Regional and local authorities have a crucial part to play in achieving European objectives for growth, innovation and sustainable development, and their role is increasingly acknowledged.
Local authorities and their sub-regional partners are well-placed to demonstrate what the Lisbon and Gothenburg priorities mean in practice. They are already working on many of the key policy themes. Moreover, they have the capacity:
Practical integration may be easier to achieve at local level than at higher levels of governance. Thus many sub-regional organisations are already promoting, for example, eco-business clusters, sustainable transport projects, initiatives for climate protection, and the production and use of local foods, often as part of green public procurement strategies.
Urban areas are seen as making a ‘special contribution’ :
For 2007-2013, as the Community Strategic Guidelines make clear, the Structural Funds will represent the main EU financial resource to deliver the Lisbon strategy and SDS objectives. The Operational Programmes and the projects they fund are expected to reflect them.
The Structural Funds have been significantly reformed for the period 2007-13. Decentralisation has been one of the three guiding principles behind the reform. As the Regional Policy Commissioner commented recently, ‘development programmes must be conceived and executed at the local and regional level by those who understand local people and the business environment.6
In this funding period there is expected to be not only an expanded role for sub-regional organisations in policy implementation but also a more hands-on role in the way the funds are managed.
The EU-level framework of regulations and guidance for the period 2007-2013 is now in place. This framework presents a substantial opportunity for the increased involvement of local authorities and other sub-regional agencies as partners in programming. It also provides for the devolution of some management and implementation responsibilities, including direct responsibility for some of the allocated finance, to organisations within regions. The opportunities are greatest in the case of the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) and for urban local authorities.7
In the new Convergence and Regional Competitiveness and Employment programmes there is scope to delegate the management of ERDF priorities concerned with urban regeneration to the relevant local authorities. There is also a steer towards the global grant as a possible financing mechanism.
The potential for sub-regional organisations other than local authorities to undertake delegated management of these EU funds is not given the same emphasis. Nevertheless, it is clear from the General Regulation and later Implementing Regulation that different types of organisation can be designated as ‘intermediate bodies’ with responsibilities in the delivery of funds.
Relevant extracts from the General Regulation, Community Strategic Guidelines and Implementing Regulation are in Box 2.1
Box 2.1 Potential for sub-regional management and delivery of EU Structural Funds 2007-2013 : the European framework
The General Regulation for Structural Funds adopted by the European Council in July 2006 provides the main legal basis for programming8.
Article 11 of the General Regulation requires each Member State to organise a partnership to cover the preparation, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of Operational Programmes’ and specifies the bodies that it is appropriate to include, namely ‘the competent regional, local, urban and other public authorities;…the economic and social partners; [and]… any other appropriate body representing civil society, environmental partners, non-governmental organisations, and bodies responsible for promoting equality between men and women’.
For urban areas, both the National Strategic Reference Frameworks which each Member State has had to prepare, and the individual Operational Programmes financed by the ERDF, are expected to include ‘actions relating to sustainable urban development’.
In view of the importance of sustainable urban development and the contribution of towns and cities, particularly medium-sized ones, to regional development, greater account should be taken of them by developing their role in programming to promote urban regeneration. (Para.18)
Within the Operational Programmes co-financed by the ERDF under the Convergence and Regional Competitiveness and Employment Objectives, Member States, regions and managing authorities may organise sub-delegation to urban authorities in respect of priorities concerning the regeneration of town and cities. (Para 46).
Article 37.6 states that ‘at the initiative of the Member State, the operational programmes financed by the ERDF may also contain for the Convergence and Competitiveness Objectives… a list of cities chosen for addressing urban issues and the procedures for sub-delegation to urban authorities, possibly by means of a global grant’.
Article 44 allows for the establishment of a dedicated regeneration fund, subject to the establishment of a strategy for its use. Such a fund is for ‘investing in public private partnerships and other projects included in an integrated plan for sustainable urban development’.
The regulatory provisions for cities are reinforced by the Community Strategic Guidelines. They strengthen the rationale for local delivery and recommend a plan-led approach :
Under the new legislative framework, Member States have the possibility to delegate to cities funds addressing urban issues within the new programmes. To reap the full benefits of partnership, cities should be included throughout the process. This could include responsibility for the design and implementation of the sub-delegated portion of the programme. …. Member States may delegate responsibility to cities for urban development. This is particularly important where proximity matters, for example in order to respond to the challenges of a mostly local nature such as social exclusion or lack of access to key services.…the preparation of a medium- to long-term development plan for sustainable urban development is generally a pre-condition for success as it ensures the coherence of investments and of their environmental quality. 9
Any sub-delegation of management and implementation of part of an operational programme to sub-regional organisations such as local authorities in practice depends upon the designation of these organisations as ‘intermediate bodies’. 10
The Member State or managing authority of a particular operational programme can designate several different types of organisation, including local authorities, regional development agencies and non-governmental organisations, as intermediate bodies by means of an appropriate agreement.11
Whether regional or sub-regional organisations actually acquire greater responsibilities for Structural Funds programming and delivery depends not only on the creation of a positive framework at EU level, in terms of the Regulations and Guidelines, but also on the extent to which national governments and managing authorities are prepared to accept and provide for their increased hands-on involvement.
The extent of decentralisation eventually achieved will especially depend upon:
As this Guide demonstrates, local authorities and other sub-regional organisations already have a considerable track-record in successfully undertaking these tasks.
Factors most often cited as supporting this move towards greater involvement of regional and sub-regional organisations in the day-to day management and delivery of EU funds are:
One of the strongest arguments to be made for increased sub-regional engagement centres on delivery of joined-up strategies for competitiveness and sustainability, bringing together the Lisbon and Gothenburg goals.
All of these factors apply to the SRN partners, as the following chapters demonstrate.
