| Popis: |
The extent to which EU-level interventions contribute to regeneration regimes and the appropriate new international and ‘entrepreneurial’ urban order is explored in the present chapter. Primarily drawing on material from the five case studies, the most relevant policies since the introduction of the 1988 ‘planning system’ are examined, in terms of whether they constitute an important and effective action arena in urban rejuvenation, in collaboration with lower-tier authorities and horizontal actors. Although still lacking legal competence for the full range of actions conventionally understood as forming urban policy, in the past 15 years the relevant EU remit has expanded on a number of important fronts. Successive reforms of the Structural Funds have afforded ever-greater prominence to an urban dimension. Allied programmes designed to refine a ‘developmental’ approach have targeted infrastructural regeneration, economic redevelopment, employment creation and the combating of social exclusion. Yet, apart from supporting the legitimacy of the EU institutions, there remain doubts about the effectiveness and appropriateness of these interventions. Since cities are identified as the very engines of economic growth, with their local economies contributing to competitive advantage, attempts to formulate a reconcilable EU-wide spatial policy agenda that goes beyond mere symbolic compensation for the laggards have always been open to question (for an early discussion, see Cheshire & Hay, 1989). |
