Mart GriselEUKNmart.grisel@eukn.euMETREX, the network of European Me-tropolitan Regions and Areas, recentlycelebrated its 20th anniversary with aconference around the theme `Challen-ging the Future'. This article looks intocurrent and future challenges of me-tropolitan regions within the contextof two strategic urban agendas: therecently adopted Urban Agenda for theEU and the global New Urban Agenda.Cities and metropolitan regions areback. It is a common belief that citiesmust and will play a key role in ad-dressing the challenges of today andtomorrow. In view of the recentlyadopted 2030 Agenda for SustainableDevelopment and the Paris Agreementon Climate Change (COP21) ? pursueefforts to limit global warming to 1.5 ?C? the (draft) New Urban Agenda of theUN is clear about the role of cities: `Thebattle for sustainable development willbe won or lost in cities'.1While stressing the role of cities, manyrefer to the dazzling urbanisation sta-Metropolitanregions in theEuropean and globalurban agenda's16 2016/03 S+ROThemaUrban AgendaMetropolitan regionsin the European and global urban agenda'sAsia Latin America Africa& Carribean100%80%60%40%20%0%S+RO 2016/03 17ThemaUrban AgendaMetropolitan regionsin the European and global urban agenda'sDistribution of population. Bron: JRC2015, GHSL Pop Grid V1CitiesTowns and suburbsRural areastistics. Let's have a quick look. World-wide, cities account for 80 percent ofthe global GDP. Cities are responsiblefor more than 70 percent of globalenergy-related carbon dioxide emis-sions. By 2100, 85 percent of the worldpopulation will be urban. Urbanisationwill speed up dramatically: from 1 bil-lion in 1950 to 9 billion in 2100.2 Currentcities and megacities will continue togrow, and new cities and megacitieswill arise, especially in Asia but also inLatin America and Africa, the continentwith the highest urban growth rates:almost 11 times higher than Europeaccording to the recently published`World Cities Report 2016'.3 To accom-modate urbanisation in the 21st cen-tury every week a city of one millioninhabitants would need to be built, andthat during a period of forty years.Against this global pattern of con-tinuous urbanisation and growth ofmegacities, Europe shows an atypicaldevelopment. It is the only continentthat will decrease in population, from738 million in 2015 to 734 million by 2030and 646 million by 2100.4 Urbanisationrates in Europe are high, but, contraryto what is generally thought, no longerhigher than in other parts of the world.Based on new satellite observations,the Joint Research Centre of the Euro-pean Commission has calculated thatin Europe 72 percent of the populationlives in cities, according to the newOECD-EC definition, compared to 85percent of the global population.5 Den-sities in Europe are also lower and Euro-pean cities are smaller compared to therest of the world. Europe is a continentof small cities, with London and Parisas an exception: most Europeans live incities between 250,000 and 500,000 in-habitants. Many of the European citiesform part of a polycentric urban region,conglomerations of cities, large andsmall, in close proximity to one another.An important part of urban Europe ispart of this polycentric structure. Thisis the structure of the forty-six metro-politan regions and areas reunited inMETREX.Challenges for themetropolitan regionsOn 19 and 20 May 2016, the 20th An-niversary Conference of METREX tookplace in the Metropolitan Region ofRotterdam The Hague (MetropoolregioRoterdam Den Haag, MRDH). The twocities have joint forces with 21 >>Russia, Ukraine Oceania North America Europe WorldBelarus, Moldavia18 2016/03 S+ROThemaUrban AgendaMetropolitan regionsin the European and global urban agenda'sCity residents in %.Bron: JRC 2015, GHSL Pop Grid V1smaller cities in the southern RandstadRegion, with 2,2 million inhabitants, oneof the most densely populated areas inthe Netherlands producing 16 percentof the national GDP, slightly less thanthe Amsterdam Metropolitan Area (2.4million inhabitants, producing about 19percent of the national GDP).The overall theme of the conference ?`Challenging the Future: How metropo-litan areas must act to create jobs anda meaningful life in the next era' ? wassplit into two sub-themes: `Connec-tivity Inclusiveness and Governance'on the first day (The Hague), and `TheNext Economy' on the second day(Rotterdam). The recurring theme inall sessions, however, was the issue ofmetropolitan governance.The position of metropolitan regionsin Europe is a difficult one: it does notfit within the traditional multilevelgovernance structures based on local,regional, national and supra-nationalframeworks. In many metropolitan re-gions traditional institutions may leadto fragmentation, costs of non-coordi-nation and missed opportunities. OECDstudies suggest that for each doublingin population size, the productivitylevel of a city increases between 2 and5 percent. For European metropolitanregions, both monocentric and poly-centric, this means that smart