[Conference] EU law and the city: Untangling a co-constitutive relationship

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.

Thursday, 30th January 2025 - Room Goguel, 27 rue Saint-Guillaume, 75007 Paris

13:00 – 13:30 Welcome and Introduction to the conference

• Christine Musselin (Sciences Po, Provost)
• Florence Faucher (Sciences Po, Director of the CEE)
• Sebastien Pimont (Sciences Po, Dean of the Law School)
• Tommaso Vitale (Sciences Po, Dean of the Urban School)
• Carlo Maria Colombo (Sciences Po, CEE, Marie Skłodowska-Curie Fellow)

13:30-14:50 PANEL 1: HOW DOES EU LAW ALLOW THE CITY TO STAY FOR THE LOCALS?

Chair: Prof. Helena Alviar García (Sciences Po) 

1. EU economic law as city law: reflections from the regulation of retail markets – Dr. Giacomo Tagiuri (University of Amsterdam)
2. EU law in the housing crisis – Dr. Klaas Eller (University of Amsterdam)

Discussant: Prof. Sebastien Pimont (Sciences Po, Dean of the Law School)

14:50 – 15:15 Coffee break

15:15 -16:35 PANEL 2: EU LAW AND HOMELESSNESS IN CITIES: MAKING THE INVISIBLE VISIBLE

Chair: Prof. Bruno Cousin (Sciences Po, CEE) 

1. Between rights and punishment: homelessness in EU and US cities – Prof. Fernanda Nicola (American University - Washington College of Law)
2. ‘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)

17:00 - 19:00 ROUNDTABLE ON ‘EUROPEAN INTEGRATION AND THE CITY’ (Room change to Amphitheatre Jean-Moulin, 13 rue de l'Université)

Chair: Dr. Anne-Laure Beaussier (Sciences Po) 

• 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)
   

Friday, 31st January 2025 - Room Goguel, 27 rue Saint-Guillaume, 75007 Paris

08:45 – 09:00 Welcome Coffee 

09:00-10:45 PANEL 3: EU LAW AND CITY SUSTAINABILITY

Chair: Prof. Horatia Muir-Watt (Sciences Po)

1. Regulating short food supply chains in the EU urban context: challenges and opportunities in the sustainability turn – Dr. Mirta Alessandrini (Wageningen University) 
2. Structuring an EU city-specific law on mobility through social conflicts – Dr. Carlo Colombo (Sciences Po, CEE and Maastricht University) 
3. 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 – 11:00 Coffee break

11:00-12:45 PANEL 4: LAW, INNOVATION AND THE CITY: HOW CAN EU LAW ENABLE CITIES TO FULLY EMBRACE THE CHANGE?

Chair: Dr. Raphaële Xenidis (Sciences Po) 

1. EU law and digitalization of security in cities – Dr. Beatriz Botero Arcila (Sciences Po, Law School)
2. Public Private Community Partnerships for Just Climate-Neutral and Smart Cities – Prof. Christian Iaione (Luiss Guido Carli University)
3. 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 – 13:15 Conclusion of the workshop and Follow-Up