ET2050 Can Territorial Governance help delivering the vision? Alexandre Dubois Nordregio

1. ET2050 Can Territorial Governance help delivering the vision? Alexandre Dubois Nordregio TPG meeting, Brussels, 18th of December, 2014

2. Governance in the Vision Main principles that will guide the governance of the EU policy system by2050 -> Europe as a global actor: how the EU interacts with global and neighboring actors is central • -> Reduce inefficiency in policy implementation -> Institutional relations between MS: enhanced formalization of territorial arrangements -> Clarified relations (i.e. contracts) between the European and local/regional levels on specific tasks: improving the capacity of this level (i.e. places) to deliver the 2050 targets -> better exploitation of territorial diversity in policy framework -> Institutional/administrative changes in relation to functional/territorial challenges Important point Trade off between EU-wide relevance and place-basedness

3. Stakeholder comments related to TG • Focus on functional areas and how to manage them • Include ways to achieve goals • Relate the visions to existing policy orientations EU2020-CSF-TA2020 • Community-Led Dev. = Mobilization of local and regional stakeholders • Bottom-up vision = collage of multiple territorial visions; brick-by-brick process • Ex: Natura 2000 areas overlap countries = need for specific tools for strategic domains • Reducing cross-border gaps • SGI (e.g. health care) across borders = reducing fragmentation • Diversity a keyword = Capitalizing on Territorial Capital • What units fit policy intervention? • Governance is too administrative in the draft • Empowerment of European territories = a grassroots vision?

4. Territorial Governance in ESPON - TANGO Dimensions 1-2-3: MLG Capacity to develop institutional, formal/informal arrangements Dimensions 4-5: territory Capacity to use local knowledge to secure institutional learning (and change)

5. Territorial Governance in ESPON – TANGO (2) Europeanization of territorial governance approaches: Dialogic mode -> from EU discourse to national discourses to domestic practices Operational mode -> from EU discourse to EU tools influencing various domestic practices Institutional mode -> EU discourse codified in the EU structure inducing changes in the domestic structure and thus practices, or into EU tools (see operational mode)

6. How to integrate TG in the Vision? -> develop the argumentation about how the targets and objectives on specific issues are actually delivered through cooperation at sub-national level ? -> based on a clear understanding of the challenges and opportunities of different types of territories (e.g. FUAs, Global Integration Zones, Geospecs areas, Cross-Border, Macro-Regions) that constitute the ‘bricks’ for the Territorial Vision because they have an underlying European added-value -> Vision works as a umbrella for the elaboration of multiple territorial visions at different levels according to the specific issues developed (e.g. quality of life, energy efficiency, mobility…) • Main Value -> Europeanization of planning practices is desirable

7. How to integrate TG in the Vision? (cont.) Linked with the issue of territorialization -> How can different types of territories can contribute to the achievement of the Vision? -> for different types of territories and for different issues, delivering the vision means that different strategies need to be elaborated and implemented Focus on the functional dimension, not the institutional one How to make the implementation of policies more efficient, by optimizing the resources available and by achieving larger leverage effect?

8. Proposal – Three ‘avenues’ to follow Dealing with all aspects of institutional and geographical fragmentation in European policymaking Address the key bottlenecks preventing from achieving the overarching EU goals by reducing the friction inherent to their achievement due to the fragmented institutional landscape within Europe

9. Avenue 1 – Issue-driven EU policymaking Rationale • Contemporary challengescannot be tackledthroughpurely sectoral responses • EU and MS institutionalstructures (i.e. DGs, ministeries, agencies…) largelyunchanged • Coordination of sectoral policies at the programmatic phase reduces potential inter-sectoral counter-effects • Issue-driven packages are more easily operationalized ‘on the ground’ as they relate more closely (1) to the local prerogatives and tools and (2) to the specific scope and scale of the local challenges • Key multi-level governance principles for operationalizing this ‘avenue’ are thematic concentration and conditionality.

