Return of the European city-states

Some experts believe that emerging urban economies are creating a new historical dynamism that will transform the political structure for Europe by creating a new kind of 'Hanseatic League' of thriving city-states - dominated by the four cities near enough to the geographic centre of Europe: Lyons, Stuttgart, Milan and Barcelona.

In Europe as elsewhere, globalisation forces now at work appear to be making cities more important that nations. By the year 2000, says Pascal Maragall, an urban economist who is Barcelona's mayor, there will be 19 cities with at least 20 million people in their greater metropolitan areas. 'Cities, not nations, will become the principal identity for most people in the world,' he says.