2. Urban policy

Launching a 'European Platform against Poverty', cities require special attention. Between 1994 and 2006, the EU with the URBAN programs has already made a major effort to tackle the problem in 15 member states:
-  spending 1.6 billion euros
-  targeting 5.2 million inhabitants
-  in 188 (actually 190) urban areas
The European Union, without a specific mandate for urban policy, has 'leapfrogged' again the member states and in a way even city government down to urban areas. Most member countries, anayway did not have national urban policies. There are only five major exceptions to this, to wit Denmark, France, Ireland, The Netherlands and the UK (Germany has an urban policy at the regional level).
The key words of the URBAN rationale are: multidimensional deprivation, integrated area approach, and citizen participation. See the evaluation by GHK (2003) and the re-evaluation by Drewe (2008).
The 'troubled urban areas', eligible for URBAN I were required to have the following socio-economic characteristics: high level of unemployment; decayed urban fabric; bad housing conditions; lack of social amenities.As to URBAN II, nine criteria have been applied: high long-term unemployment; low rate of economic activity; high level of poverty and exclusion; the need for structural adjustment; high proportion of immigrants, ethnic minorities and refugees; low level of education, major gaps in terms of qualification and high rate of pupil failure; high level of criminality and delinquency; unstable demographic development; particularly poor environmental conditions.