Urban dimension of territorial cohesion: perspective facing the crisis

The Territorial Agenda highlighted in 2007 the increasing influence of European policies on the territory. On one hand these policies, adopting an integrated and strategic territorial approach, should take into account as soon as possible the development potentials at local, regional and national level as well as the stakeholders directions. On the other hand the strategies devoted to specific development of cities and regions have to enter more explicitly both in national and European framework. It was considered essential that regional, local and national issues were articulated with Community policies, with particular reference to rural development policies, environmental and transport policies but also to cohesion. In this context, the Leipzig Charter on Sustainable European City was fully inserted in the Territorial Agenda since the Chart promoted an integrated policy for urban development as a task of the European dimension. Integrated urban development policy and territorial cohesion policy were seen then as two complementary contributions to the realization of sustainable development. The entry into force of the new Treaty of Lisbon (2009), provided a more solid basis for action on territorial domain: Cohesion policy aims to articulate more and more according to a multidimensional view that aspires to be economic, social and, above all, territorial. Meanwhile, the global economic and financial crisis occurs. A crisis affecting Europe, too, and that in part undermines the macroeconomic convergence achieved by cohesion policy. Economic, social and territorial cohesion remains at the center of the most recent policy document prepared by the Commission: Europe 2020, which should be the reference for the next ten years as at the time was for the Lisbon-Gothenburg Strategy. The vision for Europe is that of a smart, sustainable and inclusive 'growth'. The Territorial Agenda renewed in 2011, which not surprisingly is called TA 2020, taking as fundamental the objectives assumed in the Leipzig Charter (and in the other documents on urban development as the Declarations of Marseille and Toledo), however, considers the cities as engines for smart, sustainable and inclusive 'development' and promotes them as attractive places to live, to visit and where to invest. But the TA sees also as the deprived urban areas, the existence of which is often hidden from official statistics, can be a special place of exclusion. The urban regeneration policies are seen as a potential support for local development where it is necessary to adopt an integrated and multi-level approach. The development process of European policy is profoundly affected by the ongoing processes of change at the global scale. On one side are recognized structural characteristics of the economic crisis and, on the other, there is a clear need for choices no longer be postponed in relation to 'energy model' development both in terms of security of supply and the fight against climate change. The dialogue between macroeconomic policies and territorial development policies seems increasingly involve a local development model that refers to different disciplines and different social practices. The starting point is the idea that the development of different regions follow different paths and that the residual factors not explained by classic or Neo-Keynesian economic theory are of endogenous nature and often intangible. Regarding the contribution of local development to cohesion policy, the Barca report on a place-based policy emphasizes that local development is likely to increase the efficiency of Community funding through increased concentration of structural funds at the local level and by virtue better management of local projects, selected on the basis of eligibility criteria and subject to monitoring and evaluation. The current phase is crucial for the determination of the guidelines for the next programming period post-2013. The proposal for a New Regulation 2014-2020 precisely in relation to the 'new objective' territorial cohesion refers to the need to address the role of cities, functional geographical areas and sub-regional territories which have specific geographic or demographic problems. To this end, in order to better enhance the potential at the local level, the local development initiatives should be strengthened and facilitated, making sure they are participatory, establishing common standards and providing close coordination for all the funds of the Community Support Framework. Territorial cohesion implies here explicitly sustainable urban development to which the ERDF allocates at least 5% of the resources devoted to integrated actions in this field for each Member State (with investments from different channels). In addition, the Commission will launch calls for innovative actions in urban areas and make ESF human capital investments in cities easier.The framework laid down in the new Partnership Agreement implies a structured participatory process and the definition of strategies and priorities at the national and regional level for the construction of local development strategies at the urban scale. To do this requires elements of 'knowledge of the land' and the construction of a knowledge base for the development and monitoring of the actions that require a new focus on the ability of local authorities in driving initiatives. Starting from these considerations, the contribution aims to investigate the past and current areas of action of the European policy and to explore which dimensions of territorial cohesion are typical of urban scale and what kind of policies should be taken.