We plan

This plan emerged as a formula to guide the process of transforming the city linked to the Olympic Games and to define a shared vision of the future focused on the year 2000. In a process that was conducted by a small municipal office, its main objective was to reach an agreement and consolidate Barcelona as an entrepreneurial European metropolis, improving the quality of life and maintaining the city’s social balance.

This plan emerged out of the revision of the first plan, designed to consolidate the city’s international presence once the immediate fruits of successfully hosting the Olympic Games had been reaped. The aim was to consolidate Barcelona’s international presence and take advantage of the economic flows between global cities as a driver for economic development. The approval of the plan was used as an opportunity to formalise the partnership between players in a non-profit association, called the Barcelona 2000 Strategic Plan.

This plan was adopted at a time when the Association had to focus on the economic strategy to recover from the post-Olympic crisis and incorporate sustainability into our planning. The objective was to achieve international positioning during the initial phase of networking between cities. This plan incorporated the vision of Barcelona as an open and knowledge-based city, as well as one that respects its region.

The Association was rebranded in 2000 to became known as the Barcelona Metropolitan Strategic Plan (PEMB) in order to adapt the area of reference to the reality of urban dynamics. The objective was to start working towards greater cooperation between municipalities and between different socio-economic players in order to make the leap as a metropolis to a higher stage of economic and social development.

This plan was created after a revision of the previous plan, initiated in 2007, when the PEMB deemed it necessary to overhaul the strategy in the face of the first signs of the crisis. The goal was to strengthen the most attractive aspects of the metropolis in order to gain new economic momentum, in light of the levels of social cohesion that were starting to come under threat in other cities around the world.

This plan is the first time that the project has taken a leap in scale to include the entire Barcelona metropolitan region in its proposals. Its central objective is to achieve a model of prosperity based on innovation and knowledge, which contributes to reducing social and territorial inequalities in the metropolitan region of Barcelona against the backdrop of the climate emergency.