National Policy Responses to Urban Challenges in Europe

Leo van den Berg is Director of EURICUR and Professor of Urban Economics and Urban Management at Erasmus University Rotterdam, The Netherlands. Erik Braun is a Senior Researcher in EURICUR and Lecturer at the Faculty of Economics of Erasmus University Rotterdam. Jan van der Meer is Associate Director of EURICUR and Associate Professor of Urban Economics at Erasmus University Rotterdam. The editors have initiated, carried out and contributed to many comparative urban research projects through EURICUR in cities across and beyond Europe. The results of these investigations have been published internationally in the EURICUR-series with Ashgate and in academic journals. Leo van den Berg, Erik Braun and Jan van der Meer have also edited the first volume concerning national urban policies in the EU-countries that was published by Ashgate in 1998 (National Urban Policies in the European Union). More information about their activities and publications can be found on www.euricur.nl.

• 1: Introduction and Research Framework; 2: National Urban Policies: The Situation in the Mid-1990s 1; 3: The Urban Dimension in European Policy: History, Actors and Programmes 1; 4: Austria: No National Urban Policies; 5: Urban Policies in Belgium: A Puff-pastry with a Bittersweet Aftertaste?; 6: Denmark's National Urban Showcase: The Öresund Area Regional Development; 7: Finland: Towards Urban Innovation Policy; 8: France: Metropolitan Areas as New ‘Reference Territories' for Public Policies; 9: Urban Germany: The Future Will Be Different; 10: National Urban Policy in Greece; 11: Ireland: Metropolitan Dominance – the Challenge in Achieving Balanced Territorial Development; 12: Italy: Towards the Recognition of the Strategic Relevance of Metropolitan Cities; 13: Luxembourg: National Local Partnerships; 14: The Netherlands: Empowering Large Cities to Meet Their Challenges; 15: Portugal: Urban Policies or Policies with an Urban Incidence?; 16: Spain: Changing Century, Changing Cycle? Large Spanish Cities on the Threshold of the Twenty-first Century; 17: Sweden: The Emergence of a National Urban Policy; 18: United Kingdom: The Changing Landscape of English Urban Policy; 19: Synthesis

'well written and provides a rich source of useful information about the urban realm within the 15 ’old’ member states of the EU.' European Journal of Housing Policy