Waters cross national and administrative borders, so the states must cooperate for an integrated and sustainable management of water resources. Joint management of transboundary water issues has a ...long tradition in Europe. There‟s an obvious growing concern for the protection and improvement of water quality at the global level, especially in the context of climate change and population growth. In Europe, the current water policy (the Water Framework Directive and the Floods Directive) accelerated the process of integrated management of transboundary waters. Thus, cross-border cooperations appears to be an essential component with the need of defining common principles for EU‟s Member States in order to improve water protection and the management of cross-border water issues. The paper presents Romania‟s cooperation in the field of water management with the neighboring countries, mainly bilateral cooperation, but also in European context (with member states and non-member states), with the possibility of financing joint projects through the various Europena Territorial cooperation programmes.
The European Union (EU) territorial development and cohesion have been supported by European institutions for decades, but they currently face a critical moment: the COVID-19 pandemic and European ...coordination gaps have to be added to previously-existing difficulties, such as the growing climate-related and demographic challenges, and the wave of Euroscepticism, nationalism and populism. Viruses do not recognise borders, but the EU is still divided between those thinking that the economy should prevail over politics and those thinking otherwise. European citizens living in border areas know very well that we need a common approach (and a stronger commitment) to the preservation of our values and rights, as well as to the definitive positioning of the EU as a global player. Integration starts at the bottom and moves across borders. The legacy of cohesion and territorial stability that the EU leaves for future generations will depend on how it protects and strengthens cross-border cooperation at this stage.
In the last decade, European regional policy has faced considerable changes typified by the introduction of the place-based approach with the Barca Report. One of the most prominent changes in ...European territorial cooperation (ETC), supposedly reflecting this shift, is the development of macro-regions, the dynamic of which are only just beginning to influence policy-making. This paper aims to analyse contemporary styles of ETC under the place-based narrative by identifying characteristics of macro-regional cooperation. Drawing on empirical studies in the Danube, Alpine and North Sea regions, the paper shows that stakeholders' primary rationale for getting involved is the opportunity for agenda-setting, and the intention to evoke changes in debates and in other stakeholders' influence. The main argument the paper follows is that macro-regional experiences reveal a crucial dependence on relatively strong stakeholders. With the term 'stakeholder-based', the paper draws attention to the importance of stakeholder settings in these new forms of ETC. The paper concludes that conceptualizations of approaches to European regional policies would need to acknowledge the regional differences of stakeholder settings more explicitly, and highlights the need to better acknowledge the implications for political transparency and relative power in agenda-setting.
Celotno besedilo
Dostopno za:
BFBNIB, DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
Subsequent to the experience with the international aid programmes of the 1990’s, from the very beginning of the accession negotiations and since 2004 in particular, the notion of absorption capacity ...of using EU funds has gradually been in focus. The subject of early scientific investigations concentrated mainly on the analysis of the macro-economic conditions of individual countries; furthermore, on increasing absorption capacities as well as how to develop the institutional system of cohesion policy further. After 2004, however, succeeding further rounds of the enlargement as well as after the programming period 2007-2013 in particular – meaning as well the conclusion of the EU budgetary period – the analysis of absorption capacities could be produced at the level of project beneficiaries. The aim of this study is to examine the most prominent determinants influencing successful outcomes and the quality of vigorous projects managed by potent beneficiaries and consortia participating in the European Territorial Co-operation Programmes with the contribution of Hungary. In the course of research correlations between determinants have been subject to econometric analysis revealing the fact that the implementation capacities of state-owned project beneficiaries and those of the non-governmental sector diverge significantly. Moreover, the study aims to show how the institutional system distributing EU funds tends to be rather lax towards the beneficiaries with weak absorption capacities, thus sacrificing the efficiency of developments for pure statistics.
JEL code: R58
Since 2009, the European Union (EU) has started to 'experiment' with new forms of territorial governance: Macro-regional strategies (MRS), such as the one for Baltic Sea Region, seek to mobilize a ...variety of actors and have resulted in a complex and dynamic governance architecture which can be conceived as a new 'regional institution' disposing of some form of authority and autonomy. We show that EU MRS are best conceived as test-bed for intergovernmentalizing cohesion policy - as well as its European Territorial Cooperation (ETC) objective - in a functional region, locking in previously established formats of regional cooperation and thereby going beyond cohesion policy and ETC. Thus, this paper identifies EU MRS as instances of experimentalist governance albeit still falling short on monitoring and evaluation of implementation. This weakness may ultimately jeopardize the macro-regional experiment altogether and, consequently, the development and consolidation of 'regional institutions' of the EU.
