0.        Executive Summary

The Thematic Strategy on the Urban Environment is one of the key actions outlined in the 6th Community Environment Action Programme and is to be presented to the European Parliament and the Council in 2005. Four priority themes have been identified for the Thematic Strategy on the Urban Environment, and independent working groups have been established on each of these four themes. They are:

DG Environment of the European Commission awarded a service contract to the European Academy of the Urban Environment (EA.UE) to prepare an Overview Report for each of 12 Candidate Countries related to the four priority themes. Next steps will include an Initial Report which will reflect on Working Group findings, and the Final Analysis Report, which will in addition make recommendations for approaches that could be used to overcome barriers to more sustainable urban development in the countries at issue on an EU level.

The candidate countries in question are:
Bulgaria, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Romania, the Slovak Republic and Slovenia.

These Overview Reports represent summaries of research findings including interviews with ‘key resource persons’ and accumulated experience at EA.UE, as well as other relevant publications. The most pressing urban problems have been identified, as have good or best practices, and common barriers to an implementation of best (sustainable) practice in each candidate country.

In general, the Overview Reports examine key aspects of urbanisation for each candidate country, including (local) administrative and legal structures, financial arrangements and relationships between local, national and international programmes and political structures. Emphasis is placed on problems and solutions and relevant good practice in the fields of the four thematic areas:

An Annex is attached, including lists of general sources and literature, key/contact persons and institutions, key suggested instruments and tools, and good/best practices and case studies, as well as an overview of the position with regard to EU accession negotiations and preparations.

In making comparisons among candidate countries as well as with EU member states, a number of factors influencing sustainable urban development can be identified as significant:

A significant step in making administrative and legal structures compatible is manifested in the Acquis Communautaire, which also describes EU standards related to environmental policy. These standards have for the most part been met in the candidate countries (except in Romania). Differences with member states are found in (inadequate) implementation and enforcement of laws, especially in areas not dealt with by the acquis or EU legislation.
Differences in problems and barriers for more sustainable urban development between candidate countries and EU member states are generally more of a quantitative than a qualitative nature. In any case, the dimensions of the problems and rate of change in some countries appear to be overwhelming the local capacities, and surpassing the (worst) experiences of member state cities.
With this in mind, differences can be outlined between candidate countries and member states, such as the following:

• Uncertainties in local governments have been intensified and sustainable urban development has in general been hindered, due for example to the dynamic of system change in the former socialist states (especially frequent changes in political leadership in the 1990s), repeated legislation reforms to meet EU standards, and the (traditional) education of many planners and politicians.

• In all countries (and cities) there is clear (sometimes with reference to EU accession) political priority of economic development and raising material standards of living. Goals of sustainability appear far below on the list.

• Civil society has organised itself to have an influence on local and national politics, but in general is still less influential than in member states.

• Sustainability is dealt with on average less in educational curricula of planners, architects and engineers in candidate countries than in member states.

• The spatial structures in most candidate country towns or cities (strong functional divisions in some former socialist cities, and sprawl in Malta) make sustainable development on average considerably more complicated than in many cities in member states.

• All candidate countries are struggling with the decay of their (historical) inner cities. The dimensions of these problems can generally not be imagined in member states.

• Urban sprawl, fuelled by shopping centres and other commercial projects along with housing developments, has achieved dimensions and a dynamic that are hardly known in member states. Sprawl is often complemented by declining urban populations (within administrative boundaries).

• Mass-produced, pre-fabricated housing estates are quite common in all former socialist cities; an average of more than 40 % of residents in larger cities live in such areas. These estates represent extreme challenges in ten candidate countries, due to the dimensions of the problems, regarding needs for renovation, for improvements to infrastructure and insulation, changes to residential landscapes, inadequate social and other services, social decline, etc.

• The rapid increase in car ownership has in some cases led to higher rates of motorisation than in comparative EU cities. At the same time (with a few exceptions) dramatic collapses in public transport systems (PPT) are occurring. Thus these towns and cities (with the exception of Malta and Cyprus, where PPT has only played a marginal role) are losing one of their few advantages concerning sustainable development.

Altogether, the rapid development of a series of problems in candidate country towns and cities has dramatically outpaced the design and implementation of instruments, methods and tools to deal with them.
The most important similarities among the candidate countries can already be identified in the above list of those factors found to be the significant differences between candidate countries and EU member states. In addition there are a number of other characteristics and tendencies relevant to sustainable urban development within the four thematic fields:

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