Investigating the partnership approach in the EU Urban Agenda from the perspective of soft planning

Abstract

At the European level, several strategic documents concerned with spatial and urban development have been published during the last decades. While these documents are essential to communicate European ideas and objectives, they are often regarded least influential in practice due to their abstract nature, legally nonbinding status and lack of allocated resources. Though these limitations apply to the EU Urban Agenda, this recently published policy paper introduces partnerships as a new implementation tool. The partnerships can be regarded as innovative in two respects: On the one hand, they involve new actors, most importantly cities, in European policy debates. On the other hand, they ensure the anchorage of the Urban Agenda with a broad range of actors at various spatial scales without challenging its legally non-binding status. The Urban Agenda can thus be understood as another example of the move towards soft European spatial planning and urban development. This article investigates the notion of partnership as a soft planning and governance tool within the Urban Agenda. Moreover, based on expert interviews, it presents early opinions and expectations of actors involved in the development of the Urban Agenda and the partnerships on affordable housing.

The Politics of the EU Urban Agenda: Mobilising the ‘Right to the City’ for European Governance?

“…Reflecting the EU's lack of legal competence and the largely technical character of preceding measures, the urban agenda has evolved from a range of -so-called -'soft' instruments for spatial planning (Atkinson and Zimmermann 2016;Atkinson and Rossignolo 2010). Embedding discourse, knowledge and networks in thematically focused cooperation, the UAEU's stakeholder approach is expected to strengthen cities as objects, sources and partners of this soft EU strategy (Mamadouh 2018;Potjer, Hajer, and Pelzer 2018;Purkarthofer 2019). But despite the optimism of the expert community, the empirical research is yet at an initial stage and its grasp of the UAEU's objectives, processes and actors is still vague.…”

“…In order to contribute towards democratic politicization, this paper proposes to conceptualise the political field of the UAEU as an emblematic case of transnational urban governance. Introducing the 'right to the city' in European governance, the paper enquires into the political realm of the various soft powers of EU urban policy (Atkinson and Zimmermann 2016;Mamadouh 2018;Potjer, Hajer, and Pelzer 2018;Purkarthofer 2019) and their mutual potential for open-ended and contentious transnational mobilisation dynamics. In the following, section 2 describes its emergence from the sidelines of EU territorial cohesion toward an integrated approach to European governance, thus embedding 'soft' planning in the various relevant literatures on its political-institutional contexts.…”

EU Cohesion Policy and spatial economic growth: trajectories in economic thought

“…The Urban Agenda (European Union, 2016, p. 5) states the need to implement more urban-oriented policies in the EU, justified by the fact that circa 70% of EU population live in cities. The importance of networking and cooperation of cities with their functional areas and surrounding regions is thereby crucial and shall be promoted through a partnership-approach (Purkarthofer, 2019). According to the 7th Cohesion Report, the positive developments in cities will spill-over to the city's hinterland (CEC, 2017a, p. xii).…”

“…Over the last 10 years, the EU Cohesion Policy has changed its rhetoric and focus from promoting a balanced development between regions in Europe, to pronouncing the role of cities, stimulating global competitiveness in cities linked to an emerging urban agenda and a Europeanisation of urban policy (Atkinson, 2015;Avdikos & Chardas, 2016;Chilla, 2012;Dukes, 2008;Purkarthofer, 2019;van den Berg, Braun, van der Meer, & Mingardo, 2007). Today, EU policy objectives aim to enhance regions through the improvement of their cities, and urban competitive capacities in the world economy.…”

Untitled

“…Although a detailed analysis of the Urban Agenda goes beyond the scope of this article, it needs to be emphasised that the Urban Agenda addresses many subjects relevant to spatial planning. However, through the implementation mechanisms of partnerships, it focuses on procedural themes and leaves contents to be negotiated among experts in topic-specific partnerships (Purkarthofer, 2019). Nonetheless, as these partnerships also require commitment from domestic actors, the recommendations regarding planning education, presented in the final section of this article, are applicable to EU urban policies as well.…”