Sustainable urban development: economic and social regeneration of cities and of neighbourhoods in crisis, URBAN

PURPOSE : to lay down guidelines for a Community Initiative concerning economic and social regeneration of cities and of neighbourhoods in crisis in order to promote sustainable urban development (URBAN). CONTENT : on the basis of experience gained in the URBAN Initiative framework (1994-1999 programming period), the objectives of the new Community Initiative proposed are as follows : - to promote the formation and implementation of particularly innovative strategies for sustainable economic and social regeneration of small and medium sized towns and cities or of distressed urban neighbourhoods in larger cities; - to enhance and exchange knowledge and experience in relation to sustainable urban regeneration and development in the European Union. In order to fulfil these objectives, the urban regeneration strategies must adhere to the following priciples : - sufficient critical mass of population and associated support structres to facilitate the formulation and implementation of innovative and sustainable urban development programmes and a creative approach to urban governance and sustainable change; - strong local partnership to define challenges, strategy, priorities, resource allocation and to implement, monitor and evaluate the strategy; - linkage of the strategic plan for the area in question to the economic, social, environmental and physical network and strategies for the wider urban area or region; - integration of the economic, social, security environment and transport aspects, including equality of access to jobs and training opportunities from areas of concentrated exclusion; - promotion of equal opportunities between men and women; - promotion of the implementation at local level of EU environmental policies and legislation; - complementarity with the main forms of assistance under the Structural Funds and other Community Initiatives; - high quality of submissions through competition for selection of fewer, but high profile, programmes. The total contribution by the ERDF to URBAN during the period 2000-06 is fixed at EUR 700 million.