Reinhard Henke Senior policy advisor and a technical representative of his region in both the METREX and PURPLE networks and regional manager of the Interreg IVB NWE CChange project. Welcome to PURPLE! Continuity post-SURF: Options to take your message to Europe Reinhard Henke, Regionalverband FrankfurtRheinMain on behalf of PURPLE Aberdeen, 28th June, 2012 3 Reinhard Henke Today‘s agenda ▌ What is PURPLE? ▌ PURPLE‘s approach: Political and pragmatic ▌ Recent successes ▌ Refining the definition ▌ How does SURF fit in? ▌ An invitation to PURPLE The challenge ▌ „Not urban enough, not rural enough“ ▌ Territorial capital split between lots of middle-sized towns and cities ▌ Needs explanation ▌ Needs awareness 4 Reinhard Henke 5 Reinhard Henke The response: PURPLE ▌ 16 Regions – Regions, not cities ▌ Prosperous and dynamic ▌ Political platform ▌ Lobbying towards EU Parliament, Committee of the Regions, European Commission ▌ Promoting the Peri-Urban case wherever necessary Recent successes ▌ Amendments to proposed 2014 funding regulations ▌ Selected MEPs are advocating these amendments ▌ CoR reports acknowledge the need to specify peri-urban areas ▌ References to peri-urban areas in the final declaration of the Copenhagen CoR summit ▌ PURPLE‘s position established and acknowledged ▌ Balancing political and pragmatic approaches and scientific evidence 6 Reinhard Henke 7 Reinhard Henke Refining the definition: Common ground Well- Known Core City Town A Town B Town C Town D Town E TownF Approach 1: Administrative 8 Reinhard Henke Politically decided (Land Government) Legally binding Basis for e.g. funding for agriculture „Ländlicher Raum“ = „Rural Area“ Core Cities Approach 2: Functional 9 Reinhard Henke Showing what is not there: relations like commuting patterns Important: Feels to show the real thing Tricky: Complicated calculations, hidden decisions, hard to compare INSEE approach combining morphologica l criteria with commuting rates Approach 3: Morphological 10 Reinhard Henke Showing what is there Well established method Abstraction and Interpretation CORINE overcoming national specificies Frankfurt Approach 4: Narrative 11 Reinhard Henke Verbal description Using images, stereotypes, clichees Appealing, avoiding figures ▌ Former SE England (NUTS2 UKJ) 1. Next to London ... 2. with complicated governance patterns .... 3. and a complicated settlement pattern ... 4. with a buoyant economy 5. making it expensive to be in ... 6. and highly valued as a result. How does SURF fit in? ▌ Is the Urban Fringe seen as synonymous to the Peri-Urban Zone? Peri-Urban is more than just a small strip around a city. ▌ Please do not avoid to define what you are addressing! ▌ Is there evidence about the specific features of the Urban Fringe? ▌ Would you like to add to the Brussels profile and the brand identity of PURPLE? 12 Reinhard Henke An invitation: Brussels, 10th October ▌ CoR Open Days: „Contributing to rural-urban bonds in peri-urban regions“ ▌ Afternoon political networking reception ▌ Presentation of the winning entries to the photo competition ▌ Opportunities to talk and to exchange ideas ▌ PURPLE originated from an Interreg project… ▌ …and is a growing network, welcoming new members! 13 Reinhard Henke 14 Reinhard Henke henke@region-frankfurt.de www.purple-eu.org