URBAN POLICY IN THE CONTEXT OF CONTEMPORARY URBANISATION PROCESSES AND DEVELOPMENT ISSUES OF POLISH CITIES

The great dynamics and wide range of contemporary Polish processes of urbanisation as well as problems of city development and operation require setting objectives, formulating rules and implementing urban policy. Its aim should be to support municipalities in their attempt to solve primary problems. What makes such a policy necessary is the fact that, while cities play a crucial role in global socio-economic development, they also experience financial, demographic, social, environmental, housing and other problems most severely. Therefore in many cases cities cannot be generators of development and cannot be responsible for the implementation of the Lisbon Strategy, as stipulated by the European Union. The aim of this paper is to present the principles of urban policy which could be implemented in Poland taking into account both, the existing situation and the position of the European Union on this matter. It is assumed that urban policy will be implemented at two levels: supra-local (the European Union, state and regional) and local. The first of these levels will apply to all European cities, Polish cities and those of a particular region, while the other, to a particular city and its spatial components. The policy principles will result from EU documents for which urban policy is a component of regional policy. Primarily, it is the Leipzig Charter on Sustainable European Cities and the Green Paper on Territorial Cohesion: Turning territorial diversity into strength.