Àrea Metropolitana de Barcelona

Urban areas contribute to approximately 85% of the EU’s GDP and are home to more than 75% of the EU population; therefore, they play a critical role in economic stability and growth. At the same time, they compete to attract foreign direct investment, hold a prominent position in the knowledge-based economy, and attract a notably high proportion of immigrants.

However, they also face numerous challenges such as congestion, infrastructure renewal, and the expansion of disadvantaged urban areas. In this context, improved strategies for the development and coordination of metropolitan areas are crucial to sustaining their strong economic growth. Nevertheless, existing governance frameworks are often outdated and insufficiently prepared to address these issues, particularly given the nature of many metropolitan cities, which span multiple jurisdictions.

Indeed, collaboration between a city and its surrounding areas (e.g. smaller municipalities/communities) often proves difficult and is not fully optimized, leading to inefficiencies in crucial aspects of citizens’ daily lives. To address these persistent challenges, effective tools must be adopted and integrated to enhance cooperation between cities and their rural surroundings.

To strengthen metropolitan cooperation and governance within metropolitan areas, governance mechanisms and models should be refined, building on established best practices and tools from across the EU.

The Metro Case project has emerged to address these challenges. Its objective is to improve the metropolitan strategic planning policies and tools of the participating metropolitan areas in order to foster better multi-sectoral and multi-level coordination between core cities and their surrounding territories.

By developing a shared vision of metropolitan governance, identifying appropriate forms and areas of cooperation, and improving existing strategic planning tools through the exchange of best practices and mutual learning, the project aims to promote sustainable, balanced, and integrated territorial development.

The MetroCase project is part of the Interreg Europe programme, which focuses on strengthening interregional cooperation to reduce disparities in levels of development, growth, and quality of life across and between Europe’s regions.