Urban Areas in the Focus of Administrational Structure and Urban Govemance

Abstract

The new EU member-states in the Central and Eastern European region neither possess a national urban policy, nor a policy aiming to integrate urban areas. Based on this, this study focuses on the issue of the extent to which urban networks in general possess institutions complying with the new challenges of European urban development. In what kind of context is the cooperation of urban regions embedded in several states of the EU? Should a town or city be treated as a region? The approximation of this subject takes place primarily from the point of view of regional sciences and the administrative organisations, since it is a generally accepted theory nowadays that good govemance and effective institutional structures mean an important development source for regional competitiveness. From this point of view, it is important what kind of possibilities and opportunities the Hungarian towns have, including the atmosphere created by the new administration reform, and the revitalised culture of hori- zontal cooperation.