Regional and Urban Policy

The Urban Development Network

Brussels, 3 June 2015

DESIGN OF INTEGRATED URBAN DEVELOPMENT

STRATEGIES

WORKSHOP 1

Structure of the workshop

• I. Introduction by the Commission

•

• II. Presentation by Ivan Tosics

•

• III. Table discussion of Key Questions – 60 Minutes

• IV. Feedback and identification of the key questions/points that have been raised in group discussions

DESIGN OF INTEGRATED URBAN DEVELOPMENT

STRATEGIES

Iván Tosics

Metropolitan Research Institute, Budapest and URBACT

Integrated approach to urban development

• Development of the EU-level policy framework: Urban Pilot Projects (1989-1993), URBAN I (1994-1999), URBAN II (2000-2006) Community Initiatives. Financially very limited EU initiatives, pushing successfully national urban policies towards integrated approach, focussing on small problem neighbourhoods.

• 2007-2013: mainstremaing URBAN, with little success…

• 2008 economic and financial crisis: the multitude of challenges in Europe (climate, energy, ageing, social polarisation, mobility…) and their complex interactions can only be handled by integrated approach. Revival of the area-based approach: the publication of the Barca report in 2009

• The compulsory urban dimension (Article 7) was ideally meant to be a multi-level governance structure in which a national/regional level policy framework would stimulate and regulate area-based interventions in selected cities

The EC Guidance about integrated development (May 2015)

• Aim: creating a coherent and integrated response to the problems of the urban area concerned (deprived neighbourhood, city district, entire city, metropolitan area) on a wider urban area level

• It should address the real development needs of the area, explored through a robust analysis (relevant data, SWOT), through a strategy co-produced with citizens, civil society and other stakeholders

• It should set out a mid-term/long-term vision i.e. until at least 2020

• The strategy should clearly refer and build upon other major investments (including ESI-funded investments) occurring within the urban area concerned

• Although not compulsory, Member States should seek to use the ESF, in synergy with the ERDF

• The Commission recommends that coordination mechanisms are set up between relevant MAs to ensure synergy and coordination between investments, in particular EU supported ones, in the urban territory concerned.

• The integrated urban strategy should not be viewed as an administrative exercise that an urban authority has to complete in order to qualify for funding under Article 7 ERDF. It should be a comprehensive and evolving strategy that is of real use to the urban authority and that helps to address key challenges.

URBACT action planning framework

a) Summary of the urban context and the identification of the main problems and policy challenges

Statistical and referenced evidence to demonstrate and define city context and challenges. Explore the current state of play with regard to the main challenges.

b) Setting of focus and objectives

Determining the focus of strategy in a co-producing way

c) Actions / schedule

Breakdown of indicative activities / actions / operations

d) Funding scheme

e) Framework for delivery

f) Risk analysis

Mechanisms for integration

• HORIZONTAL integration (in terms of policy management) between policy areas, coordinating the policy fields

• VERTICAL integration (in terms of government) between different levels of government, allowing for multi-level governance

• TERRITORIAL integration (in terms of geography) between neighbouring municipalities, allowing for cooperation in functional urban areas

Horizontal integration between policy areas

• Avoiding silos of sectoral policies

• All sectoral decisions should be controlled regarding their effects on other sectors

• Needs strong initiatives: • policy schemes (national, regional or local) for integrated

planning;

• appropriate tools (for investments, for management);

• special organizations managing the integrated process;

Integrated development might require sub-optimal solutions along each dimension in order to reach good balance between all dimensions

8th

District

Data

Programok

Urban Renewal and

Regeneration

Programs in

Józsefváros

8. 2003-2013 Corvin

Promenade Program

6. 2005-2010 Magdolna

Quarter Programs

1. 2007-2010 Európa

Downtown Project

Urban

Planning

Organisations &

Agencies

Rév8 urban development agency (plc)

Staff Founded in 1997, they started to employ colleagues

from the field of economy as well as humanities

(geographer, sociologists, social workers,

economists, engineers)

Tasks urban and social engineering, responsible for the

regeneration of Józsefváros

Approach after visiting some foreign examples, they started to

use integrated approach by working out new

programs and developing the strategic plan for the

district

Organisations &

Agencies

Vertical integration between different levels of government

• Multilevel governance means sharing responsibilities between different levels of government

• Rationale: higher levels of government are concerned with outcomes at the lower level, agreeing in co-assignment of responsibilities

• Cities can strive for more integration, BUT cities can not achieve the most important goals without regional and national frameworks

Example on vertical integration

England: New Deal for Communities, 1998-2008

• A budget of £2 billion, distributed over 10 years, was allocated to 39 areas, each containing around 4,000 households. Each of the areas received around £50 million

• Key issues set on the agenda by the central government: reduce worklessness and crime and improve health, education, and community safety as well as housing and the environment.

• Implementations included collaboration between agencies or initiatives. Local partnerships were formed between residents, community organisations, local authorities and local businesses

Territorial integration: coordination between neighbouring municipalities

Coordination between neighbouring municipalities in functional urban areas is crucial to

• avoid the negative effects of competition (investments, services, taxes) between local authorities

• help to integrate policies – economic, environmental and social challenges can best be addressed at once on broader urban level

• reach the economy of scale – size matters in economic terms and in services

However, functional urban areas are not easy to define and usually weak in administrative-political sense

ITI – Teritorial definition of the Warsaw Functional Area

surface: 2.932 sqkm.

