European cities, including small and medium-sized ones, play a a key role in supporting growth, innovation, decarbonisation and social inclusion. A significant proportion of the population lives in cities, towns and suburbs. Europeans. For this reason, the European Commission has presented Urban Agenda for the EU (AEC), which serves as a strategic policy framework for sustainable and integrated urban development.

The Urban Agenda for the EU aims to: improve policies that affect cities, increase dialogue and simplify access to EU support for cities. It is important to remember that cities are centres of competitiveness and employment and, together with regions, implement around 70% of EU legislation.

Why is action needed?

Despite their importance, cities face serious pressures. A key theme is unaffordable housing (Unaffordable Housing). According to available data, the lack of affordable housing is considered a problem by a large proportion of urban residents. It is also reported that a significant proportion of Europeans living in cities need a mortgage of more than 30 years to be able to afford a 75 m2 apartment. Other areas of pressure include safety, security and preparedness.

Cities play at the same time key role in climate action and in accelerating the transition to clean energy.

To address these challenges, the Urban Agenda for the EU sets out several key areas of action:

• Social inclusion and equality.
• Affordable, sustainable and quality housing.
• Climate action.
• Competitiveness, digitalization, innovation and investment.

Supporting investment and facilitating access

The EU continues to strengthen cities through extensive financial support and process simplification.

In the financial period 2021-2027, it is directed to projects in cities around €100 billion from cohesion policy. Of this amount, the cities themselves manage directly more than EUR 24 billion to support integrated local strategies. Various EU initiatives and programmes actively support cities, complementing efforts at national, regional and local level.

The EU Urban Agenda also works on simplification and capacity building:

1. EU web portal for cities (EU Cities web Portal) now consolidates information on current opportunities for cities.
2. European Urban Initiative will provide direct funding for innovation projects and in 2026 will establish „"City Counseling Center"“ (Cities helpdesk).
3. In the programming period 2028-2034, it will be established EU Platform for Cities (EU Cities Platform).

This EU Urban Platform aims to bring together initiatives to support cities, provide capacity and knowledge building, strategic planning, networking, support for innovative projects, data tools and advisory support in the area of financing.

Continuous dialogue and a view towards 2028

A continuous dialogue is an important part of strengthening cities. This includes an annual high-level political dialogue, targeted consultations at technical level and regular dialogue with the European Committee of the Regions and the European Parliament. A State of European Cities report will also be produced regularly.

Regarding the period after 2028, EU Member States and regions are invited to increase their ambition in financing their urban strategies, including through national and regional partnership plans, taking into account the specificities of cities. Cities could be supported with funds from the European Competitiveness Fund, the EU Instrument, Horizon Europe and the Global Europe Programme, in order to achieve the EU's urban development policy priorities.

The Urban Agenda for the EU is a comprehensive framework that recognises that cities are not only the places where most citizens live, but also the fundamental engines driving the European economy and sustainable transformation. JRi