A vélemény adatlapja 

THE COMMITTEE OF THE REGIONS



- considers that when making strategic choices for the forthcoming programming period (2014 2020) the EU should recognise the strategic importance of urban regeneration and ensure that the urban dimension is given more priority in all its policies, with a view to making cities laboratories again, this time with a much fuller agenda, to help the EU out of the economic and financial crisis;

- proposes that an initiative be launched called "Urban regeneration for smart, sustainable and inclusive EU cities". The EU's cities can become the location of choice for implementing the seven flagship initiatives set out in the Europe 2020 Strategy;

- invites the Commission to closely analyse the mainstreaming of the URBAN Community Initiative in the ERDF Operational Programmes and to produce a specific mid-term evaluation of the results. In the light of this evaluation, it could be deemed necessary to reinforce the specific character of urban regeneration initiatives within the Structural Funds during the next programming period and also to improve its coordination with other policies within a European Urban Agenda;

- stresses that in those areas affected by urban decay, the city should once more be made an attractive place to live, capable of fulfilling everybody's aspirations irrespective of their income levels; believes that distressed urban areas must not and cannot be abandoned, as they are a source of untapped talent and represent a waste of resources in terms of human and physical capital that lies idle when it could be put to productive use and contribute to overall economic growth;

- considers aggravation of social inequality to be a major challenge in most urban areas. In this regard, the new territorial cohesion objective added in the Lisbon Treaty should spur all levels of government to take these disparities into account in all urban sectoral policies, within the framework of integrated urban regeneration strategies.