(8% of the surface of the region)

population:

2.656.917 inhabitants

(50,3% of the population of

the region)

40 communes –

including Warsaw

(within 11 counties)

The process • Project brain storming by 5 municipalities and the Mazovian

Planning Office • Meetings with all the 40 municipalities of the Warsaw

Functional Area concerning the programming project • Survey of the willingness of the 40 municipalities to join ITI • Signature of a joint declaration of 33 municipalities of the

Warsaw Functional Area about cooperation within the future ITI • Designation of an ITI coordinator in each participating

municipality • Creation of an ITI association by all participating municipalities,

start of work on the development strategy for the area • Discussion of the strategy with the Ministry and the regional

management authority • Resolutions in all municipal councils concerning ITI • Acceptance of the strategy by the Ministry and the regional

management authority, formal agreement between the ITI association, the Ministry and the regional management authority

Governance model: a combination of initiatives from below and from above

• Free choice concerning accession to the ITI • Incentive: Priority given to projects within ITI in relation to

similar projects proposed by municipalities outside ITI • Free choice of the legal model of cooperation out of three

options: chosen: agreement between municipalities • Leadership of the core city: negotiator with the ministry and

the management authority of Regional Operational Programme, management of ITI

• Cost sharing: Management cost financed by OP „Technical Assistance”, cost not qualified shared following number of inhabitants, local co-financing by municipality proposing a project

• Except for infrastructure, cooperation with private sector and NGO’s

Thematic fields (EU-Cofinancing)

• 50.5 mln EUR Bicycle tracks

• 33.1 mln EUR Park-and-Ride parking lots

• 34.3 mln EUR Job creation, support to start- ups, innovation, preparation of investment lots, economic promotion of metropolitan area

• 16.9 mln EUR e- tickets, e-administration, e-learning, e-health

National help to develop integrated local strategies: the case of Hungary

• Cities which were assigned for Article 7 got from the Ministry appr 140 th eur for the support of strategy development (including data collection and participative planning)

• Mentoring was also available for the cities: groups of 6 experts visited the cities, helped to understand the methodology, initiate participative planning, develop documents; all these based on detailed guidance documents

• Compulsory elements of the framework: planning on FUA level, exploring links to sectoral planning, work with stakeholders and with the mentors

• Process: based on detailed partnership plan, development of strategic aims, management and monitoring aspects

Bottlenecks of integrated participatory planning

• FUA-level planning and strategy development needs trust between the municipalities, special cooperation instruments and promise on proportionate use of development means

• Participatory planning is time-consuming, needs patience from the higher (MA, ministerial) level which is responsible for the OP development

• Coordination between bottom-up developed strategies and top-down determined OP framework is very difficult

• Mentoring system might work well if the best consultants are selected (difficulties with public procurement process) and sufficient financing is available

Summary: key messages

The ERDF Article 7 procedure should help the development of „real integrated strategies”, covering all territorial development issues (not only those which are related to the Article 7 or in a broader sense to the Structural Funds financing)

The territorial dimension of the integrated strategies should cover the whole city, with at least an outlook to the functional urban area

Integration should be understood in a broad sense, including economic, environmental and social aspects (there is no integrated strategy without social proofing ...)

Ensuring enough time and resources for planning, and mentoring the process at city/FUA level are necessary conditions for participatory and integrated planning

ERDF Article 7 Sustainable urban development

• The minimal amount is 5% of the ERDF allocation (9,4 bn eur) for the 28 countries across the whole programming period.

• In reality this amount will be higher as many countries will spend more - according to preliminary data Member States plan to spend appr 16 bn eur (8,6% of the ERDF allocation).

• In many countries the cities (or functional urban areas) which will receive the Article 7 money are not selected yet. To get an estimate on the relative importance of Article 7 the minimum amount of allocation is related to the size of the population in the functional urban areas of the given country, simulated by the new OECD indicator (www.oecd.org/gov/regional/measuringurban).

The relative size of Article 7 allocation

• High Article 7 resources (70-180 eur per capita in FUA population): Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Estonia, Greece, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia

• Medium Article 7 resources (30-40 eur per capita in FUA population): Italy, Spain

• Low Article 7 resources (0-20 eur per capita in FUA population): Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Sweden, United Kingdom.

Estimates on ITI financing in selected urban areas

Urban area

(core city)

Appr. money

for ITI

(million eur)

Appr. number

of population

(million)

Estimated

financing, eur

per person

Wroclaw 300 0,9 333

Warsaw 165 2,65 62

Finland 80 2,2 36

Randstad 50 2,5 20

Lille 13 1,2 11

Table discussions of key questions

1. The needs and content of integrated strategies (5-10) mins The conditions in the given countries regarding the planning of Article 7. The main characteristics of the needs of the cities

2. The characteristics of the integrated strategies (15-20) Territory, Time frame, Level of detail, Financing, Horizontal issues

3. The practice of integrated strategy making (20-25) How can the cities ensure preparing meaningful, good quality strategies? How can the MA help cities in the process?

4. The procedure and institutions of integrated strategy making (5-10)

Reverse logic (national Article 7 frameworks designed before the local urban development strategies could have been finalised). How can multi-level governance/ bottom-up planning be facilitated? Timeline – when and how did the process of integrated planning start, what are the milestones of the process, when should the integrated strategies be ready for approval? Risks and obstacles from the side of the urban areas and the MAs