Within Europe Metropolitan regions are seen as driving forces of development and as a mark of quality in the competition between locations. The European Union will further promote their development towards a "Europe of Regions".

The Nuremberg Metropolitan Region is funded on a successful tradition of regional co-operation. On 28 April, 2005, it was approved as a European Metropolitan Region by the Ministerial Conference on Spatial Planning in Berlin. On 12 May, 2005, about 60 representatives from municipalities, economy, science, and culture signed the Charter of the Nuremberg Metropolitan Region in the Orangerie of the Friedrich-Alexander University in Erlangen. The signatories thus confirmed their intention to co-operate, and determined the premises and the functions and tasks of the Nuremberg Metropolitan Region.