Cities and towns are the drivers of European economy due to the population, services, housing, economic activity and transport nodes. Cities play significant role in territorial development to achieve goals of EU Cohesion policy. Urban areas also face different challenges which require purposeful and coordinated action at all governance levels.In order to achieve coherent development of the Baltic Sea Region, specific approaches for a diverse urban pattern (small and medium cities, urban partnerships, cooperation across administrative borders) are being currently discussed within the EU Urban Agenda process. This will improve urban dimension in EU policy and better support cities in their integrated development through more “urban proof” EU policies, taking into account the governance, social and economic development, as well as environmental issues.

The workshop was organized in order to share experiences on urban revitalization at national and local level and to bring a joint input to ongoing Urban Agenda development process based on existing sustainable urban planning solutions and partnership concepts. The Central Baltic Programme 2014-2020 projects “Baltic Urban Lab” and “Livable Baltic Campus” provided their viewpoint on creative solutions to improve the quality of life in Baltic Sea region cities. Both projects will bring an input to the EU Strategy for Baltic Sea Region and particularly to its Horizontal Action “Spatial Planning” by providing place-based spatial planning solutions.

Workshop was concluded by discussions rising up opinions how VASAB could contribute to the EU Urban Agenda process. It was agreed that VASAB could bring an input by highlighting urban issues in the BSR cities facing the demographic changes. Furthermore it was proposed that the problem of shrinking cities and depopulation topic should be included in the Agenda of the coming VASAB Conference to be held in Warsaw, 6-7 June 2016.

The Workshop on Urban Revitalization was organized back-to-back with VASAB CSPD/BSR meeting in Lodz, Poland on 28 October 2015.

VENUE: EC1 (www.ec1lodz.pl), Łódź, ul. Targowa 1/3

• Report on VASAB Workshop on Urban Revitalization
• Agenda of VASAB Workshop on Urban Revitalization 
• Presentations of the Workshop

The VASAB workshop was organised in the frame of Baltic Sea Region Programme 2014-2020 Technical Assistance grant project “HASPS – Horizontal Action “Spatial Planning” Support”.