In Praise of Cities.(European Renaissance)(Brief Article)(Column)

MacShane is minister for Europe for the British government.

Long ago it was the springtime of nation-states. Today the excitement is about "enlargement" and the rise of regions. Tomorrow? Look to the renaissance of cities. Not since the Renaissance itself, 500 years ago, have Europe's cities exuded such vibrancy, energy and entrepreneurship.

Cities have always been the movers and shakers of European history. As a Londoner, I remain in awe of the excitement and surging cosmopolitanism of Britain's capital, increasingly the most internationalist city on the globe. And look at Berlin. "What belongs together, should come together," said Willy Brandt, urging that Germany's capital move from sleepy Bonn to humming Berlin. If London is the bridge between Europe and America, Berlin is the pivot between Europe, Russia and Eastern Europe. The glass walls of the extraordinary new Reichstag, housing the German Parliament, lets people actually see into the heart of their democracy--an instance of avant-garde European architecture revitalizing the public space of cities.

The new energy is not confined to Europe's capitals. Consider the cities of the former Soviet imperium. Prague, Warsaw, Budapest and Dresden now not only look beautiful after the dirt and shabbiness of communism, but they also exude a commitment to a European tolerance and modernism that bodes well for 21st-century European history. Each city has its strength. Tallinn in Estonia is recovering its Hanseatic glory as a great Lutheran Baltic trading center. Vilnius, inland in Lithuania, is rediscovering its Jewish heritage. Places like Marseilles, Barcelona and Liverpool are converting their once run-down red-light port districts into new hubs linking people to the sea.

As in the Renaissance-era urban boom, one of the driving forces behind this flowering is art. Coach loads of Viennese make the 40-mile trip to Bratislava, where the best seats in the excellent opera house are available for under [currency]10. You can see top- quality opera in the Slovakian capital for under a dollar. There are 21 opera houses in German cities, 16 in Italian cities and 11 in French cities. Opera in Britain flourishes more in Edinburgh, Glasgow and Cardiff than in the overpriced, elitist Royal Opera House in Covent Garden. Liverpool's Tate Gallery, an extension of the London Tate galleries, brings the best of modern art to northwest England. In the nearby cities of Salford and Manchester, the new gallery dedicated to L. S. Lowry's paintings or ...