The European Benchmark of Local Public Services
Digital giants, local startups and participatory democracy on the one hand, municipal governance, forgotten cities and a desire for the state on the other: the paradoxes of transition in metropolises.
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Crises are events that public actors must anticipate, knowing that they are rarely predictable. These are also pivotal moments that invite the reform of institutions or organizations, to organize recovery and strengthen the resilience of territories. François Bayrou, former minister, new French High Commissioner for Planification and local elected official, did us the honour of participating in this meeting to discuss the lessons he learned from the COVID crisis, his vision of “planification” in the 21st century and its own role. Two Local Authority Chief Executives then shared their experience of crisis management by local authorities.
The health crisis has revealed the importance of fluid coordination between state services and those of the local and regional authorities as well of an efficient sharing of responsibilities, which leaves room for differentiated approaches depending on the diversity of local situations. Expectations are high for a recovery plan that right away reactivates the socio-economic dynamics of the territories and accelerates their ecological transition.
Climate, biodiversity, resources …
The inventory is more than worrying. Urgency and long-term collide, solutions will be systemic or will not be.
The Chief Executives of the larger local authorities are well-positioned to understand it, and they act, but the magnitude of the necessary changes is still difficult to imagine.
Brussels, home to many international institutions, is a Region that is still facing various challenges: increasing poverty, significant population growth, low employment rate … The Brussels Region is also full of opportunities, seized by the public authorities, to become an ambitious capital, safe, with “soft” mobility, with accessible housing, pleasant to live in. The complexity of the distribution of competences pushes the various institutions to find synergies and collaborations, in order to propose to the citizen the best possible services.
Transversal issues, energy and ecological transition, participatory approaches, public and private stakeholders’ interaction, “managerial revolution”, growth crisis are some of the ingredients that make the making of the city more and more complex. They impose new strategies as well as an overall rise in competence, by community agents, elected officials and structures dedicated to development operations. It is the arduous task of Chief Executives to achieve the matching between public policies, projects and a “participative” organization necessarily adapted to the particular context of their territory.
The economic and environmental crisis accentuates the difficulties of the medium-sized cities and the peri-urban or rural territories, widening the gap between these territories and the metropolises. Should we attribute some responsibility to these? How to better spread the benefits of the dynamics of the metropolises? Is merging with the departmental councils a solution? The meeting provided a beginning of answer, highlighting the need for contextual, differentiated and agile approaches.
Mobility in all its forms is a key challenge for the governance and development of urban areas. It raises issues of how to reconcile the demand for mobility and sustainable development, how to seize the opportunities offered by the digital and collaborative economy, rethink the categories of individual vs collective and public vs private, coordinate mobility services at the wider urban level, manage resources, and so on.
Large cities, on the front line in dealing with social exclusion and the influx of migrants, do not have adequate means to handle this issue. The time has come to consider migration as a permanent phenomenon, calling for specific public policies. A short-term, urgent approach is the worst solution.
A seminar organized by Bordeaux Metropole and the BEST network in cooperation with the city of Barcelona.