Ghent is often recognised for its medieval centre, canals and cultural life. But the city is also building a strong reputation for a modern form of urban leadership, working neighbourhood by neighbourhood to make the green and sustainable transition fairer, more practical and more inclusive.
EU funds have helped Ghent turn this approach into practical improvements for residents, from regenerating former docklands and greening dense neighbourhoods, to supporting vulnerable homeowners, strengthening employment pathways and testing new approaches to homelessness.
New research from the EU-funded ESPON URDICO project shows that Ghent’s experience with Cohesion Policy, the EU’s main investment tool for supporting local development, offers an important lesson for the next EU budget. European investment works better when cities can connect climate, housing, mobility, employment and social inclusion in one place-based strategy.
As negotiations on the next EU budget intensify, Ghent’s experience shows why EU funding must support the way cities actually work across departments, neighbourhoods and social and environmental priorities.
Turning EU investment into neighbourhood change
Ghent has developed a strong neighbourhood-oriented approach to urban development, linking social and physical renewal through long-term area-based programmes, participatory planning and cross-sectoral coordination.
“EU funding matters because it helps cities move from ambition to action,” says Mathias De Clercq, Mayor of Ghent and President of Eurocities. “But to make the biggest difference, it must support the way cities actually work across departments, neighbourhoods, and different policy areas, using social, spatial and environmental investments.”
This approach brings together municipal departments, urban development partners and civil society. It recognises that neighbourhood renewal is not only about buildings or public space, but also about local services, community work, employment, mobility, housing quality and climate resilience.
EU funding matters because it helps cities move from ambition to action.
Ghent is the capital of East Flanders and the second largest city in the Flemish Region, with around 270,000 residents. It is divided into 25 neighbourhoods, ranging from dense historic urban areas to industrial, suburban and peripheral village zones.
This diversity shapes how the city works. Ghent does not operate through a formal metropolitan governance structure, but it plays a central role in intermunicipal and cross-border cooperation, including the North Sea Port District, the Gentse Kanaalzone and the wider Reference Region Ghent, used for regional planning and policy coordination.
The challenges Ghent deals with, including mobility, employment, industrial transition, housing quality, climate adaptation and social inclusion, do not fit neatly inside one department or one funding category. They are connected in real places.
This is where Cohesion Policy can make a real difference. When it is flexible enough, EU funding helps cities turn integrated local strategies into visible improvements in people’s lives.
From European funding to local impact
Ghent has become an experienced user of EU Cohesion funds, participating in shared management programmes such as ERDF Flanders, ESF Flanders and Interreg, as well as direct EU funding streams including Urban Innovative Actions, URBACT and other European programmes.
One of the clearest examples is Oude Dokken, where EU funding helped transform former docklands into a new urban area while preserving the city’s industrial heritage. ERDF co-financed the renovation of quay walls along the Houtdok, Handelsdok and Achterdok, supported the construction of two cycle and pedestrian bridges across the water connecting both banks of the neighbourhood and contributed to the purchase of two historic harbour cranes, including the restoration of maritime heritage.
In practice, Cohesion Policy helped Ghent turn a former industrial landscape into a place for housing, public space, heritage and new urban life.
EU funding has also supported Ghent’s climate adaptation work. Through the BEGIN project, funded by Interreg North Sea, Ghent worked on blue-green infrastructure and climate resilience, using nature-based solutions to better manage water, reduce flood risks and improve liveability. Ghent served as a lead partner, showing how city-led projects can also build European cooperation and knowledge exchange.
“European support gives cities the space to innovate,” says Mayor De Clercq. “It allows us to test new models, learn with partners, and turn good ideas into practical solutions for residents.”
In the current period, the city is continuing this work through projects such as Rewild the City, approved under the European Urban Initiative. In densely built-up neighbourhoods, Ghent is experimenting with removing sealed surfaces and increasing green space to support biodiversity, water infiltration, cooling and quality of life.
Ghent has also used EU funding to connect employment and inclusion with wider territorial needs. North-Sea Port Talent, funded through Interreg Flanders-Netherlands, focused on strengthening the labour market in the North Sea Port region by improving cooperation between employers and other stakeholders. Its successor, North Sea Port Talent 2.0, continues this work by helping employers find qualified staff in a changing industrial and economic context.
