National urban policies in Europe: does the EU make the difference?

This chapter aims to provide a critical exploration of whether or not there is a common understanding of urban policy within the EU Member States, and if so, what role the European Union (EU) has played in its development over the past 30 years. To address this question, the chapter examines the role of Europeanization in the field of national urban policies, some 20 years after the original formulation of the Europeanization concept. We aim to understand how and to what extent the 30 years of discussion and operationalization of urban policies at the EU level have impacted on the development of national urban policies in different Member States. We examine the EU Urban Agenda as a new and flexible model to address urban challenges within a framework of Integrated Sustainable Urban Development (ISUD) and look more directly at the current and contemporary phase of urban policies promoted by the EU, trying to highlight whether and to what extent the mechanism and tools, as well as the vocabulary and meanings produced under the 2014–2020 EU cohesion framework, are innovating the field and also contributing to reshaping the debate on the role and nature of national urban policies.