EU Regional and Urban Policy: Innovations and Experiences from the 2014–2020 Programming Period

93 Pages·2020·1.459 MB·English

by  Valeria Fedeli, Camilla Lenzi, Paola Briata, Luisa Pedrazzini

SPRINGER BRIEFS IN APPLIED SCIENCES AND
TECHNOLOGY  POLIMI SPRINGER BRIEFS
Valeria Fedeli
Camilla Lenzi
Paola Briata
Luisa Pedrazzini
EU Regional and
Urban Policy
Innovations and
Experiences
from the 2014–2020
Programming Period
123
SpringerBriefs in Applied Sciences
and Technology
PoliMI SpringerBriefs
Editorial Board
Barbara Pernici, Politecnico di Milano, Milano, Italy
Stefano Della Torre, Politecnico di Milano, Milano, Italy
Bianca M. Colosimo, Politecnico di Milano, Milano, Italy
Tiziano Faravelli, Politecnico di Milano, Milano, Italy
Roberto Paolucci, Politecnico di Milano, Milano, Italy
Silvia Piardi, Politecnico di Milano, Milano, Italy
More information about this subseries at http://www.springer.com/series/11159
http://www.polimi.it
Valeria Fedeli Camilla Lenzi Paola Briata
(cid:129) (cid:129) (cid:129)
Luisa Pedrazzini
EU Regional and Urban
Policy
Innovations and Experiences
–
from the 2014 2020 Programming Period
123
Valeria Fedeli Camilla Lenzi
DASTU ABC
Politecnico di Milano Politecnico di Milano
Milan,Italy Milan,Italy
PaolaBriata LuisaPedrazzini
DASTU Regione Lombardia
Politecnico di Milano Milan,Italy
Milan,Italy
ISSN 2191-530X ISSN 2191-5318 (electronic)
SpringerBriefs inApplied SciencesandTechnology
ISSN 2282-2577 ISSN 2282-2585 (electronic)
PoliMI SpringerBriefs
ISBN978-3-030-34574-7 ISBN978-3-030-34575-4 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-34575-4
©TheAuthor(s),underexclusivelicensetoSpringerNatureSwitzerlandAG2020
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Contents
1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
2 The Reform of Cohesion Policy in the 2014–2020 Programming
Period and the Regional Smart Specialization Strategy . . . . . . . . . . 9
2.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
2.2 The 2014–2020 Reform of CP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
2.2.1 The Changing and Uneven Nature of the Economic
Geography of the EU. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
2.2.2 The Conceptual Debate on the Reform of CP . . . . . . . . . . 12
2.2.3 The Main Novelties of the 2014–2020 CP . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
2.3 EU Regional Innovation Policy and the Conceptual
Underpinnings of the Smart Specialization Strategy . . . . . . . . . . . 19
2.4 The Early Experience and the Emerging Weaknesses . . . . . . . . . . 21
2.5 Final Remarks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
3 Regions and Macro-regions in European Territorial Cooperation:
Today and 2021+ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
3.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
3.2 The Territorial Cohesion Process in the EU Policy. . . . . . . . . . . . 30
3.2.1 Sources and Evolution . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
3.2.2 The Emerging Picture of a Regionalised Europe . . . . . . . . 34
3.3 The Macro Regional Strategy in Re-shaping European Space . . . . 38
3.4 The EUSALP Case. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
3.5 Final Remarks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
v
vi Contents
4 The Urban Question and the EU Integration Project:
A Continuous Experiment. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
4.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
4.2 Politics and Problem Setting: Understanding the Specificities
of the Urban in Europe. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
4.3 Problem Solving: From Pilot Projects to the EU Urban
Agenda, an Open Experiment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
4.4 Final Remarks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
5 Innovation in EU “Urban Policy” During the 2014–2020
Programming Period: Conceptions, Experiences
and Perspectives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
5.1 The Core Role of “Innovation” 2014–2020 Programming
Cycle. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
5.2 Social Innovation in a Context of Economic and Financial
Crisis. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
5.3 The EU Conception and Support of Social Innovation . . . . . . . . . 69
5.4 The Programs with/for the Cities: Between Urban Innovation
and Mainstreaming. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
5.5 Urbact and the UIAs: Two Examples in Milan. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74
5.6 Conclusions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
6 Conclusions: Present and Future of Cohesion Policy . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
Chapter 1
Introduction
Abstract This chapter introduces the book by explaining the novelties it aims at
introducing,thescientific,researchandteachingactivitiesthatsupporteditselabora-
tionand,lastly,theplanofitsconstitutivechaptersandtheirrespectiveachievements.
