Urban Programme: Italy

The engagement of the Community concerning towns has recently been confirmed: while, initially, the EU had no intention to launch the URBAN program (as for the interventions at towns had been absorbed infact by new programs), the Commission wanted to finance URBAN 2, even though with limited resources.

On 1st July 1999 the Commission has allocated for URBAN 700 millions Euros of a total of more than 10 400 Euros destinated to the 4 P.I.C.According to the distribution now examinated of the member states, Italy should get approximately 108 million Euros (about 200 milliards Lire).
Subsequently, for the announcement of URBAN 2 2000 - 2006, 86 proposals have been approved by the Ministry of Public Works as an answer of the public announcement of summer 2000. 60 of these proposals concern Southern Italy (Mezzogiorno) (55 in the regions with objective 1); 26 in administrations localized in the rest of the national territory.

The program URBAN 1 has involved 16 towns in Italy, 12 of them situated in Southern Italy (Mezzogiorno).
The study in depth which we publish presents in 16 schedules, one for every case of study, the reports of the different subprograms.
Contemporarly some essays report a range of critical considerations and open a confrontation of the whole italian experiences.
Essays and schedules derive from the dossier „Programma Urban-Italia. Europa, nuove politiche urbane" carried out by the Ministry of Public Works and the National Urban Insitute (INU).
This material is accompanied by some summarizing schemes which are illustrating the main data concerning the two projects URBAN 1 and URBAN 2 and by an exhaustive collection of links to „urban websites" and to informative pages achieved by single administrations.

The material for the survey about the city projects has been proposed by the administrations, in the ambit of the publication Programma Urban-Italia. Europa, nuove politiche urbane (Inu Edizioni, Roma, 2000).
The administrations were requested to reflect on a number of themes deemed to be central: from the activities of participation and communication to the problems of implementation; from the conception of integration between physical and social measures to the assessment of the first effects induced on urban development and social cohesion; from partnership to the reorganisation of administrative structures; and from international competitive design bids to monitoring.
Each city has, moreover, evidenced a measure or theme which, within its sub-programme, has been of specific and significant importance; this also so as to stress, albeit within the context of the unitary framework that has "constrained" the carrying out of the programmes, the differences and the peculiarities that each administration has fielded in demonstration of original local features, connected with the diverse characteristics of the territorial resources, of the different needs expressed by the urban communities, of the various methods of approach and organisation of the political and administrative structures.
(abstract from "Editors' note" by Loredana Campagna and Manuela Ricci, Programma Urban-Italia, Europa, nuove politiche urbane, Inu Edizioni, Roma, 2000)