The social and ethic involvement of society in the enhancement of cultural and natural resources is essential to fight the deterioration and abandonment of the landscape. The territorial cooperation ...programmes like INTERREG develop by years a territorial, economic and social cohesion among european countries through performative tool like ecomuseum, able to relate resources, landscape and local identity. The present study proposes an ecomuseum for the Grecanic Area of Metropolitan City of Reggio Calabria (IT), starting from an analytic phase to define a set of objectives and strategies, and a survey phase investigating on the perceptions of local community and tourists toward grecanic culture and landscape's values following the logic of Cultural mapping. The data collected are transferred in project phase: the Grecanic Ecomuseum.
In the past, Baltic Sea cooperation has been characterized by a plethora of actors, embracing a wide range of policy objectives, such as the establishment of a good environmental status for the ...regional sea. In 2009, the European Council endorsed the European Union's (EU) Strategy for the Baltic Sea Region (EUSBSR) as a new tool in the repertoire of Cohesion Policy and European Territorial Cooperation (ETC). The EUSBSR seeks to foster cross-sectoral coordination and functional cooperation in policy areas of 'macro-region-level' relevance, such as transport infrastructure, economic development and environmental protection - thus projecting a 'soft space' of transnational Baltic Sea cooperation. Although firmly placed under the so-called 'Three No's', that is, the requirement of no additional EU funding, institutions and legislation, a lean governance architecture at the macro-regional level has emerged over time and the strategy mobilizes actors from all tenets of the EU's multilevel governance system, including the EU itself, its member and adjacent partner states, as well as subnational authorities and civil society. Drawing on the lens of experimentalist governance, this paper analyzes the underlying mechanisms that allow it to be gauged to what extent the Baltic Sea 'soft space' has solidified over the past decade. It also shows that the EUSBSR effectively rebalances EU transnational and intergovernmental regional cooperation in the Baltic macro-region.
Subsequent to the experience with the international aid programmes of the 1990’s, from the very beginning of the accession negotiations and since 2004 in particular, the notion of absorption capacity ...of using EU funds has gradually been in focus. The subject of early scientific investigations concentrated mainly on the analysis of the macro-economic conditions of individual countries; furthermore, on increasing absorption capacities as well as how to develop the institutional system of cohesion policy further. After 2004, however, succeeding further rounds of the enlargement as well as after the programming period 2007-2013 in particular – meaning as well the conclusion of the EU budgetary period – the analysis of absorption capacities could be produced at the level of project beneficiaries. The aim of this study is to examine the most prominent determinants influencing successful outcomes and the quality of vigorous projects managed by potent beneficiaries and consortia participating in the European Territorial Co-operation Programmes with the contribution of Hungary. In the course of research correlations between determinants have been subject to econometric analysis revealing the fact that the implementation capacities of state-owned project beneficiaries and those of the non-governmental sector diverge significantly. Moreover, the study aims to show how the institutional system distributing EU funds tends to be rather lax towards the beneficiaries with weak absorption capacities, thus sacrificing the efficiency of developments for pure statistics..
The present article provides a detailed overview regarding the position of Spain and its Autonomous Communities in the European Territorial Cooperation (Interreg) programmes where the whole country ...(or some regions) are eligible. This analysis compares the presence (in terms of participation in projects funded by these programmes) of Spain, focusing on three main variables: the regional scope, that is the relative presence of each Autonomous Community, the thematic scope, in terms of the different thematic axes of the programme, and in terms of the institutional scope, in terms of the typology of participating institutions. To perform this analysis, a brand new data base has been generated, aggregating and treating data from eight different sources linked to the four programmes analysed: Interregs Europe, Atlantic, Mediterranean, and South West. Our study aims at providing a sound overview and relevant conclusions that can support, besides the academic approach, the decision-making process towards the definition of the next Interreg programming period 2021-2027, considering Spain as a key example.
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