Urban Agenda for the EU - Working Group Meeting Summary

1. EUROCITIES working group meeting Urban Agenda for the EU Brussels, 27 June 2018 Oslo region office

2. Agenda

3. Urban agenda for the EU Overview • Recap: what happened since last? • Debrief from UDG/DGUM • Update from the UA partnerships • Involvement of our forums and WGs • EWCR event on the UA/IUA

4. Report on steps agreed at last meeting (2018 Feb) Regular, monthly update on UA in EUROCITIES Flash Proposal to ExCom on endorsement of certain actions of the partnerships Internal assessment of first 8 partnerships (survey-based) completed, to be discussed today Link to 2nd Mayors’ Summit • Strengthen updates/overview towards broader membership • Implementation of the partnerships’ action plans and us? • Assessment of added value of the UA (notably the partnerships) – how and when? • UA post-2019 and the future of Europe

5. Update on actions to ExCom

6. UDG/DGUM • Urban agenda technical preparatory group (UATPG) - 3/7 Vienna: • Malta, Estonia, Croatia, Finland, Romania, Bulgaria, Austria, Germany, DG REGIO, CEMR and us • Mandate: Preps only. New UA themes & more effective UDG/DGUM meetings • Two new partnerships • Security in public places • Culture and cultural heritage

7. Partnerships – quick update Commission guidance on work progress: draft action plans – public feedback - final action plan and…implementation (but how?)

8. Involvement of our forums and WGs

9. EWCR EUROCITIES organising main workshop on UA (10 Oct) • Objective: Demonstrate results delivered by UA • Moderated by Eddy Adams • EP (Olbrycht) and CoR (McCarthy) perspective • Practical outcomes from 2-3 action leaders • IMR: migrant advisory board • AQ: action led by Milan? • UP: policy lab (Porto)? • EUROCITIES stand in the “urban corner” with UIA, URBACT, Urban Agenda communications

10. “Learning to experiment” Main points • Promising but vulnerable • Practical measures vs fundamental MLG • Integrate experimentation in MLG • Use innovations in policy development • Small practical steps to bigger innovations • Important role of EUROCITIES

11. Other urban agenda ‘tools’ Urban innovative actions Topics of 4th, last call published in May • Digital transition • Sustainable use of land, nature-based solutions • Urban poverty • Urban security

12. EUROCITIES survey on the cities’ perception of Urban Agenda partnerships

13. Context of survey • Agreement in WG UA on internal assessment of UA • Initiative of WG chair spring 2018 • Aim: • to build evidence-based knowledge for advocacy on UA and • to feed into / challenge COM’s assessment in 2019 • Implementation: • Survey questions developed in March • Survey sent to 8 partnerships end of March until 18 May

14. Structure of survey • Expectations when joining partnership • Enabling conditions • Composition/competences • Engagement COM/MS • Meeting frequency, organisation • Coordinators • Technical support • Involvement, active role • Outcomes • Contribution/cities' proposals considered • Relevance of issues addressed • Assessment • Did UAP meet expectations? • Specific useful action/main achievement • Main bottlenecks, challenges, obstacles • Changes needed, recommendations

15. Responses • 14 responses submitted (out of 35 cities) • All 8 partnerships covered: • Air quality (3) • Circular economy (1) • Digital transition (1) • Affordable housing (2) • Integration of migrants and refugees (2) • Jobs and skills (2) • Urban mobility (1) • Urban poverty (2)

16. Expectations when joining partnership • Multi-level dialogue • Influence EU policy making • Promote city’s innovative practice

17. Enabling conditions Coordinators • Appropriate to excellent • Lack of expertise/alignment b/w coord • National interests dominate Composition/ competences • Generally appropriate • Expertise sometimes lacking • Capacity constraints Engagement COM/MS • Low MS engagement • Lack of COM DG engagement • COM role unclear (observer/facilitator) Technical support • Quite varied across partnerships • Unclear role, limited added value • Limited expertise and process support Meeting frequency/organisation • Generally appropriate frequency • Forward planning to be improved Active involvement of cities • Quite varied across partnerships • Strong involvement from some • Capacity constraints in other cities

18. Assessment of outcomes Cities contributions considered • Generally appropriate • Unsatisfactory (air quality, urban poverty) Meeting expectations • Yes • Too early to say Relevance of issues addressed • Generally appropriate • Action plan not specific enough (air quality, • Action plan focused on national policies (urban poverty) Main achievement • multi-level dialogue broadly acknowledged • Each partnership seems to have ownership of (at least one) useful action(s)

19. Challenges, proposed solutions Main bottlenecks • Lack of COM engagement • Time constraints, imposed deadlines • Lack of expertise (air quality) Recommendations • Engage COM and Member States • More flexible, logical timing • Support implementation • Financial support to implement actions • Expert support • Political leadership • Ensure uptake of results • Fewer but expert coordinators

20. Dates ahead 2018 • 3/7: UATPG • 4/7: Future of Europe debate, CoR • 5/9: Debate with MEPs on Cohesion policy (tbc!!!) • 21/9: UDG • 25/9: Capital cities meeting with Juncker and Cretu • 8-11/10: EWCR • 14/11: DGUM • 27-29/11: EUROCITIES 2018, Edinburgh 2019 • 21/3: EUROCITIES Mayors’ summit (II) • 9/5: Sibiu Summit