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The New Urban Normal
Pitches Sander Happaerts, EC DG-Regio Sander kicked off his talk by explaining the role of DG Regio, the part of the European Commission that deals with regional and urban policy, most specifically with regional or investment policy. Cohesion Policy represents approximately 1/3 of the total EU budget and goes directly to member states in the form of investments in regions and cities. Sander is responsible for making the link between those investments and the EU’s environmental and climate policy. The Green Deal for Europe is one of the six policy priorities from the Von der Leyen presidency at the head of the EU. Its primary objective is to make Europe the first climate neutral continent by 2050. The Commissions has initiated a number of strategies, proposal for new legislation and projects to make this climate neutrality a reality. A big part of this effort concerns energy transition. As an example, the EC will give incentives for a big wave of home renovations to make them more energy efficient, alongside a number of initiatives to boost renewable energy, like the hydrogen economy. Efforts are also being made towards a circular economy, with the adoption in March 2020 of a new and very ambitious Circular Economy Action Plan. Alongside these initiatives, there is also the ambition to achieve zero pollution. The Commission is now working towards a new action plan on air quality, noise pollution and soil quality, with the ambition of making the EU pollution-free. In May, the EC has adopted a new biodiversity strategy which aims to make 1/3 of the European territory protected. Moreover, this new action plan has several interesting elements for cities, such as a proposal for each city in the EU to adopt an urban greening plan. Sander highlights the Biodiversity Strategy, the Farm to Fork Strategy, and the numerous initiatives related to mobility. All these policies must be implemented by member states. A
Integrated development, transition strategies, investmnet policy, multi-level governance, place-based development strategy, leave no-one behind.
