ABSTRACT
This chapter analyses the main features of the comparative investigation into national urban policy in the European Union. It presents the 'state of the art' concerning the explicit national urban policies in the member states of the European Union, but the investigation has also taken other national policies into consideration as far as they make a substantial impact on the development of the cities. Urban systems in Europe show very different forms as well. Most countries have not reached a balanced urban system in which the various levels of the urban hierarchy are adequately filled. In most of the countries a primary city dominates the urban system. The chapter argues that the phase of urbanization in which a country, or more accurately, the towns in a country, find themselves, determines what kind of problems confront these towns, and also what is the best policy to cope with them.
