ABSTRACT
This chapter concentrates on stages one to three: the selection of cities, the administrative arrangements to deliver URBAN and the negotiations up to March 1996 when the Programme Document for Marseille was agreed by the Commission. It begins by examining the administrative system in the period following the 1982 decentralisation laws; new administrative procedures emerged for national and European policies. The chapter provides a detailed review of the contractual policy as this is essential in explaining how URBAN was implemented in Marseille. It examines the contractual process to illustrate how the different levels of government, central, regional and local, are involved in the administration of national and European programmes. Central government, like that of the UK, was the key actor regarding the choice of cities to receive URBAN in France. The chapter aims to assess which resources were available, to the key actors, at different points of the process and begins with review of the contractual policy.
