A metropolitan agenda for the next term

About to officially begin the electoral campaign for the May 28 election, and taking into account that during the pre-campaign, if we take the city of Barcelona as a reference, a short-sighted view has prevailed, both in temporal terms (little debate on models, much on specific actions) and territorial terms (fixation on the Eixample versus an increasingly metropolitan reality), it is important to demand positions that encompass all essential aspects that, the day after the elections, will need to be addressed at the metropolitan scale: housing, mobility, economic activity, climate emergency, provision of water, food, and energy...

Thus, from the Barcelona Metropolitan Strategic Plan (PEMB) we have appealed to political parties, directly and through the media, to clearly incorporate the metropolitan issue into their framework programs and specific programs for each locality. In this regard, we have put on the table the Metropolitan Commitment 2030, a medium-term strategic agenda that aims to place the aforementioned issues at the metropolitan scale, and which has been developed with the participation of a wide range of public and private actors, academia, and organized society.

Precisely, taking into account the difficulties in fostering this debate in electoral contests, from the PEMB we argue that the metropolitan issue is too important to leave solely in the hands of administrations (and, consequently, of parties) and that the involvement of other institutions and society is fundamental, since their daily lives do not understand administrative limits, even though they constantly clash with them.

The Metropolitan Commitment 2030, which is based on eight major missions linked to challenges where the dimension of the real city, the one that brings together these five million inhabitants, is key, is thus a good guide on the issues to be addressed. The missions define measures to achieve a more innovative and inclusive economy, generate sufficient income levels, combat the climate and environmental emergency, facilitate sustainable and safe mobility, promote healthy eating, strengthen territorial cohesion, guarantee adequate housing, and activate cultural vitality. Likewise, a set of proposals aimed at improving governance and the interrelationship with the rest of the world of this metropolitan territory in a broad sense are formulated.

In total, 114 measures to be developed by 2030 (the next two terms) to promote a new prosperity model, based on knowledge and innovation, that reduces social and territorial inequalities in the Barcelona metropolitan region and positions it as one of the leading metropolises in the fight against the climate emergency. And these will have to be carried out as defined: in a shared manner among the various levels of administration and the rest of the actors in metropolitan society.

And what are the priority actions requested by the Metropolitan Commitment 2030? Those for which municipal action is not enough, and it is necessary to look up and seek mechanisms to act on the scale of the five-million-person city:

In economic matters, it is necessary to coordinate international projection and promotion instruments, so that investment attraction is a collaborative task and not a competition between neighboring cities, just as it is necessary to coordinate public land operators for economic activity. It is also necessary to have metropolitan-level concertation spaces that work towards adapting wages to a reference metropolitan minimum wage.

It is necessary to coordinate international projection and promotion instruments, so that investment attraction is a collaborative task and not a competition between neighboring cities

The fight against climate change is undoubtedly a global task, in which all contributions, individual and collective, can add up. But for this sum to be effective and to be leaders on the path towards emission neutrality, it is necessary to advance in a generalized and coordinated way in the transition towards the new model. Again, isolated actions by some municipalities that are not consistent with those of others could also be counterproductive, as would be the case with low emission zones, water management, or the protection of agricultural areas.

From the point of view of reducing social and territorial inequalities, it is essential to deepen fiscal equity mechanisms among municipalities to avoid and counteract segregation dynamics, as well as the coordination of the complementary income guarantee system to make it multi-level and multi-benefit and other more specific actions such as bringing protected housing applicant registries and rental pools to the metropolitan level or strengthening neighborhood cultural networks around libraries. It is also important to give a voice to citizens and leverage the potential of participation in metropolitan-wide issues through the federation of existing virtual municipal platforms.

Finally, some of the key issues have to do with completing projects or actions that must be finalized within this period, from the definitive approval of the Metropolitan Urban Master Plan to the full deployment of the Infrastructure Master Plan, the Rodalies Plan, and T-Mobilitat, including the update of the Coastal Plan, the protection of areas of high environmental value, the expansion of energy rehabilitation and neighborhood regeneration programs with a focus on sustainability, with the consolidation of metropolitan energy and housing operators and the coordination of cultural projects at this scale, among others.

Some projects or actions that must be completed within this period are the definitive approval of the Metropolitan Urban Master Plan and the full deployment of the Infrastructure Master Plan, the Rodalies Plan, and T-Mobilitat