ABSTRACT
This chapter portrays the urbanisation and governance profile of Greek cities and explores their capacity to respond to European Union (EU) calls for enhanced competitiveness and synergistic policy-making. It explores the responses of Greek cities to EU urban policy and it is organised in three parts. The chapter discusses the ways in which cities were defined as a policy problem by the EU, also highlighting the traits of EU urban policy. It focuses on Greece and draws attention to the particularity of the economic and socio-political realities of the post-war period of rapid urbanisation, underscoring the distinctive context in which Greek cities were called on to promote restructuring strategies. The chapter presents the governance responses of Greek cities to competitiveness-oriented prioritisations. It also presents the current urban policy directions in Greece, as defined by the latest state spatial restructuring reform, and the incorporation of the urban dimension into the national strategic reference framework.
