The Federal Office for Building and Regional Planning

Research Project: Possibilities and Strategies for the German EU Council Presidency 2020

Project briefing

  • Status Completed
  • Project duration January 2018 – October 2021
  • Programme ExWoSt

Between January 2018 and November 2020, two guiding documents for urban development in Europe were developed: The "New Leipzig Charter: The Transformative Power of Cities for the Common Good" and the related document "Implementing the New Leipzig Charter through Multi-Level Governance: Next Steps of the Urban Agenda for the EU".

The EU ministers responsible for urban development unanimously adopted both papers on the occasion of the German EU Council Presidency at a virtual meeting on 30 November 2020. The New Leipzig Charter and the Implementation Document are the result of a two-year dialogue involving EU Member States, EU institutions, representatives of universities, associations, regions, cities and planners.

The New Leipzig Charter is strategically oriented towards urban development policy in Europe. It focuses on an urban policy for the common good and empowered municipalities. The Implementation Document complements the Charter and provides practical recommendations to continue the cooperation between the EU Commission, Member States and cities that was initiated by the Urban Agenda for the EU in 2016.

Background

In addition to Germany taking over the EU Council Presidency in the second half of 2020,it was primarily new challenges and changes to the framework conditions that were the starting points for the development process of the New Leipzig Charter:

Income and wealth disparities between citizens in the EU Member States have widened in the past decade, growing and shrinking regions are drifting further apart. The advance of climate change and migration within and outside Europe also pose permanent challenges for municipalities.

Added to these are megatrends such as demographic, economic and technological structural changes. For example, increasing digitalisation brings with it profound transformatory processes that affect all urban areas: from the labour market to participation, mobility, retail and administration. The Covid-19 Pandemic 2020 has shown how quickly and profoundly crises can change our lives and priorities, and how crucial it is for municipalities to be able to react resiliently and flexibly to such unpredictable situations.

In addition to the new substantive challenges mentioned above, new strategic guidelines and frameworks for sustainable urban development at European and international level have emerged with the Urban Agenda for the EU and the New Urban Agenda in 2016.

The Urban Agenda for the EU in particular aims to give cities a greater say in EU legislation and funding. To this end, 14 Thematic Partnerships involving cities, Member States and the EU Commission, among others, have developed recommendations for a more urban-friendly design of the EU legal framework and EU funding.

One question of the research project was therefore how to link the Urban Agenda for the EU and the further development of the Leipzig Charter. The answer can be found in the Implementation Document. Last but not least, the "New Leipzig Charter" naturally builds on the achievements of its namesake, the "Leipzig Charter on Sustainable European Cities" from 2007, which advocated strengthening an integrated urban development policy throughout Europe and paying special attention to disadvantaged neighbourhoods. It thus gave important impetus to the European understanding of integrated urban development and created principles that are still valid today.

However, the above-mentioned new challenges and changed framework conditions made it necessary to renew the original document.


Contractor was Deutscher Verband für Wohnungswesen, Städtebau und Raumordnung e.V., Berlin/Brüssel (DV), European Urban Knowledge Network, Den Haag (EUKN EGTC) and Brandenburgische Technische Universität Cottbus-Senftenberg, Cottbus (BTU).

Contact us

  • Eva Schweitzer
    Federal Institute for Research on Building, Urban Affairs and Spatial Development
    Division RS 5 "Digital Cities, Risk Prevention and Transportation"
    Phone: +49 228 99401-1654
    Email: eva.schweitzer@bbr.bund.de

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