Lost in Translation? – The Bristol Accord and the Sustainable Communities Agenda

The Bristol Accord, agreed at an EU Ministerial Informal meeting in December 2005, was the UK"s contribution to the emerging EU urban agenda. Although nominally positioned within contemporary European debates on sustainable urban development and linked to previous Ministerial Informals on urban policy, it can be seen as an example of the „uploading" of national policy to the EU policy arena. This paper argues that by drawing too closely on domestic policy agendas (as well as the very wide-ranging nature of the sustainable communities agenda) little has resulted from the Accord. This contrasts with the more sustained legacy of the Leipzig Charter, the 2007 successor agreement to the Bristol Accord which, while also an example of the uploading of national policy, has been more successful in tapping into the mainstream of EU urban policy.