growthstrategies are needed, either based ongrowth within existing metropolitanregions or `borrowed' growth. In bothcases, this requires new forms of me-tropolitan governance.The fact is, however, that in our increa-singly mobile society, the reality oftoday's functional urban areas doesno longer match the existing adminis-trative boundaries. In the 21st centuryeconomy, characterised by networksand flows, new governance arrange-ments need to be put in place basedupon new economic realities. Thesenew forms can be based on `soft' part-nerships like in the case of the MRDHwith its structure of 23 municipalitiesworking together on a voluntary basis,requiring the endorsement of 23 indi-vidual city councils. They can also bepart of institutionalised arrangementswith elected bodies possessing supra-municipal powers.The challenges to be addressed ? aneconomic performance that is so-metimes lagging behind, increasingsegregation, shortage on the housingmarket, issues with mobility and con-nectivity, serious pockets of povertyand deprivation, risks of radicalisationand extremism ? require a form ofmetropolitan governance that is fit forpurpose. Strong political leadership anda willingness to counterbalance local,regional and national antagonisms are aprecondition for successful metropoli-tan governance.The second theme of the conferencefocused on the `Next Economy', the neweconomy that is moving away from itsfuel-base, its corporate financial insti-tutions and big commercial companiestowards a digital, deliberative, coope-rative, bio-based and circular economyin which shared goods become moreAfrica Asia Europe Russia, Ukraine Oceania Latin America North WorldBelarus, Moldavia & Carribean America100%80%60%40%20%0%City population size:> 5.000.0001.000.000 ? 5.000.000500.000 ? 1.000.000250.000 ? 500.00050.000 ? 250.000S+RO 2016/03 19ThemaUrban AgendaMetropolitan regionsin the European and global urban agenda'sCity residents per km2.Bron: JRC 2015, GHSLimportant than owned goods, whereone million people are already engagedin local energy initiatives. This is theworld of 3D printing, of Uber, AirBnB, ofsocial innovators, city makers, grass-root initiatives, disruptive citizens andconsumers becoming prosumers.The sense of urgency is clear. We needto turn towards a radically differenteconomy. We need to `change tack',to quote the sailor metaphor used byMaarten Hajer in his inspiring IABRessay stressing the need to formulatenew urban imaginaries and get inspiredby design.6 If we think of the fact that,within the context of the urbanisationin the 21st century, 48 percent of thecities that will exist in 2050 still needto be built, there is a chance of gettingthings right. But to get things right by2050, we need to act now.2016, the Urban Year inan Urban CenturyOur century has been dubbed as the`Metropolitan century' (OECD), the`Age of the city' (Maarten Hajer) andwithin that urban century the year2016 promises to play an importantrole. This `UrbanYear' will witness thebirth of two important strategic urbanagendas: the Urban Agenda for the EUand the global New Urban Agenda. Thefirst urban agenda has been adopted on30 May 2016 by the European minis-ters responsible for urban matters asthe Pact of Amsterdam. This Pact hasbeen agreed with the support fromcities, the European Commission, andother European organisations, includingEUROCITIES, the Council of EuropeanMunicipalities and Regions (CEMR), andthe Committee of the Regions. The se-cond agenda will be adopted by the 193member states of the United Nations inOctober 2016 at the Habitat III Confe-rence in Quito, Ecuador.The two agendas are connected: theUrban Agenda for the EU explicitly re-fers to the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustai-nable Development, in particular Goal11 which calls upon member states to`Make cities inclusive, safe, resilient andsustainable'. This goal, strongly lobbiedby urban actors, was the main reasonto convene a third Habitat conferenceon urban matters ? twenty years afterthe second Habitat and forty yearsafter the first Habitat conference ? toadopt the New Urban Agenda.7 TheEuropean agenda can be seen as the EUcontribution to the global agenda.The topics addressed in the Europeanagenda are clustered around twelvepriority themes, many of which alsofigure in the recently published ZeroDraft of the New Urban Agenda: theinclusive city or the City for All, with anemphasis on the urban poor, affordablehousing, job creation and the urbaneconomy, the inclusion of refugees, theimportance of renewable energy andenergy transition, climate change, airquality and circular economy, sustaina-ble use of land and nature-based solu-tions, sustainable public procurement,and the digital transition. It only showsthat there is a common understandingof the `what', about the way forwardtowards a more sustainable urban >>City population size:> 5.000.0001.000.000 ? 5.000.000500.000 ? 1.000.000250.000 ? 500.00050.000 ? 