Response of the EC Expert Group on the Urban Environment to the Communication ‘Towards an urban agenda in the European Union’

Summary:

Report published by the European Commission's Expert Group on the Urban Environment to the Communication Towards an urban agenda in the European Union.

Further information:

The formal response from the Expert Group on the Communication has been prepared on the basis of written comments from the members of the Expert Group, working group discussions a plenary meeting held in September 1997, additional written comments from the members, contributions from a workshop involving invited experts held in November 1997, and the conclusions of the European Event Promoting Sustainable Development & Local Agenda 21. The process has therefore at all times involved the members of the Expert Group and representatives of DG XI, and to a lesser extent external experts as well as politicians and officers from the local level.

The formal response is intended to, from the point of view of sustainable development, influence and provide direction to the European Commission's efforts to increase the 'effectiveness of Community intervention in urban areas' and maximise the Opportunities at European scale to share and facilitate potential solutions'.

The Expert Group is pleased to note the attention paid in the Communication to the range of social, environmental and economic problems experienced by cities and towns, and especially to the role attributed to sustainability in ensuring that cities and towns offer quality living and working environments as well as competitiveness within a global context. Furthermore, it is encouraging to see the importance attached in the Communication to the need for coherence and integration of Community policies relevant to urban development, and to the need to ensure that they fully correspond to actions at other levels and in particular to the needs of cities and towns.

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