatives taken by the eight European cities and their governments in the face of current challenges in order to pave the way towards more competitive and sustainable urban economies.

European cities are contributing to the development of a more sustainable urban system that is capable of coping with economic crises, ecological challenges and social disparities in different nation-states and regions throughout Europe. This book reveals in a pluralistic way how European cities are generating new approaches to their sustainable development, and the special contribution of culture to these processes. It addresses both a deficit of attention to small and medium-sized cities in the framework of European sustainable development, and an underestimation of the role of culture, artistic expression and creativity for integrated development of the city as a prerequisite to urban sustainability. On the basis of a broad collection of case studies throughout Europe, representing a variety of regionally specific cultural models of sustainable development, the book investigates how participative culture, community arts, and more generally, creativity of civic imagination are conducive to the goal of a sustainable future of small and medium-sized cities. This is an essential volume for researchers and postgraduate students in urban studies, cultural studies, cultural geography and urban sociology as well as for policymakers and practitioners wanting to understand the specificity of European cities as hubs of innovation, creativity and artistic industriousness.

Recoge:1. STRENGTHENED CITES, GROWING REGIONS - 2. THE ROLE OF CITIES AND URBAN POLICIES FOR SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT IN EUROPE - 3. TOWARDS A COMMON EUROPEAN METHODOLOGY FOR SUSTAINABLE URBAN DEVELOPMENT - 4. PERSPECTIVES ON THE FUTURE DEVELOPMENT OF EUROPEAN CITIES - GLOSSARY.