250.000North Europe Russia, Ukraine Latin America Oceania Asia Africa WorldAmerica Belarus, Moldavia & Carribean10.0009.0008.0007.0006.0005.0004.0003.0002.0001.000020 2016/03 S+ROThemaUrban AgendaMetropolitan regionsin the European and global urban agenda'sfuture. But the key question is how to`change tack', and that brings us back tothe question of urban governance.The role of metropolitanareas and regions in thetwo agendasGood urban governance systems arekey to effective policy making. Neitherthe EU priority themes nor the SDGswill be met when governance systemsare not capable of delivering a realimpact post-Amsterdam and post-Quito. Both agendas argue for a robustsystem of multilevel governance basedon principles such as decentralisationand devolution of power and resources,integration of sectoral policies, inclusi-veness and equity, and cooperation andco-production of different spheres ofgovernance and key actors, includingthe private sector, knowledge partnersand civil society.What is the role of metropolitan areasand regions in these two urban agen-das? The New Urban Agenda is the mostexplicit. It calls upon member states toimplement effective metropolitan go-vernance and to provide metropolitanregions with political powers and finan-cial resources to address metropolitanchallenges such as transport, mobility,and regional economic development.The importance of metropolitan areasand regions is developed in even moredetail in the Policy Papers, produced byglobal experts in ten thematic PolicyUnits. The Habitat III Policy Paper on`Urban Governance, Capacity and Insti-tutional Development' considers strongmetropolitan governance as a keycomponent of `New Urban Governance'within a multilevel governance system.This requires a transfer of political po-wers and financial resources for weakmetropolitan governance underminesthe development potentialities and theattractiveness of metropolitan areas ascornerstones of national development.The European agenda does not dif-ferentiate between different local andregional bodies: it paints with a broadbrush all `urban areas', all `new modelsof governance', including governanceacross administrative boundaries. TheEuropean agenda is both more generaland more specific than the New UrbanAgenda. Its overall aim is to involve ur-ban authorities directly in urban policyby investing in better regulation, betterfunding and better knowledge. Theinnovation of the Urban agenda for theEU lies in this direct involvement of ur-ban authorities in partnerships aroundconcrete topics: the priority themes.The partnership concept is probablythe most innovative aspect of theagenda. It paves the way for flexiblesolutions to address the challenges oftoday. It opens up possibilities for adhoc coalitions of urban actors willing towork together on the basis of sharedinterests. In that sense it comes closeto what the Policy Unit on Urban Go-vernance calls `New Urban Governance',the sort of Governance 3.0 that wasalso discussed at the METREX confe-rence.New urban governance is not only asystem based on institutional reform,rooted in rule of law, it is also a mind-set, a culture. A culture of cooperation,participation and co-production that isflexible, open to experiments, open tolearning, and open to innovation. In thatsense, the experiment in the MRDH, isa case in point. Both urban agendasoffer metropolitan areas and regions achance to be actively part of a processleading away from the old to the nexteconomy. After Quito, the New UrbanAgenda offers metropolitan areas andregions across the globe a politicalframework to strengthen their posi-tion. In Europe, the partnerships offerthe possibility to be actively involved.It would be a missed opportunity not totake advantage of it. Notes1 The first Zero Draft of the New UrbanAgenda was published on 6 May 2016. Ashorter, revised Zero Draft was publishedon 18 June 2016; the quotation does notrecur in the revised draft.See: www.habitat3.org.2 OECD, The Metropolitan Century:Understanding Urbanisation and itsConsequences, OECD Publishing, Paris, 2015(DOI:10.1787/9789264228733-en)3 UN-Habitat, Urbanization andDevelopment: Emerging Futures. State ofthe World Cities Report 2016, Nairobi, 2016.4 United Nations, Department of Economicand Social Affairs, Population Division.World Population Prospects: The 2015Revision, Key Findings and Advance Tables.Working Paper No. ESA/P/WP.241, 2016.5 UN-Habitat, State of the EuropeanCities, Nairobi, 2016 (forthcoming). Thenew figures will need to be reconfirmednext year, when improved satelliteobservations will become available.6 Hajer, M. `Changing Tack: UrbanImaginairies and the Changing Role ofDesign', `, in: Brugmans, G. et al., The NextEconomy. International ArchitectureBiennale Rotterdam, 2016, pp. 76-82.7 For all documents related to the NewUrban Agenda, including the Policy Papers,see: www.habitat3.org.Mart Grisel works at Platform31, know-ledge and networking organisation forurban and regional development in theNetherlands, and is seconded to theEuropean Urban Knowledge Network(EUKN) as its Director.