In addition, the city has used EU programmes to address social challenges directly. Through ICCARus – Gent Knapt Op, the city supported vulnerable homeowners to improve housing conditions and created a recurrent fund to make renovation more accessible.
Together, these examples show what Cohesion Policy can do when it reaches the urban level.
When EU funding works well in Ghent, residents experience the benefits through tangible improvements in their own neighbourhood.
As Mayor De Clercq explains: “When EU funding works well in Ghent, residents experience the benefits through tangible improvements in their own neighbourhood. Rather than funding isolated projects, EU support often contributes to integrated neighbourhood initiatives where improvements in public space, climate adaptation, housing, social services and employment opportunities reinforce each other.”
Why this matters for the next EU budget
Ghent’s experience is especially relevant as the EU debates the future of its long-term budget. Recent proposals from the European Parliament have pushed for a stronger urban dimension, including territorial chapters and a proposed minimum 11% ERDF earmark for sustainable urban development. The focus has now moved to the European Council, where EU member states will shape their response.
The current system has allowed Ghent to use EU funding for integrated urban projects, but the next EU budget must protect and strengthen this urban dimension. If future investment is channelled mainly through national and regional plans without clear safeguards for cities, local priorities risk being filtered through systems that do not fully reflect how urban challenges are connected on the ground.
This matters because Ghent’s neighbourhood work often combines climate, housing, public space, employment and social inclusion. If funding programmes divide these challenges into separate categories, cities have less room to design the integrated responses that residents need.
“That is why cities must be involved in national and regional partnership plans, especially in dedicated urban chapters,” states Mayor De Clercq. “They should be recognised as government partners in the design, implementation and monitoring of National and Regional Partnership Plans, not only as beneficiaries.”
The partnership principle must also be mandatory and enforceable, not treated as a general commitment. Urban earmarking should also be strengthened, alongside direct EU funding opportunities for cities.
Capacity and partnership make funding work
A key part of Ghent’s success is not only the funding it receives, but the local capacity it has built to use that funding strategically.
The URDICO research highlights the role of Ghent’s Strategic Funding Team and its urban ERDF contact point within the framework of ERDF Flanders. Embedded within the city administration, this contact point supports city services and Ghent-based organisations from application to implementation. It helps match local ideas with funding opportunities in ERDF Flanders and makes complex procedures more accessible.
In the 2021-2027 period, Ghent also has a co-steering role within the Joint Integrated Territorial Investment for Antwerp and Ghent under the Flemish ERDF programme. This gives the city a stronger role in shaping the urban dimension of ERDF funding, although final decisions remain at regional level.
This is progress, but it also shows the limits of the current system. Cities are central to delivery, but they still have too little formal influence over the design and management of the programmes they are expected to implement.
What still needs to improve
Ghent’s experience points to several lessons for the next EU budget. Funding should support integrated local strategies, not force them into narrow categories. Ghent’s neighbourhood work brings together climate adaptation, housing, public space, employment and social inclusion, but funding programmes can still split these priorities across separate calls and rules.
Socially oriented projects must also be easier to fund. The next EU budget should strengthen the urban dimension of the European Social Fund Plus (ESF+) and create stronger links between the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) and ESF+, so physical regeneration and social inclusion can be planned together.
Administrative complexity also remains a barrier, with technical requirements, audit pressure, resource-intensive applications and high co-financing rates making smaller or more experimental projects harder to deliver.
European investment works best when it reaches the neighbourhoods where change happens
What Ghent shows Europe
The experience of Ghent shows that Cohesion Policy can be much more than project funding. It can help cities build capacity, strengthen neighbourhood renewal, test innovation and connect local action with European goals.
But it also shows that EU financing must work better for cities. If the urban dimension is weakened, cities could be left delivering decisions they had little role in shaping, making EU funding less targeted and less effective.
The partnership principle must be built into the rules and applied in practice. Cities must be involved in national and regional plans, while urban earmarking and direct EU funding for cities should be strengthened.
“For Ghent, the EU’s approach in its next budget is clear,” adds Mayor De Clercq. “European investment works best when it reaches the neighbourhoods where change happens, and when cities have the trust, capacity and flexibility to lead.”
Cities are not simply the final stop in the EU funding chain. They are where Europe’s goals become real. City administrations should therefore not only deliver European priorities, but also help shape them.
