Presentation

Cities are where today's key challenges magnify in the EU.

Although they occupy just 4 percent of the EU's land area, cities are now home to about 75 percent of Europeans. With their dense concentration of population and infrastructure and their still largely unsustainable development patterns, cities are the cause, but also the main victim, of the effects of climate change, pollution, and large economic inequalities. All these factors disproportionately impact vulnerable segments of the population and can exacerbate the social challenges that already exist in the EU's urban areas. At the same time, cities are centres of creativity, innovation, and education and have the capacity to influence significant systemic changes on a range of critical issues in Europe. If we are to achieve the goal of green and digital transition and strengthen social and economic resilience, as outlined in the EU Green Deal, cities must be supported.

EU law is greatly shaping cities, but with what effect ?

Today, about half of the total EU budget and 70 percent of EU rules are applied in urban areas. At the same time, a growing stream of European case law deals with typically urban conflicts. By structuring and regulating most policies affecting cities, the EU exerts a clear impact on their regulatory scope, spatial development, and socio-economic dynamics. In this context, concerns about the influence of EU internal market rules on local culture and housing affordability, or debates about the effects of technological rules or environmental obligations on residents' lives and urban development are becoming a pervasive common feeling among city dwellers and institutions.

Seeing EU law through an urban lens.

Thus, understanding how EU law and governance shape urban areas and vice versa becomes urgent and unavoidable. How do EU law and its implementation influence the socio-economic environment created by urbanization ? What kind of cities emerge from the influence of EU law and who are the winners and losers of this model ? At the same time, the focus on cities makes visible how EU law can generate contradictions or limitations that challenge collective efforts to improve city life. How much regulatory space is left for cities today, and how can EU law help urban areas respond to future challenges ? How can a focus on urban practices help rethink EU law in a context of urgency and contestation ? Bringing together scholars, policymakers, and civil society to discuss the co-constitutive relationship between EU law and the city in various fields, the conference aims to shed light on the various ways in which EU law influences life in cities and vice versa.

Programme

Thursday, 30th January 2025

(rue Saint-Guillaume)

13:00 : Welcome and Introduction to the conference
Florence Faucher, Sciences Po, Director of the CEE
Tommaso Vitale, Sciences Po, Dean of the Urban School
Carlo Maria Colombo, Sciences Po, CEE, Marie Skłodowska-Curie Fellow

Panel 1 - How does eu law allow the city to stay for the locals ?

Chair : Prof. Gabriel Feltran, Sciences Po, CEE, CNRS

13:30 : EU economic law as city law : reflections from the regulation of retail markets
Dr. Giacomo Tagiuri, University of Amsterdam

EU law in the housing crisis
Dr. Klaas Eller, University of Amsterdam

Discussant : Dr. Dina Waked, Sciences Po, Law School, Dean of School of Research

14:50 : Coffee break

Panel 2 - EU law and homelessness in cities : making the invisible visible

Chair : Prof. Bruno Cousin, Sciences Po, CEE

15:15 : Between rights and punishment : homelessness in EU and US cities
Prof. Fernanda Nicola, American University - Washington College of Law

'Defending the Urban Way of Life' : Tourism, Homelessness and the EU City
Dr. Dion Kramer, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam

Discussant : Prof. Tommaso Vitale, Sciences Po, Dean of the Urban School & CEE

Roundtable on 'European integration and the city'

(Room change to Amphithéâtre Jean-Moulin, 13 rue de l'Université)

17:00 : Chair : Dr. Anne-Laure Beaussier, Sciences Po, CSO, CNRS

With :
Lamia El Aaraje, Deputy Mayor of Paris in charge of urban planning, architecture, Greater Paris, universal accessibility and people with disabilities
Matthew Baldwin, Deputy Director-General of D.G. for Energy at the European Commission
André Sobczak, Secretary General of Eurocities
Carlo Maria Colombo, Sciences Po, CEE

19:00 : End

Friday, 31st January 2025

(Rue Saint-Guillaume)

8:45 : Welcome Coffee

Panel 3 - EU law and city sustainability

Chair : Prof. Horatia Muir-Watt, Sciences Po, Law School

9:00 : Regulating short food supply chains in the EU urban context : challenges and opportunities in the sustainability turn
Dr. Mirta Alessandrini, Wageningen University

Structuring an EU city-specific law on mobility through social conflicts
Dr. Carlo Colombo, Sciences Po, CEE and Maastricht University

EU law and the 15-minute city
Prof. Floris de Witte, London School of Economics and Political Science

Discussant : Dr. Francesca Artioli, Université Paris-Est Créteil

10:45 : Coffee break

Panel 4 - Law, innovation and the city : how can eu law enable cities to fully embrace the change ?

Chair : Dr. Raphaële Xenidis, Sciences Po, Law School

11:00 : EU law and digitalization of security in cities
Dr. Beatriz Botero Arcila, Sciences Po, Law School

Public Private Community Partnerships for Just Climate-Neutral and Smart Cities
Prof. Christian Iaione, Luiss Guido Carli University

Realizing city empowerment
Dr. Erika Arban, Melbourne University
and Prof. Maartje de Visser, Singapore Management University

Discussant : Prof. Patrick Le Galès, Sciences Po, CEE, CNRS

12:45 : Conclusion of the workshop and Follow-Up

13:15 : Closure

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