The EU-27 urban development ministers met on 25 November to discuss how different policies can contribute to sustainable urban development and how horizontal work on the sectoral policies could be enhanced.
As a follow-up to the May 2007 Leipzig Charter on integrated sustainable urban development, ministers committed in their final statement to building a reference framework for sustainable cities.
Such a framework would "break down barriers between sectoral policies and create links between national, regional and local policies" by bringing together all actors involved in sustainable and inclusive urban development namely local authorities, businesses, professional associations, the scientific community, non-governmental organisations, inhabitants and users.
The framework would outline the general principles of a sustainable city: an integrated approach of all public policies and all levels based on interaction of environmental, economic and social sectors. A flexible, collective and open process would be put in place via a "questioning and analytical tool that could serve as a medium for debate and a joint search for converging pathways to progress". Thus conflicting approaches to sustainable urban development should not be an obstacle to developing more shared solutions, the ministers note.
As for the general architecture of the reference framework, ministers called on different stakeholders set up focus groups to coordinate joint assessment of the situtation regarding sustainable development and identify areas for improvement. The ministers think that technical assistance and professional training could be considered for these focus groups in order to ensure capitalisation and dissemination of the results.
According to the French EU Presidency, the final architecture and specifications of the reference framework would be jointly developed by a high-level group made up of representatives of member states, EU institutions, local authority networks, professional associations and the civil society and by a cities work group set up as part of URBACT II, an EU programme aimed at fostering best-practice exchange among European cities.
