Key facts

The ESPON 2013 Programme introduced Targeted Analyses as a tool to support stakeholders to enhance their understanding of the larger territorial context, make comparisons to other territories and hereby provide a European perspective to considerations on the development of their territories. The cities of Vienna (Austria), Prague (Czech Republic), Budapest (Hungary), Bratislava (Slovakia) and Ljubljana (Slovenia) are the stakeholders behind the Targeted Analysis "POLYCE / Metropolisation and Polycentric Development in Central Europe". The ESPON Monitoring Committee shall select on 30 September 2010 the Transnational Project Group that shall carry out the analysis in close co-operation with the stakeholders. The project is expected to start in autumn 2010 and to end in spring 2012. The budget foreseen for this project amounts to € 350.000,-.

Thematic scope

The European Commission[1] considers that the Danube Region is one of the most important areas in Europe. Along the river lie four capital cities, and significant other important centres are part of the region. There are many major issues to be addressed in the region including economic and social disparities, infrastructure deficiencies, environmental status, prevention against risks, and so on. Following the EU enlargements in 2004 and 2007, there is a need and an opportunity to overcome the legacy of former divisions and for the potential of the region as an integral part of the European Union to be more fully realised.

The polycentric urban system forms together with the Danube River an important carrier for territorial development in the Danube Region. The metropolitan and capital city areas are important drivers for development of the entire macro-region. In this respect the cities share important common characteristics and interests.

The POLYCE Targeted Analysis addresses the polycentric network of metropolitan functional urban areas in the Danube Region. In order to detect opportunities for sustainable urban development at macro-regional and city-level the project carries out a territorial analysis at both levels. The Central European capital cities Vienna, Prague, Budapest, Bratislava and Ljubljana shall be analysed in depth. The targeted analysis aims at creating a better understanding of the role and territorial position these cities currently have and can have in the future in the wider macro-regional, European and global territorial context. The polycentric network of the capital cities has known important liaisons in history. The cities experienced about half a century of territorial fragmentation until the year 1989. The changed geopolitical context has restored polycentricism and territorial integration as key assets for territorial development.

The POLYCE Targeted Analyses builds further on the intensified co-operation in the field of spatial planning and urban development between the cities. The capital cities wish to strengthen their position as network of metropolises within the Europe and the world. They do not only want to be the driver of development for their direct functional hinterland but as a network they also want to be a driver of development for the entire Danube Region as global integration zone. The cities involved wish to enhance their metropolitan competitiveness. By making use of their metropolitan territorial potential they expect to be able to bring added value to the entire development of the Danube Region. In particular the attraction of green and creative economic activity is a key objective as well as innovation and knowledge economy. The metropolitan identity, quality of life and the quality of services of general interest are considered as potential levers for development. The cities involved also wish to strengthen the networking amongst each other in order to better use complementarities and to create synergies between cities.

Expected output

The POLYCE Targeted Analysis aims at describing the state of affairs of the process of metropolisation in Central-Eastern Europe in order to formulate strategic territorial development options for its capital city authorities and its respective functional urban areas that wish to add up to the EU Strategy for the Danube Region.

The analysis included the following elements:

• The characteristics of the polycentric system on Central European level and metropolitan level
• Distinct characteristics and profiles of the involved metropolises and their relevant territorial capital
• Strengths and weaknesses of the involved metropolises
• Recommendations for the positioning of the five metropolitan areas through strengthening the polycentric structure on macro and meso level

The project shall draw general conclusions on the role and position of metropolises in macro-regions on the basis of the analysis of the five case study metropolises. The empirical analysis should provide relevant information at the geographical level of each individual metropolitan region as well as at the geographical level of the metropolitan urban system of the Danube Region as a whole. The results will demonstrate disparities within and between metropolitan regions as well as relevant strengths and weaknesses. The results comprehend a territorial benchmark of the metropolitan areas and the Danube Region as global integration zone. They support the formulation of strategic actions at the two geographical scales mentioned, taking into account the policy competences of the stakeholders.

[1] European Commission, 2 February 2010, EU Strategy for the Danube Region, REGIO/E1/EN/NV/OB D(2010)