Sustainable cities: European reference framework
16-04-2010
Following the Marseilles Statement of November 25, 2008,the European Minister responsible for urban development commissioned France and the French Ministry of Ecology, Energy, Sustainable Development to elaborate and monitor, from January 2009, a high level European working group to develop, with and for the cities, a reference Framework for European Sustainable Cities.
Based on the process of Marseille, this working group is developing a reference framework aiming at taking into account sustainable development, integrated urban development and making operational the Leipzig Charter (2007). The "Leipzig Charter on Sustainable European Cities" was signed in May 2007 with the aim to improve the policy setting for integrated urban development, with a particular focus on deprived communities. The resulting work will be presented to the European Minister responsible for urban development in June 2010 under Spanish presidency.
The framework aims to provide an overarching structure which could help local authorities and diverse stakeholders that need to make aligned decisions, to organise the assessment of sustainability and the monitoring of their urban strategy and to find examples of policies.
