Promoting sustainable urban development in Europe is a key to achieve the objectives of the Europe 2020 strategy, namely smart, sustainable and inclusive growth, as the urban dimension of EU regional policy is highly significant. The European Parliament has an important role to play in fostering dialogue and networking activities related to integrated urban development and good urban governance, through close cooperation with the European Commission and Member States, aiming to design and finance an ambitious urban development agenda. Urban areas are the most densely populated, productive and competitive regions in Europe, as well as the most sensitive to social, economic and environmental challenges.

In this direction, the European Reference Framework for Sustainable Cities (RFSC) is based on the general principles of an eco-city and eco-district: an integrated approach of all public policies and all levels based on interaction of environmental, economic and social sectors. A flexible, collective, open and coherent approach is needed. It is essential to take on board all actors involved in sustainable and inclusive urban development such as local and regional authorities, enterprises, the scientific community, non-governmental organizations and final consumers.

The RFSC is inspired and based on the Leipzig Charter on Sustainable European Cities adopted by the informal Council of EU ministers responsible for spatial planning and urban development, and the Marseille Statement of 25 November 2008 by the informal Council of ministers of urban development.

This tool, in measuring the sustainability of cities and towns, makes use of four indicators: analysing urban sustainability according to economic, social and environmental factors; determining the integrated nature of every strategy; evaluating the attention paid to disadvantaged areas, and examining developments in city sustainability by using a host of indicators that still need to be decided.

There has been a positive feedback from the Member States and the Commission regarding this prototype implementing the Leipzig Charter and there is agreement to continue the Marseille process by calling for the development and finalisation of the reference framework for European sustainable cities. This final phase is expected to fall under the Polish Presidency of the European Union.

In fact, in 2011, the RFSC is being tested by 66 European cities with financial support and technical assistance provided by the Commission. In particular, a limited number of key indicators and a larger number of secondary indicators are recommended to cities in order to align the monitoring tool with EU 2020 headline and policy targets as well as to facilitate the comparability and exchange between cities across Europe. It is hence crucial to monitor and update those indicators accordingly to take into account emerging trends and disparities between European cities.

We are looking forward to the results of the test phase in November 2011 as well as the decisions of the Ministers regarding the future organisation and financing of the RFSC after 2011. In this context, it is essential to stress the importance of promoting and supporting sustainable urban development and the quality of life in European cities and towns through a variety of instruments.  For instance, URBACT is a valuable European exchange and learning programme that encourages sustainable urban development. In addition, the European Parliament calls the Commission to meet its objective of investing about 10 billion euros in urban areas. It is thus clear that European cohesion policy is a vital tool to foster sustainable urban development.

 

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