A CRITICAL APPROACH TO EU URBAN POLICY FROM THE VIEWPOINT OF GENDER

Abstract

1.IntroductionCities have been on the focus of EU since the end of the '80s. Due to the awareness of the relevance of issues in achieving the objectives of the treaties, a complex process of policy-building has taken place within EU institutions since the late '80s. This has led to the definition of what we could call today the Union's policy or the urban dimension of EU policy.In order to understand the process of construction that has taken place over the last three decades, it is relevant to mention that the European Union does not have powers in the field of issues. The legislative capacity in this regard lies in the hands of the Member States. Consequently, over the years, issues within EU have been drafted using a number of non-compulsory tools of different types, produced and launched by different stakeholders (the European Commission, the European Parliament, the Committee of the Regions, the Informal Meeting of Ministers of Urban Development, and organizations such as Eurocities, etc.).These tools consist mainly of i) written documents (policy documents such as EC communications, case studies of best practices, guidelines, etc.); ii) instruments for regeneration launched by the European Commission (the Urban Pilot Projects - UPP, and the URBAN Community Initiative), cofunded by the Structural Funds; and iii) URBACT, a program aimed to develop knowledge, practical experience, and capacity in networks of cities that work around a specific challenge, considered relevant to sustainable in the context of the Europe 2020 strategy (European Commission, 2010).There are also other instruments, initiatives and programs that have exerted an influence on the definition and of the dimension in EU policy, however those mentioned here are the most specific and visible ones, which have produced the most demonstrable results, and which have been launched within this specific domain over the last three decades (De Gregorio, 2017).This process of policy-building has led to the construction of a concept of sustainable/integrated development that has been integrated within the tools mentioned through the of a specific discourse. This work is aimed at understanding how the gender perspective has been introduced into the EU's discourse on matters over the last 15 years.In order to achieve this objective, it is important to take into account that in 1999 the Treaty of Amsterdam (signed in 1997) came into force. It brought new insight into gender issues at Community level, as for the first time it introduced the concept of gender mainstreaming within the Treaty.This new approach to equal opportunities included multiple new provisions strengthening EU competence in this area. The Treaty moved equal opportunities on from a focus on equal pay to become a central objective of EU political commitment. As a result equal treatment between women and men now represents a fundamental right enshrined in EU law (Booth and Bennett, 2002: 2). For Pollack and Hafner-Burton (2000), the most farreaching provision in the new Treaty was the revision of Articles 2 and 3 that made equal opportunities for women and men a central objective of the Union.As a result of the adoption of this perspective, from that moment on, the gender perspective became integrated within many areas where the EU was politically active. Today, 15 years after the adoption of the gender mainstreaming approach in the Treaty, the current level of implementation of this perspective within the different areas is highly heterogeneous: some fields have integrated or have started to mainstream gender (e.g. gender is now mainstreamed within EU research policy), while others have not yet started this process.As will be explained, the results of this research indicate that the gender dimension has not yet been introduced into EU policy. …