Poster - Functional Urban Areas in Europe
Key Messages
1) Functional Urban Areas (FUAs), as labour market basins, are key drivers of European, national, regional and local economic performance and important territorial structures in delivering on the Europe 2020 targets.
2) Europe is characterised by a polycentric network of FUAs, reflecting the diversity and density of the European urban system, embracing cities and urban areas of different size and with complementary functions.
3) A denser urban structure can be observed in central Europe in an area stretching from the UK via the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany and southern France; and to the east through the Czech Republic and Poland.
4) Countries such as Ireland, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, but also parts of Spain, Portugal, Greece, Bulgaria and Romania are less populated and have less dense urban systems.
5) Functional urban areas are important territorial assets for Europe because of their role in sustaining a critical mass for development, strengthening urban-rural linkages and encouraging cooperation between cities belonging to a cross-border area, macro-region or even a global integration zone.