Thechapter highlights how thebook offersaunique criticalreflection onsomeof
themostimportantinnovationsandexperimentationsintroducedintheframeworkof
renewedEUurbanandregionalpolicyoverthelastprogrammingperiodbyempha-
sisingtheinterplaybetweentheurbanandregionaldimensionsofthereformedEU
cohesionpolicy.
· ·
Keywords EUurbanandregionalpolicy Cohesionpolicy 2014–2020
programmingperiod
Europeanstudiesare“alwaysreadythereandstillinformation”(Calhoun2003:1).
Infact,thecontinuouslyevolvingnatureoftheEuropeanUnion(EU)playsacentral
roleinredefining,renovatingandreproducingthesingularitiesoftheEUproject,in
maintainingitsrelevanceforscholars’agendasand,asaconsequence,insettingthe
boundariesfortheintegrationofEuropeanstudiesandspecificdisciplinaryfields.
Thisisparticularlytrueinthefieldofurbanandregionalstudiesandevenmoreso
inplanning.PoliciespromotedbytheEUhaveconsistentlytransformedthelandscape
of public action in urban and regional programs (see among others, in the field of
spatial planning, Atkinson and Zimmermann 2018). However, urban and regional
policy has played a different role in the construction of the project for European
integration.WhileregionalpolicyhasbeenapillarsincethefoundationoftheUnion,
the integration of urban policy with the territorial dimension is a relatively recent
achievement.Notwithstanding,theroleofcitiesindealingwithterritorialimbalances
hasbeenacentralpointintheEUdebatesincethe1950sand60s(Kazepov2005).
At the same time, despite the high degree of internationalization and the use of
comparativeapproaches,urbanstudieshasnotyetfullyestablishedandrootedthe
impactsandimportanceofthedebatepromotedbytheEU(Roy2011;Sanyal2005),
especiallyregardingeducationalpracticesandprograms.
ThedialoguebetweenEuropeanstudies,ontheonehand,andurbanandregional
studies, on the other, has met with increasing recognition during the 2014–2020
programmingperiod;thisrecognitionwasmotivatedandsupportedbyimportantand
©TheAuthor(s),underexclusivelicensetoSpringerNatureSwitzerlandAG2020 1
V.Fedelietal.,EURegionalandUrbanPolicy,
PoliMISpringerBriefs,https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-34575-4_1
2 1 Introduction
originalpolicyandresearchdocuments(Barca2009;Barcaetal.2012)promoting
theso-calledplace-basedapproachtolocaldevelopmentpolicy.Inthisspirit,awhole
rangeofnewopportunitiesforinnovationinurbanandregionalpolicyandplanning
wasintroduced(McCannandOrtega-Argilés2015).
In this context, this book offers critical reflection on some of the most impor-
tantinnovationsandexperimentationswithintheframeworkofrenewedEUurban
andregionalpolicyoverthelastyears.Similarexercisesalreadyexistinthelitera-
ture(McCannandOrtega-Argilés2015;McCannetal.2016;Medeiros2019),yet
oftentheydidnotfullydevelop(ifnotoutrightneglect)theurbandimensionofthe
reformedEUcohesionpolicy,somethingthatiscentraltoourapproach,especially
initsinterplaywiththeregionaldimension.
Thestronginterconnectionsbetweentheurbanandregionaldimensions—supported
and elaborated in this book—find robust conceptual underpinnings in the idea of
place-basedpoliciesdevelopedduringthefirstdecadeof2010s,sustainingtheneedto
matchandanchorpolicystrategies,designandimplementationtolocalneeds.
This conceptual premise also found fertile ground for experimentation and
consolidation in the research and teaching project entitled EU urban and regional
policy: fostering innovation in urban research and practice, conducted in the
period 2015–2018. This project was financed by the Jean Monnet Action of the
EU Erasmus+ programme and was conducted by the authors at the Politecnico di
Milano. The Erasmus+ programme provides funding in the fields of Education,
Training, Youth and Sport and is managed by the European Education, Audio-
visual and Culture Executive Agency. This year it is celebrating its 30th edition,
enjoyinganever-increasingnumberofparticipants,nationsandorganizations.This
programmeincludesthreeso-calledkeyactionsandtwoadditionalspecificactions,
the Jean Monnet Project dedicated to sports and education. In particular, the Jean
MonnetProjectisanEUspecificactivitydedicatedtothepromotionofexcellence
in research and teaching in the field of EU studies in higher education. The Jean
Monnetprojectalsoseekstopromoteandsupportdialoguebetweenacademiaand
policy-makersinordertoimproveEUpolicygovernance.Theprojecthonoursthe
memoryofJeanMonnet(1888–1979)whoisregardedbymanyasoneofthechief
architectsofEuropeanintegration.
