Metropolitan regions and functional urban areas as socio-economic drivers of sustainable investment in the 2021-2027 Cohesion policy frame

166th plenary session, 14-15 May 2025 OPINION COTER-VIII/001 Metropolitan regions and functional urban areas as socioeconomic drivers of sustainable investment in the 2021-2027 cohesion policy framework THE EUROPEAN COMMITTEE OF THE REGIONS (CoR) - stresses the growing importance of functional urban areas (FUAs) in EU policies and reaffirms the need for strong urban and metropolitan strategies to tackle demographic change, green, digital and industrial transitions, social inequalities, the need for integration, affordable housing shortages, healthcare, mobility, air pollution and climate change; - calls for a new urban agenda that encourages the aggregation of functional and metropolitan areas beyond individual municipalities and promotes greater attention to the concept of functional areas in strategic discussions at all levels of governance and within the EU institutions; - recognises the importance of shared management programmes in providing regular and constant funding for cities and metropolitan areas and calls for an increase of the 8% minimum in the ERDF national allocation for urban development in order to ensure the necessary support also for new European priorities, including affordable housing and security; - calls for the establishment of a minimum 5% ESF+ reserve for urban territorial strategies to address growing inequalities, poverty, and educational disparities within metropolitan areas, as well as to cope with the pressures of...