Transnational Territorial Cooperation as a Factor of Growth and Quality of Life Workshop

1. TERCO - European Territorial Cooperation as a Factor of Growth, Jobs and Quality of Life Interactive Workshop 2 17 th November 2010, Liege, Belgium

2. Content of the Presentation • Transnational Project Group • Research objectives and analytical approach • Methodology • Review of the main literature • Data sources • Use of existing ESPON results • Expected outputs and value added

3. Transnational Project Group Department of Planning and Regional Developement University of Thessaly, School of Engineering

4. Research objectives • There are four main objectives of the project: • To assess the intensity of transnational territorial cooperation in European regions (NUT2). • To construct network of co-operation and indicate nodes of degrees of co-operation. • To examine in depth the meaning and effectiveness of co-operation through case studies (cross-border, European, transcontinental). • To test the hypothesis that intensity and activity in cooperation is positively interrelated with the level and dynamics of regional development.

5. Analytical approach • Definition of the territorial cooperation: • territorial cooperationis the association of administrative bodies and/or political actors(representing territories) at different spatial scales. It involves knowledge exchange and collaborative action to improve territorial development (through programmes, projects, agreements and institutions). • So we focus on: • Institutionalised cooperation so public bodies/institutions are analysed, and not businesses or other types of exchange - all programs supporting cooperation of public bodies will be covered: INTERREGs A,B,C, Council of Europe Initiatives, CityTwinning projects, Neibourghood European Policy instruments, other.

6. Analytical approach • 5 types of TTCs are analysed: 1) TwinCity (Citytwinning): community- or town-twinning involves agreements between towns and cities of different countries. They can either be geographically close or more distant. 2) Regional cooperation: this involves cooperation mostly between NUTS 2 units. Transnational cooperation between national, regional and local authorities as funded through strand B of INTERREG 3) Cross-border cooperation: the most common form of cooperation has been and still is funded through strand A of the INTERREG 4) Macro-regions: are defined as ‘an areas including territory from a number of different countries or regions associated with one or more common features or challenges.’ In Europe, e.g. Baltic Sea region, Danube region, cooperation supported by strand C of the INTERREG 5) Transcontinental cooperation: regions and cities undertakingtranscontinental territorial cooperation with North and Latin America.

7. Methodology • Desk Research • Meta-evaluation and inventory of INTERREGs - Documents, legal acts… • Multivariate statistical analysis -Factor &Cluster Analysis - Structural Equation Modeling • Network analysis • Interregs B and C • TwinCities • 2 types of Case studies • General assessment of TTCs • Assessment of governance • Construction of typologies

8. Intensity of Cooperation • 269 projects and 2671 partners analysed in INTERREG IIIC • This type of cooperation projects were present in majority of the European NUTS2 regions • The largest numbers of projects (the biggest circles) are e.g. in NUTS 2 regions of Spain, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia • Intensity of cooperation measured by projects /per capita (the darker the larger) shows that peripherial rather than central regions have more cooperation projects

9. Degree of Cooperation • Each region was analysed according to the number of regions it cooperated with, within INTERREG IIIC. • The regions having cooperation with more regions than others were located in Spain, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Greece, Finland, Ireland, etc. • Comparing to the previous map, we can see somecorrelation between the number of projects and the degree of cooperation the more projects the more regional scope, e.g. Spain, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania • But not always this is the case …

10. Network Analysis • Presenting all INTERREG IIIC projects on one Network Graph seems quite difficult to interprate, so we filtered only Centers of Collaboration

11. Network Analysis • Filtering only those regions which have at least 5 common projects: • Single line = 5 common projects • Thickest line = 14 common projects • Every network of cooperation consists of nodes(circles) and the relationships between (lines) • The bigger the nodesthe more regions of cooperation has the region in question (higher degreeof cooperation) • The thicker the line (relationship) the more coomon projects have region linked by the line (higher intensityof cooperation) • Typology and theory testing: combination of regions having different intensity and degree of cooperation. E.g. regions with same intensity but different degreeStrength of weak tights Interreg IIIC projects

12. Case Studies: preliminary proposal 2 types of Case Studies: 1) WP2.5 General Assessment of the TTCs 2) WP2.6 Focus on governance assessment in relation to TTCs 8 areas of Cases selected and additional ones will be defined soon.

13. Case Studies

14. Case Studies: idea of questionaires Example on how we assess the link between the TTC type and development, effectiveness, funding , etc.

15. Structural Equation Modeling • SEM is applied to identify important driving forces that, potentially, determine the success of TCC but are not directly observable. One such driving force may be inter-organisational or inter-personal relationships underlying a TCC. • Example: construct η2 represents ‘success of TTC’, ξ1 represents ‘quality or sustainability of the underlying TTC relationship’ and η1 represents some other, not directly observable TTC determinant. The arrows show the causal links, which have been specified based on theoretical grounds. The estimation of model parameters can show which of the assumed causalities are in fact significant and which are not on the basis of the existing data.

