ABSTRACT

This chapter examines existing works which focus on the role of the Commission. It explains how, and why, the supra-national government became involved in the peripheral area of urban policy. The chapter shows how the use of the gatekeeper concept can help identify the barriers between the inception of European urban policy, in Brussels, and its local delivery in London and Marseille. It reviews some of the existing works relating to multi-level governance. The chapter explores the interaction between the Commission and sub-national levels in order to explain how and why urban policy measures were launched. It presents the empirical material on the mobilisation of sub-national actors in order to place urban policy on the European Union (EU's) agenda. The chapter explains the aspect of DG XVI's work in order to explain the urban dimension which has appeared in European Structural Fund programmes. It also examines some of the major developments in regional policy which the intergovernmentalists seek to explain.