Small and Medium-Sized Towns (SMSTs) and European Policies

The last two decades have witnessed an increasing focus on the role of cities and regions at global, European, national and sub-national levels. In terms of thinking within the European Union (EU) regions, including city-regions/metropolitan regions, are seen as playing a key role in Europe’s development. In fact, it is widely asserted that cities have been, and in the future will be, the engines for regional, national, European innovation and economic development. Cities have increasingly been seen as the ‘drivers of the economy and of European economic competitiveness’ and this emphasis has been considerably strengthened by firmly linking cities to the LisbonGöteborg Strategy (see CEC, 2005 and 2009) and wider policies on cohesion (e.g. CEC, 2006a). However, the focus has overwhelmingly been on larger cities and capitals while the roles and functions of SMSTs have rarely figured in these debates.