The Evolution of the European Union Urban Agenda: A Hard Path Towards a City-Oriented Policy?

Abstract

During the last decades, alongside the growing role of cities, the process of urbanization has been receiving more and more attention from the European policy-makers� This study analyzes the evolution of the EU urban agenda establishment since 1970s till the present times� In the first part, the paper presents five stages, most important milestones and core programs regarding the urbanization process in Europe� In the second section, the author pays a special attention to the Urban Agenda for the EU (the Pact of Amsterdam) as one of the key documents promoting the sound cooperation among the European urban policy stakeholders� In the final part, the paper provides the evaluation of the EU urban agenda’s genesis by indicating the main features of this process