Twenty years ago, Amsterdam's Bijlmermeer neighbourhood spent months in the throes of a conflict surrounding the European Commission's URBAN programme. Some talked of a ‘black revolution’. Local (‘black’) groups felt overlooked by the programme's decision-making structure, and demanded the opportunity to have their say. They used a black-white dichotomy as a lever to enforce a breakthrough within URBAN Bijlmermeer, but, more than this, they were seeking to achieve the emancipation of the ‘black’ population and bring about an actual improvement in their situation. Ultimately, their efforts were successful: not only was the structure of the programme drastically revised, but progress was also made with respect to increasing participation by the local population in the district on the whole.

The summer of 2015 marked the 20-year anniversary of this conflict. In commemorating it, a heroic role was ascribed to the Zwart Beraad (sometimes translated as ‘Black Consideration’, ‘Black Deliberation’, ‘Black Assembly’ or ‘Black Caucus’) group in particular. However, it is unclear to what extent the outcome of the conflict can be attributed to the URBAN programme or the Zwart Beraad group.

The URBAN programme: funding for disadvantaged Areas

In 1995, Amsterdam's Bijlmermeer neighbourhood was assigned funding by the European Commission as part of the URBAN Community Initiative as a contribution to the socio-economic regeneration of this section of Amsterdam Southeast, which was described as a ‘disadvantaged area’. The neighbourhood consisted exclusively of high-rises, and housed a population of approximately 50,000.

This area-based urban programme involved a considerable sum of money. Amsterdam was assigned 4.8 million euros in subsidies from two of the European structural funds (the European Regional Development Fund and the European Social Fund). However, the condition for this subsidy was that co-financing had to be found. The Netherlands Ministry of the Interior, which was responsible for the co-financing, therefore doubled this sum from the funding pot set aside for the so-called big cities policy (grotestedenbeleid) that was in effect at the time. At the same time, regional and local government, public institutions and private individuals also invested in the programme. The condition of the co-financing applied at the project level as well: a project was only eligible for URBAN funding if a co-financier could be found. The URBAN programme was able to leverage total investments to the tune of around 66 million euros.