More specifically, over the past ten years, the Master of Science program in
UrbanPlanningandPolicyDesignattheSchoolofArchitecture,UrbanStudiesand
ConstructionEngineeringatPolitecnicodiMilanohasmadetargetedinvestmentsin
ordertodeliverformationregardingtheroleofEUinthefieldofurbanandregional
studiesandpolicy.Thischoicewasquiteconsistentwiththegeneraldirectionthat
Politecnico di Milano, along with other EU universities, has taken over the last
twentyyearstowardsinternationalizationandinnovation.Politecnicohastakenon
the challenges of educating new generations of qualified professionals worldwide,
involvingstudentsfromdifferentbackgroundsandplacesfromthroughouttheworld,
providingthemwiththeopportunitytounderstandnotonlytheItalianplanningand
urbanstudiestraditionbuttheEuropeanoneaswell.
1 Introduction 3
TheJeanMonnetmoduleentitledEUurbanandregionalpolicy:fosteringinno-
vationinurbanresearchandpracticerepresentedanimportantoccasiontoleverage
this general orientation and the early teaching experience. The course was offered
withintheMasterofScienceinUrbanPlanningandPolicyDesigninordertopro-
videstudentswithamoredirect,operativeandcriticalunderstandingoftheroleof
EU-promoted urban and regional policy, and to establish the EU dimension in the
fieldofurbanandregionalstudiesandpolicyinamoreintegratedandvividway.This
goalwasachievedbyadvancingandsupportingcritical,reflexiveandactivelearning,
byproposingadvancedtopicsinthefieldalongwithanoriginalmixofinteractive
teachingandlearningactivitiesincludingnotonlytraditionallecturesbutalsofield
trips,trainingactivities,criticalroundtablesandmeetingswithimportantactorsand
internationalscholars,tocriticallydiscussthestrategicroleofEUinthefield.The
coursesoughttoprovidestudentswithin-depthknowledgeandcriticalandpragmatic
abilities regarding some core issues of the 2014–2020 economic planning period.
Moreover,itsoughttodevelopstudents’awarenessofhowtheinputprovidedbyEU
urbanandregionalpolicy,bothonthelocalandnationallevels,cangrantnewlegit-
imacytoandeffectivenessofpublicactioninthefield.ThegoalssetbytheEurope
2020 Strategy for smart, sustainable and inclusive growth provide the framework
fordevelopinganewintegratedapproachwithafocusontheurbandimensionand
socialinclusion,supportingamoreactiveroleoflocalcommunitiesandauthorities.
Inthislight,thecoursefocusedonaselectionof“keywords”,principlesandoper-
ativetoolspromotedinthe2014–2020periodbycriticallyexploringtheirpotential
forinnovation.
In particular, the course started by proposing advanced understanding of Euro-
pean spatial planning, economics and policies and by framing this analysis within
the broader EU policy context. This perspective was considered crucial in light of
thegrowingguidingandleadingroleoftheEuropeanUnion(EU)insingleMember
States and Regions’ initiatives, even at the local and urban levels and in the field
ofurbanandregionalpolicies.Thisunderstandingwaselaboratedbyexploringthe
development of EU spatial (now cohesion) policies from a historical perspective
whileemphasizingtheunderlyingeconomicrationales,mechanisms,anddynamics,
stressingcommonalities,differencesanddisparitiesacrossregionsandcitiesinthe
EU. The acknowledgment of such heterogeneity and imbalance within European
spaceraisesseveralquestionstowhichthecoursesoughttoprovideanswers:What
arethespatialeffectsofEUintegrationprocessesandEU(sector)policies,ifany?
How does the EU address and trytomitigate itsinternal disparities? What arethe
spatialimpactsoftheEUfinancialandeconomiccrisis?Whatistheroleof(different
types)ofcitiesinthecurrenteconomicdownturn?Whatistheroleoftheregionsin
futurespatialdevelopmentandglobalcompetition?Whataresomeofthepossible
futureterritorialscenariosandwhatwillbetheirimpactontheEUsocioeconomic
landscape?Howcansector(competitiveness)policiesbeappliedinaterritorialcon-
text? How will EU macro-regions (e.g., Baltic, Danube, Ionian and Alpine) shape
andinfluencetheimpendingconfigurationofEuropeanditscharacteristics?