PROXIMITIES

Over the past few years, many European cities have experienced a growing trend towards localisation and proximity, by testing new urban planning paradigms to make cities more accessible, healthy, inclusive and sustainable for local residents. However, in several European medium-sized cities, the 15-minutes approach has been mainly tested on an inner centre dimension, which prevents peripheral urban areas from fully reaching the targets of "Europe Closer to Citizens" priority.

The restrictions posed by the COVID-19, in particular, have reinforced the concept of “proximity” as a tool to measure citizens’ quality of life and identified the existence of an undeniable discrepancy between urban and peripheral areas in terms of services, functions, relations, social and cultural opportunities, recreational spaces and sustainable mobility solutions.

With the coordination of the Municipality of Reggio Emilia and thanks to the thematic support of the Erasmus University Rotterdam, PROXIMITIES project will foster the exchange of experiences among 8 EU countries (Italy, Spain, Latvia, Ireland, Romania, Hungary, Sweden, Bosnia and Herzegovina) to improve local and regional policies in the field of integrated sustainable development of peripheral urban areas, through the implementation of “Proximity” approaches according to 5 leverages:

1) Proximity economy and services; Fostering local economies and accessible services within walking distance.

2) Sustainable and soft connections; Developing green transportation and soft mobility options linking core and peripheral areas.

3) Quality and liveability of public spaces; Emphasising resilience and the natural environment in urban design.

4) Social and emotional dimensions; Building community ties and enhancing social interactions.

5) Governance and functional approaches; Encouraging collaborative policy-making and integrated urban planning.

By bringing peripheral areas to the heart of regional and local development place-based policies and facilitating more integrated governance, PROXIMITIES will introduce cross-sectorial policy innovations to redesign peripheral areas as places of community regeneration, socio-economic innovation and environmental promotion to the benefit of the whole urban territory.

Partnership:

- Lead Partner:  Municipality of Reggio Emilia, Italy

- Advisory Partner: Erasmus Centre for Urban, Port and Transport Economics BV, Netherlands 

 - Southern Regional Assembly, Ireland

 - Manresa City Council, Spain

 - Riga Planning Region, Latvia

 - Regional Development Agency South-West Oltenia, Romania

 - Municipality of Veszprém, Hungary

 - Municipality of Varberg, Sweden

 - Discovery Partner: Municipality of Centar Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina