Urban Regeneration in Porto: exploring the role of the EU urban policies in Bairro da Sé

European cities have been threatened by many challenges, including socioeconomic crisis, environmental hazards and the phenomenon of climate change, that affect both the territory and the people that inhabit it. At the same time the European Commission underlines the major impact of local urban settings on the sustainable development of Europe, while cities hold the capacity to steer their futures. Since the 1990s that the European Union, together with the Portuguese urban policies, have been influencing the processes of spatial development within the city of Porto by deploying direct and indirect urban regeneration strategies. Among these strategies are integrated urban regeneration interventions which one might wonder if have led to a fruitful local development? This case study reflected upon different programmatic and financial instruments promoted by and with the support of the European Union that sought to positively shape local spatial transformations. However, the urban regeneration process has seen irregular trajectories and different authors emphasise that past and existing problems haven’t been effectively solved. Among some of the reasons for such an event might be the political turn towards more neoliberal urban policies, the need for tailored-made, long-term regeneration strategies, or the numerous adjustments made over the years to accommodate the succession of key players and stakeholders. Focusing on the development patterns that have been taking place in the historic Bairro da Sé, we describe the urban regeneration trajectories in this area of the historic centre of Porto and try to analytically highlight the relation between both EU and national urban regeneration strategies, and local regeneration processes.