Forming Urban Policy : The relationship of the European ‘Urban’ Policy and the German National ‘Urban’ Policy

Abstract: The presented thesis deals with the urban dimension of the European and the German National Policy and their interconnection. After defining urban policy in general, the European and the German national level have been analyzed in terms of their development of an urban dimension, the involved institutions and actors and the subjects as well as the obstacles of an imple-mentation of urban policy. The similarity of the dealt subjects provide the bases for the following study of the pros and cons of urban policy and the relation of European and German National ‘Urban’ Policy. The author discovered that against the background of the various urban problems and the opportunities the cities provide, the European as well as the German national level are interested to have a share in the cities’ devel-opment. Therefore they have made an effort to use urban policy as an in-strument to directly exert influence on urban areas since several decades. But so far, neither a European Urban Policy nor a National Urban Policy in Germany has been implemented, since the legalization is a complicated as well as controversial operation. Various actors are involved and the political levels partly hinder each other because they are afraid of loosing compe-tences and influence. In addition, it is not even clear if policy is the right in-strument to deal with urban areas, since the discussion for and against urban policy is based on individual opinions and not on theories. Regardless of this, if there is the declared intention to further develop urban policy on the European and the German national level, the existing close linkage between them, in terms of their mutual support of development and similar goals, will be needed in future as well.