The Urban Dimension of EU Cohesion Policy

More than two thirds of EU citizens live in urban areas and cities are easily identifiable as Europe’s core hubs for the promotion of territorial cohesion and overall economic growth. Whereas urban planning issues strictly emain in the hands of the Member states, since at least 30 years the EU has developed guidelines and initiatives with a more or less explicit territorial focus, among which the urban dimension had grown momentum through time. Since the publication of the Green paper on the Urban environment, a number of instruments directly targeting Member States’ cities have been introduced and the urban dimension has finally entered EU mainstream cohesion policy. The chapter discusses how the lack of urban planning competences notwithstanding, the EU cohesion policy progressively developed an urban dimension. Moreover, it explores the domestic impact of the latter, also in relation to the institutional innovations that its implementation brought along with it.