10. Avenue 1 – Issue-driven EU policymaking (2) Key points of our narrative • sectoral programmes and incentives are negotiated collectively among sectoral policies by the using an improved OMC (ex: social inclusion) • framing policy actions in areas for which the competence are split among several policy actors • to support sectoral DGs in federating their views and coordinating their regional incentives on regional programmes, • to provide territorial evidence that enable to identify regions and territories that have specific bottlenecks and/or potentials on the identified issues using territorial benchmarking. • Changing ‘Community method’ from formal govern-by-authority, inter-governmental mode of governance, which tends to decommit key stakeholders from being accountable and engaging themselves in resolving these issues durably, to a more flexible, consensus-based and issue-driven mode of governance

11. Avenue 1 – Issue-driven EU policymaking (3) Example – Energy Efficiency Programmatic Coordination (sectoral policies) • Energy • Transport • Climate • Research & Technology • Regulatory Consistency (local prerogatives) • Green public procurement • Social housing • Building regulations • Public Transportation • Land-use management & Zoning • Territorial Target(s) Associated • Clear Energy • Compact settlements

12. Avenue 2 – Managing territorial dynamics Rationale • focusing on jurisdictionalterritories for policy interventions is obsolete • elaborating and operationalizing policy interventions for functional territories -> new way to balance solidarity and subsidiarity • Some challenges affect particularly distinct types of territories -> interventions intending to tackle such challenges should focus first and foremost these territories • territorial solidarity • regional and local authorities belonging to the same functional governance arrangements are committed to joint targets in order to use more efficiently the policy leverages at their disposal. • functional territories that have the potential to deliver more than the EU targets should be encouraged to do this • Key governance principle: asymmetric co-financing.

13. Avenue 2 – Managing territorial dynamics (2) Key points of our narrative • develop interventions that are better able to frame the process of ‘managing territorial dynamics’ which is related to the capacity to geographically delineate the boundaries of the functional territories that are the most appropriate for tackling a specific issue (Stead, 2013). • these functional territories should be cross-border or trans-national (i.e. European added-value) • Higher commitment on delivering targets -> higher financial commitment from EU (linked to avenue 1) • Higher level of local investments -> higher proportion of EU funding • fair policy monitoring of EU interventions, i.e. a system that takes into consideration ex ante the potential for each region to deliver on the overarching EU targets

14. Avenue 2 – Managing territorial dynamics (3) Example – Water management • Functional territory -> river basin • Relates to local prerogatives such as coastal management, zoning/land-use, waste management… • Example – Services and Jobs provision • Functional territory -> FUA/PUSH • Relates to local prerogatives such as health care, employment, social welfare…

15. Avenue 3 – Strategic Diversity Coalitions Rationale • Key territorial building blocks of the vision (so far) are urbanized areas (of different size and scale) -> Our vision needs to envision the future of all European territories • Some territories have been identified in EU documents as beingespeciallyimportant for the long-term development of the continent, due to strategic resources or potentials, but some because they are essential for the (cultural) cohesiveness of the European territory • Areas with Geographic Specificity (See Geospecs projects) • (Cross-border) Mountain Massifs: e.g. Pyrenees, Alps… • (Cross-border) Sparsely Populated Areas: e.g. Northern and Eastern Nordic countries + North West Russia, • (Cross-border) Coastal Areas: ex: Channel England-France, Denmark-South Sweden, Adriatic area… • Cost of non-intervention higher than cost of intervention (even if relatively inefficient) • Areas with geographic specificity are prime victims of institutional fragmentation

17. Avenue 3 – Strategic Diversity Coalitions Key points of our narrative • Encourage the develop of ETGC for empowering cross-border and trans-national entities on the basis of common geographic specificity • assemble coalition of the wills consisting of peer-territories for which a coherent set of common objectives may be developed, supported and even monitored.

18. Avenue 3 – Strategic Diversity Coalitions Example – Sparsely Populated Areas Aggregation of Sparse LAU2 units instead of NUTS 2 or 3 units Pertinent units for regional spatial analysis Coherent functional territories for elaborating local development strategies Sparsity does not stop at administrative borders Sparsity necessitates new territorial governance approaches

19. Fragmented governance for SPA

20. Some tracks forward Focus on European added-value of planning practices; -> not about reforming the institutions in every single Member States (unlikely) -> national and sub-national administrative borders still matter -> this is why TG is needed in order to reduce the negative impact of this institutional fragmentation TG arrangements are very diverse in form and nature, and difficult, if possible, to quantify and model -> difficult to systematize the discussion through narratives