EUROCITIES is the network of major European cities, founded in 1986 by the mayors of Barcelona, Birmingham, Frankfurt, Lyon, Milan, and Rotterdam. The 1989 Barcelona conference agreed that a key task was to put the issue of cities and their economic, political and social development onto the European agenda. Indeed, the founders suggested that major European cities could benefit from forming such an association. They intended to form a political platform to act as a channel for communicating with the European institutions and to become recognised as a significant partner in the European community and each member state.