Diputació de Barcelona
Spain
Barcelona Provincial Council is a local government institution that promotes the progress and welfare of the public within its territory. The province of Barcelona, a network of 311 municipalities, works directly by providing services and, foremost, by co-operating with the city councils. It is part of the local Administration, which is the closest administration to citizens. Its function is to cooperate with the municipalities, particularly those which have less economic and management capacity, and help them on legal, economic and technical issues.
Seventy-five per cent of Catalonia’s total population lives in the province of Barcelona (5.3 million inhabitants). There are 311 heterogeneous municipalities, which range from broad urban areas to almost 200 villages with fewer than 5,000 inhabitants.
| Area (km2) | Population (inhab.) | Density (inhab./km2) | |
| Barcelona | 7,719 | 5,309,404 | 687.8 |
| Catalonia | 32,113 | 7,134,697 | 222.2 |
| Spain | 505,992 | 44,708,964 | 88.3 |
Under current legislation, Diputació de Barcelona (Barcelona Provincial Council) gives support to the public services of the communities. The Provincial Council is a local authority of democratically but indirectly elected mayors and councillors from the province's city councils. These political representatives are elected every four years in the local government elections.
Both the municipalities and Diputació de Barcelona have broad experience of the framework of Structural funds at national and regional level. ESF should be highlighted for its significant role in hte fight against the high levels of unemployment in the 80’s and 90’s and in the modernisation of public employment services. ERDF funding, too, has made an invaluable contribution towards solving the lack of infrastructures and in creating innovative services. It is for this reason that Structural funds managed at national and regional level are not only linked with the development of innovation, but also with the requirement to cover basic needs. It is now clear that these financial instruments led to the development of innovative projects in the field of employment, ICT, business support, tourism, environment, etc.
Through decentralised management, Diputació de Barcelona developed employment actvities using a global grant in the 1994-1999 period. However, their case was an unusual one and there is a real problem with poor participation from local authorities in Structural Funds programming, decision-making and evaluation processes, and low resources allocated to this area of local administrations (around 19%).
On the other hand, the participation in transnational projects funded by the EU has been very different between the province's municipalities in the last decade, with some municipalities having extensive experience and some not. Several factors such as political will, technical resources to carry out transnational projects, and language skills, have cause this. In any case, there has been a significantly increased participation in the current programming period. At present, department and municipality staff are increasingly involved in European programmes and new changes to our institution, such as the creation of specific "European" departments, have contributed towards the promotion of local authorities with an increased role at international level.
Partner contact details
Xavier Tiana
European Cooperation Office Head
+34 93 402 20 77
Tianacx@diba.es
Josep Rodriguez
EU Advisory Programme Head
+34 93 402 20 77
Rodriguezlj@diba.cat
Project examples
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