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EU regional and urban development

New Urban Agenda

The New Urban Agenda was adopted at the United Nations Conference on Housing and Sustainable Urban Development (Habitat III) in Quito, Ecuador, on 20 October 2016. The New Urban Agenda represents a shared vision for a better and more sustainable future. It provides guidance on how well-planned and well-managed urbanisation can be a transformative force for sustainable development for both developing and developed countries, to accelerate towards the Sustainable Development Goals.
The New Urban Agenda presents a paradigm shift based on the science of cities and lays out standards and principles for the planning, construction, development, management and improvement of urban areas along its five main pillars of implementation: national urban policies, urban legislation and regulations, urban planning and design, local economy and municipal finance, and local implementation.

EU engagement to implement the New Urban Agenda

The European Union has been very actively engaged in supporting sustainable urban development as an overarching goal, pursuing the implementation of the United Nations New Urban Agenda.
In 2016, the EU and its Member States made three voluntary commitments to implement the UN New Urban Agenda, which are now all completed. The review process to take stock of the implementation of the New Urban Agenda provides an opportunity to reaffirm the continued engagement of the EU and its Member States, and their willingness to contribute to the acceleration of the delivery of the New Urban Agenda.  
On 28 April 2022, in the occasion of the UN High Level Meeting on the implementation of the UN New Urban Agenda, the EU and its Member States renewed the three voluntary commitments made six years ago during the Habitat III conference and announced three new voluntary commitments.

Voluntary commitments of the EU and its Member States

Three voluntary commitments renewed in the context of the UN High Level Meeting on the implementation of the UN New Urban Agenda include:

  • delivering on a renewed Urban Agenda for the EU to continue fostering multi-level governance and improving the urban dimension of EU policies.
  • promoting the use of the Degree of Urbanisation , proposed together with partners, as a new global method for aggregating subnational urban data. It will be supported with tools and to encourage it use for wider comparability, better measuring and reporting on the implementation of SDGs at local level.
  • extending the International Urban and Regional Cooperation Programme (IURC) which supports cooperation between cities and regions globally, for them to work on sustainable solutions to common urban challenges, notably for the green and digital transitions and for recovery.

During the UN High Level Meeting on the implementation of the New Urban Agenda, the EU and its Member States announced three new voluntary commitments that focus on:

  • enhancing support to external cooperation and international partnerships. Within the framework of the Global Gateway and the external dimension of the European Green Deal, the EU will significantly scale up its engagement on, and support to, integrated sustainable urban development in EU partner countries, including enhancing access to finance, including enhancing access to finance through the European Fund for Sustainable Development (EFSD+). The EU will seek to work in concert with EU Member States for greater coordination, scale and impacts within the Team Europe Initiatives.
  • supporting the European Mission on Climate-Neutral and Smart Cities and 100 European cities to act as hubs of experimentation and innovation for green, digital and inclusive transformations. In turn, these cities will serve as models and inspiration for cities worldwide through initiatives such as the Global Covenant of Mayors.
  • introducing the New European Bauhaus to start a global conversion on this cultural movement inspiring green transformation. This initiative aims at designing sustainable spaces for all and improving citizens’ lives through an innovative and human-centred way.

More information

You can find the statement made on behalf of the EU and its Members at the UN High Level on the implementation of the New Urban Agenda in the following link.
Reports were produced on the implementation of all 3 EU Voluntary Commitments to the New Urban Agenda:

  • On the commitment to “Developing a global, harmonised definition of cities”, the Cities in the World report using the definition was produced in 2020 and a methodological manual was published in 2021 to support its use globally.
  • Funded by the European Union and running from 2016 to 2020, the European Commission International Urban Cooperation programme’s overall objective is to “develop and lead international urban diplomacy and cooperation through actions on sustainable urban development and climate change. The IUC programme and its contribution to the 2030 Agenda, the New Urban Agenda, and other international frameworks have been reported on in 2020.
  • Finally the EU committed in 2016 to delivering the New Urban Agenda through the Urban Agenda for the EU (UAEU). A review of the contributions of the UAEU to the New Urban Agenda has just been published to report on this commitment.

Background information regarding support of the EU and its Member States towards the implementation of the New Urban Agenda since 2016 is available here.
Further information regarding EU action at the global level for sustainable urban development and city-to-city cooperation can be found here.
Sustainable urban development’s implementation through various policies and initiatives in the European Union is presented in details here.
The EU also supports the monitoring of the SDGs and of the UN New Urban Agenda at urban and territorial level. Futher information about the localisation of SDGs is available here.

Themes