After 25 years of conferences, declarations and resolutions, it is time to make the EU Urban Agenda a reality: Michael Schneider, President of the EPP Group in the Committee of the Regions, has underlined, following the adoption of yesterday's Riga Declaration. "This declaration and the Presidency Trio's commitment to consider the urban dimension in an integrated way is a welcome development for cohesion across Europe's regions and cities. We particularly welcome the acknowledgement that urban areas of all sizes can contribute to achieving common goals and will continue to promote the use of impact assessments to better consider how EU proposals could affect the local reality."
The declaration also notes the relevance of a polycentric urban structure, which is promoted in the draft opinion of Marek Woźniak, which is focused on improving the implementation of the Territorial Agenda of the European Union 2020 which was adopted at the April Plenary Session.
Speaking at the ministerial meeting in Riga yesterday, Markku Markkula, President of the CoR, underlined that the objective of the EU Urban Agenda should be "a genuine cross-cutting anchoring of the urban dimension in the EU decision-making process and not a specific EU strategy or programme".
This is something which the EPP Group strongly supports and looks forward to developing into concrete actions at its OPEN DAYS: European Week of Regions and Cities seminar entitled Cities of the Future, which is taking place on 14 October.