Italian Territorial Approach to Regional Policy: integrating policies starting from territories

1. Italian Territorial Approach to Regional Policy: integrating policies starting from territories European Seminar on “Sustainable Urban Rural Partnerships” Metz, 16th November 2012 Sabrina Lucatelli

2. A verycomplexAdministrativeStructure: “regions” and localauthorities…. 20 Regions 103 Provinces (under re-organisation in ordinary regions, from 86 to 51) 8,092 Municipalities A fourth level of government, Metropolitan Cities, also mentioned in the Italian Constitution and by lows Regions traditionally enjoy wide administrative powers. They are the only sub-central authorities with legislative power. 15 Regions have “ordinary” statutory framework while 5 Regions have a “special statute”, which gives them wider legislative and administrative powers. Associations of Municipalities Sabrina Lucatelli - Department for Development and Cohesion Policies

3. Many Italian policies do act through districts and basinswith a functional areas philosophy • Provision of Health services through Health Districts; • Social Policies and «Pianid’Azione» - Action Plans • Hydrographical districts and water basins for water management • Parks for natural areas management • Rural Districts in several Regions Regional Policy acts though Regional and National programs but it also uses functional areas though Multi-Regional Programs and Territorial Integrated Projects Sabrina Lucatelli - Department for Development and Cohesion Policies

4. Urban dimension and “IntegratedTerritorialProjects” (ITPs) in ItalianRegional policy • Integration betweenRegional and Rural Development policy • 2014-2020 period: The policentric model and how to improve small citiesnetworking Sabrina Lucatelli - Department for Development and Cohesion Policies

5. 2007-2013 Urban dimension of Italian Regional Policy • A priority on «Competitiveness and attractiveness of cities and urban systems»; • Pushing regions to implement Integrated Urban Projects for Citiesand Urban networks; • To foster competitiveness; facilitate business development; social inclusion and allow the best possible accessibility though material and immaterial connections; • Leaving flexibility to Regions to adapt urban policy to their models and existing Plans • Possibility to consider rural-urban linkages and inter-municipal cooperation to facilitate services provision Sabrina Lucatelli - Department for Development and Cohesion Policies

6. What happened? • Quite slow implementation in both Center-North and South programs; • A slowing down of the integrated approach, to allow an acceleration of the expenditure; • Some exceptions in regions such as Liguria, Tuscany; Umbria; Abruzzi and Campania; • A too complex multi-level governance structure that complicated «strategy formulation» and investments selections; • Mainly “big infrastructure” investments • Urban Networks Projects proved to be even more difficult • Tensions between Regions and Cities … Sabrina Lucatelli - Department for Development and Cohesion Policies

7. Integrated Territorial Projects (IP) IPs definition "a set of consistent and closely connected inter-sectoral actions focused on achieving a common territorial development objective that justifies a unified approach to implementation” (CSF 2000 – 2006) IPs basic principles • definition of the propeller idea, project strategy and objectives • project integration as a peculiarity of the whole activity co-financed by the Structural Funds (also multi-funds) • the territory as the beneficiary of actions and context for the development of latent potentials: could be Urban, Rural, Urban-Rural • giving responsibility for project drafting and implementation to local authorities, elected mayors Sabrina Lucatelli - Department for Development and Cohesion Policies

8. ITP as a Programming Tool A  specific operational mode CORE OBJECTIVE (Strategic idea: provides coherence, integration) Example: To increase cultural tourism Unified Project Management (one municipal govt. chosen to lead project) Detailed projects of different nature Historic preservation Environment (restoring buildings, cleaning polluted sites) Infrastructure (Roads, telecommunications Tourist Info points) Human Resources (training in skills needed in the tourism sector) Productive sector (Support to local manufacturers of typical products) Measurable Expected Outcomes: Increased N. of visitors, Employment, reduced out-migration Sabrina Lucatelli - Department for Development and Cohesion Policies

9. ITPs introduce an alternative project-selection rationale: INTEGRATION REGIONAL PROGRAM measure measure measure measure measure measure measure measure PROJECTS INTEGRATED TERRITORIAL PROJECT Sabrina Lucatelli - Department for Development and Cohesion Policies

10. Two types of identification and selection procedures A: competitive, bottom up B: negotiated, top down Regions established bidding criteria for municipalities and published a call for projects Regions divide all territory, group municipalities, allocate funds ex-ante Municipalities associate; prepare project following Regional geographical, financial, and sometimes sectorial decisions Municipalities associate. Prepare and submit detailed project proposal Regions appraise and approve projects according to project quality and other criteria Regions appraise and approve projects once they reach a minimum quality standard Sabrina Lucatelli - Department for Development and Cohesion Policies

11. Number, size and distributionofinterventions Industry Urban Development Tourism Environment Rural development Transport Research and Innovation General Territorial Development Area not covered by ITPS Sabrina Lucatelli - Department for Development and Cohesion Policies

12. 2007-2013: Coordination Mechanisms between regional policy and rural development policy • Coordination between National Strategic Framework for regional policy and rural development policy • Ensuring properly governance coordination systems when managing programmes: regional level; • Ensuring coordination at Central level (better if formalised!); • Using different funds within integrated territorial projects; • Using Evaluation as a Tool of Coordination • What is happening at regional level? Sabrina Lucatelli - Department for Development and Cohesion Policies

13. Lessons Learned • Jeopardised situation at regional level; • Mono-funds made coordination very difficult to happen! • Many “formal” coordination systems, but little substantial coordination; • Integration is happening at territorial level: ITP; Action Local Groups … • Very little EAFRD participation to Integrated territorial Projects; • Necessity to overcome the pure demarcation approach and to monitor effective integration Sabrina Lucatelli - Department for Development and Cohesion Policies

14. The Commissionproposal for 2014-2020: whichopportunity for Urban-Rural Partnership • Experiences of Urban-Rural “indirect” partnerships are happening in Italy through ITP and Local Action Groups (Leader); • But these instruments proved to be difficult in terms of “expenditure capacity” and effective integration; • New opportunities could be foreseen with the new emphasis given to the Urban dimension of next programming period; • The Italian polycentric character will be considered in the design of next regional policy national strategy • Italian lagging areas will receive a special attention, also through the improvement of small and medium sized cities coordination capacityto provide basic services to citizens Sabrina Lucatelli - Department for Development and Cohesion Policies

15. Thanksforyourattention sabrina.lucatelli@tesoro.it