UrbanCOOP

There is a general recognition that urban areas do not exist in isolation from wider economic, social and political factors originating in the national, European and global spheres. At the same time there has also been a growing emphasis on the need to develop a partnership approach to urban problems. The central element of UrbanCOOP project is, in this regard, multilateral urban cooperation and mutual learning among local governments to overcome the gaps in experience and expertise of inter-regional urban authorities through transfer of knowledge and training about ’urban policies’. The project is willing to examine the possibilities and potential of inter-regional cooperation in order to modernize and streamline the operation of local governments. Through multilateral cooperation, local governments seek to respond to new trends and challenges. As such, this kind of cooperation, in the form of an adequately chosen instrument, can serve as a basis for a new urban and regional reform which can also help the individual participating territories themselves to cope with the complicated problems of the present. Through supporting community life by involving residents in policies, empowering them, and ensuring policies are directed at the appropriate spatial scale and integrating actions at different spatial levels, UrbanCOOP will make sure that policies operate in an integrated manner to promote balanced urban development. This all includes the aim of building citizen capacity at the local level in a way that can be seen offering a complement to ‘traditional’ forms of representative participation and governmental methods of action. In essence what these priorities set out to do is to create a common and permanent framework of reference within which, whilst recognizing differences between countries and differing priorities within them, Member States could work together to develop a common approach.