Urban development and economy Europe is making a serious mistake Not everyone knows it, but the European economy is changing rather drastically. It all started on a small scale, but it is changing faster and faster: we are losing more and more employment to low-wage countries, an important part of our large-scale production will move to other countries, and finally agriculture will follow. That’s how the economy works. But if this development cannot be turned around, it becomes more and more important that we carefully consider the new situation. What will be the main aspects of our economy and how can we anticipate these changes? Because of the vitality of our economy we do not have to be overtaken by developments, but we have to anticipate and find a way to deal with the consequences.

A number of economists have already predicted it: the western economy will above all revolve around research, innovative development and creative design. Innovation and development will be the essence of our future economy. We will have to be the creators of the products that will be manufactured elsewhere. For the production that remains here we will have to develop ways of manufacturing that involve as few employees as possible. It is hard to be at the forefront, as shown by the current economic situation in Europe: all countries are trying to increase the innovative strength of their economy, but it is not always successful.

The changing economy will also have significant consequences for urban development in Europe. I am convinced that the new European economy will mainly be an urban economy. Everything the new economy requires is found in urban regions: research and development, a highly skilled labour market, knowledge institutions, information technology, financial centres and a breeding place for innovative entrepreneurship.

But there is even more: the highly educated employees in the new economy will make considerable demands on the attractiveness of their living and working environment. Social and cultural motives to live and work somewhere will be even more important than functional motives.

When the existing large and medium-sized cities will not invest in attracting highly skilled employees, they will miss the boat and lose their position to cities that do. These new highly skilled employees will not only look at the differences between the urban areas in a country, they will also become more mobile within Europe. Newcastle will compete with Barcelona and Saarbrücken with Athens. Good urban development is becoming more and more important. It is a European objective to keep the big cities alert: we cannot allow destruction of capital by stagnation or even deterioration.

Against this background I am concerned about the regional programme of Europe. In the new region programme (Interreg) the European Commission gives less priority to high-quality urban development than before. Attention is specifically given to overdue maintenance in the current economy, but it seems that the new economy has to wait. And that is a serious mistake: the new economy will not wait, but is approaching very fast.

Mark Reede, project manager ReUrbA²