{
  "url": "https://openlegislation.uk/eu-decision-2006-702/annex/division-2/division-2.1",
  "json_url": "https://openlegislation.uk/eu-decision-2006-702/annex/division-2/division-2.1.json",
  "legislation": "eudn/2006/702",
  "legislation_title": "Council Decision of 6 October 2006 on Community strategic guidelines on cohesion (2006/702/EC)",
  "legislation_url": "https://openlegislation.uk/eu-decision-2006-702",
  "path": "annex/division/2/division/2.1",
  "kind": "division",
  "number": "2.1",
  "heading": "The contribution of cities to growth and jobs",
  "text": "As outlined in the Commission Communication on cohesion policy and cities, over 60 % of the population in the European Union lives in urban areas of over 50 000 inhabitants. Cities, and urban areas in general, are the home of most jobs, businesses and higher education institutions and are key to achieving social cohesion. European cities and metropolitan areas tend to attract the highly skilled, often creating a virtuous circle that stimulates innovation and business adding to their attractiveness to new talent.\nCities and urban areas concentrate not only opportunities but also challenges, and account should be taken of the specific problems facing urban areas, such as unemployment and social exclusion (including the problem of the ‘working poor’), high and rising crime rates, increased congestion and the existence of pockets of deprivation within city boundaries.\nProgrammes with a focus on urban areas can take several different forms. First, there are actions to promote cities as motors of regional development. Such actions should target improvements in competitiveness, for example, through clustering. Actions supported include measures to promote entrepreneurship, innovation and the development of services, including producer services. Attracting and retaining very highly skilled personnel is also important (with measures relating to accessibility, the supply of cultural services, etc).\nSecond, there are actions to promote internal cohesion inside the urban areas that seek to improve the situation of crisis districts. Not only does this bring direct benefit to the districts themselves, it helps to relieve some of the pressure towards excessive suburban sprawl in pursuit of a better quality of life.\nIn this context, measures are important that seek to rehabilitate the physical environment, redevelop brownfield sites especially in old industrial cities, and preserve and develop the historical and cultural heritage with potential spin-offs for tourism development in order to create more attractive cities in which people want to live. The regeneration of existing public spaces and industrial sites can play an important role in avoiding suburbanisation and urban sprawl, thereby helping to create the conditions necessary for sustainable economic development. More generally, by improving the planning, design and maintenance of public spaces, cities can ‘plan out’ crime, helping to create attractive streets, parks and open spaces which are safe and feel safe. In urban areas, the environmental, economic and social dimensions are strongly interlinked. A high quality urban environment contributes to the priority of the renewed Lisbon Strategy to make Europe a more attractive place to work, live and invest.\nThird, there are actions to promote a more balanced, polycentric development by developing the urban network at national and Community level including links between the economically strongest cities and other urban areas including small and medium-sized cities. This will require the making of strategic choices in identifying and strengthening growth poles and, just as important, putting in place the networks that link them in both physical (infrastructure, information technologies, etc.) and human (actions to promote cooperation, etc.) terms. Since these poles serve wider territories, including the immediate rural hinterland, they contribute to a sustainable and balanced development of the Member State and the Community as a whole. In a similar way, rural areas provide services to the wider society, for example, in the form of recreational opportunities and highly valued landscapes. Focus should therefore also be put on the urban rural interface.\nBased on previous experience, there are a number of key principles in urban actions. First, the key partners in the cities and local authorities have an important role to play in achieving these objectives. As mentioned above, Member States may delegate responsibility to cities for urban development. This is particularly important where proximity matters, for example, in order to respond to the challenges of a mostly local nature such as social exclusion or lack of access to key services.\nSecond, the preparation of a medium- to long-term development plan for sustainable urban development is generally a precondition for success as it ensures the coherence of investments and of their environmental quality. This will also help to secure the commitment and participation of the private sector in urban renewal. In general, a multi-disciplinary or integrated approach is needed. For area-based actions, for example, to promote social inclusion, this requires that actions seeking to improve the quality of life (including the environment and housing) or the level of services to citizens are combined with actions to promote the development of new activities and job creation in order to secure the long-term future of the areas concerned. The new JESSICA initiative is designed to promote and facilitate the development of financial engineering products to support projects included in integrated urban development plans.\nIn general, integrated support services and programmes should have a focus on those groups which are most in need, such as immigrants, young people and women. All citizens should be encouraged to participate in both the planning and delivery of services.",
  "extent": "E+W+S+N.I.",
  "status": null,
  "version": "current",
  "annotations": [
    {
      "type": "footnote",
      "label": "f1",
      "text": "Communication to the Council and Parliament ‘Cohesion Policy and cities: the urban contribution to growth and jobs in the regions’. COM(2006) 385 final, 12.7.2006."
    },
    {
      "type": "footnote",
      "label": "f2",
      "text": "Thematic Strategy on the Urban Environment. COM(2005) 718 final."
    }
  ],
  "outstanding_effects": [],
  "provenance": {
    "source": "legislation.gov.uk",
    "source_url": "https://www.legislation.gov.uk/eudn/2006/702/annex/division/2/division/2.1",
    "retrieved_at": "2026-11-01T15:17:27.846378+00:00"
  },
  "licence": "Open Government Licence v3.0",
  "licence_url": "https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/3/",
  "attribution": "Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Source: legislation.gov.uk, The National Archives."
}