Faced with urban sprawl and its harmful consequences, the metropolitan regions of North West Europe are seeking to control urbanisation and to implement the principles of sustainable development in the areas surrounding major cities.

The project will reinforce co-operation on this theme between the regional and local authorities of five metropolitan regions : Paris and the Ile-de-France, London and South East England, the Ruhr, Rotterdam/The Hague, and the Mannheim/Ludwigshafen conurbation.

It will encourage transfer of experience on controlling dispersion of urbanisation and restructuring outer metropolitan areas, maintaining and restoring the socio-economic balance, and implementing sustainable development that takes into account social, economic, and environmental objectives.

A pragmatic and active project approach
The partners expect practical outputs from the project in the form of proposals for action. Assessment of the actions already undertaken and transfer of experience will lead to suggesting improved tools for locating development optimally, regenerating run-down urban areas, managing airport-related development, promoting more sustainable means of transport, improving the distribution of resources, co-ordinating planning and development, renewing development models to take account of protection needs, enhancing open spaces and enriching their use, reinforcing inter-district co-operation and local community participation.

The INTERREG II C programme
The INTERREG IIC Community Initiative (1997-2001), financed by the ERDF (European Regional Development Fund), contributes to developing transnational co-operation on spatial planning by financing European-interest projects.
The programme proposes three measures: urban and regional systems, infrastructures and communications, and natural resources and cultural heritage.
The “metropolitan fringes” project was approved on February 18, 1999 by a Steering Committee composed of representatives from the regions of the North Western Metropolitan Area. It comes under measure 1 and more precisely under sub-measure 1.2 “sustainable development, urban and regional quality and balanced location of development”.