16. Typologies: Factor and Cluster Analysis The project will identify a reasonable number of factors, which will cover all major explanatory variables influencing territorial cooperation. Cluster Analysis will allow the project to analyse differences in the socio-economic development of the cooperating regions, taking the full set of cooperation characteristics into account

17. Data sources

18. Use of existing ESPON result • ESPON 2006 project 2.4.2 ‘Integrated analysis of transnational and national territories’ territorial development opportunities at different territorial scales • ESPON project 2.3.2 on the ‘Governance of territorial and urban policies from EU to Local Level’ • ESPON Project 1.1.1 ’Potentials for polycentric development in Europe’ produced an exhaustive list of the Functional Urban Areas (FUAs) Twin Cities • ESPON study 1.4.3 ‘Urban functions’ Twin Cities • ESPON project 1.4.4 ‘Preparatory Study on Feasibility of Flows Analysis’ indicators of flows (1) trade flows, 2) financial flows, 3) migration flows, 4) transport flows, etc) • ESPON 2006 project 3.4.1 ‘ESPON in the world’ should be taken into account when considering international flows and cooperation with transcontinental and neighbouring countries We are advised to reffer also to, e.g.: • ESPON 2013 GEOSPECS – European Perspectives on Specific Types of regions • ESPON 2006 3.3 – on sustainability aspects of metropolitan areas, • ESPON INTERACT – Accessibility, Transport and Communication Networks • METROBORDER Metropolitan areas as strategic nodes for territorial development

19. Some expected value added of the Project • New database on TwinCities, and update of other bases on INTERREGs • New typologiesof cooperation (from Network Analysis, Factor Analysis) based on indicators of flows, degrees of cooperation, directions of cooperation, etc. which can be correlated with other indicators • More knowledge on 5 types of TTCs in terms of: • goodpracticies of cooperation • quality of cooperation assessment • efficiency of cooperation • sustainabiliy of cooperation • More knowldege on cooperation of Europe with Neibourghood area and other Continents • Testing the theory based on collected data • New graphical presentation of cooperation (Network Analysis)

20. Thank you for your attention • http://www.en.euroreg.uw.edu.pl

21. More definitions of TTC • Engle (2009) „Territorial Cooperation in Europe: Coordinated Strategy or lost in Confusion? „ • “territorial cooperation is a horizontal cooperation, aligned to functionality and problem solution by serving concrete pragmatic purposes” • “territorial cooperation is an interaction between local and regional authorities across state borders” Peter Schmitt-Egner (2005) “Transnationale Handlungsräume und transnationaler Regionalismus in Europa: …” • cooperation produces functional spheres of action (Handlungsräume), which are reconstructed through the competences of the involved actors. • The key points from the literature review that lead to the definition set out is the central role of administratively bounded territorial units in mobilising, managing and implementing cooperation – thus the focus on administrative bodies (as opposed to private companies).

22. Aanalytical approach • Those 5 types of TTCs overlap to some extent in terms of territorial units involved but they DO NOT so much in terms of interventions directed to them, i.e. each program targets different type of territorial units which we analyse. • That is what we want becuase in our Case Stuedies, in each type of territorial unit (e.g. region) we can ask about all kind of interventions and evaluate them separately because they were supported by different interventions at the same region/city.

23. Hypothesis and its verification logic • Hypothesis: Transnational territorial co-operation (TTC) is one of the factors underpinning the sustainable development of territorial units, since it allows for the exchange of experience, lesson-learning, common problem-solving and joint policy formulation. • Verification logic: • Sustainable development notion: if TTCs trully contribute to overcoming fundamental social, economic and/or environmental problems (e.g. by bringing know-how, good practices, etc.) then it must have led to some development and integration of cooperating units. Then it is checked if development achieved is sustainable (durable and adresing socio-economic or environmental issues), and we expect so if learing process was involved, durable goods were provided and some level of itnegration was achieved (long term processes) • If so then TTC can be perceived as „an essential practice, capable to remedy, through territorial integration, frequent failures of the classic regional policy to generate growth, jobs and quality of life”

24. Definitions and types of territorial cooperation Main theories of territorial cooperation Determinants of TTCs (e.g. culture, history, funding, etc.) Domains of TTCs (specific for different types of TTCs, include: economics, environment, social cohesion, etc.) Benefits of TTCs (e.g. additionality and innovation, learning and exchange, common problem solving, etc.) Gaps in literature on TTCs: effectiveness of different types of territorial cooperation forms and structures of governance of territorial cooperation constituting good practice domains which are most suitable for developing shared strategies Review of the literature

25. Developmental typology Developed-Developing-Peripheral (Krok (2009) Functional typology Absent border-The march-Post Colonial lines (Kramsch, Hooper, 2004) Institutional typology Governance-Governablility-Government (Philippe, Saez, 2002) Review of the literature Flow approach (Van Houtum, 2000) Focusing on economic geography and permeability of borders Cooperation approach (Van Houtum, 2000) Borders as areas of potential synergies and development People approach (Van Houtum, 2000) Focusing on behavioral geography (perceptions, emotions etc) Theoretical Considerations on TTC typologies

26. Review of the literature Motives for TTC Equity argument (Van de Walle, 2000) Efficiency argument(Scalapino, 1991; Cossa and Khanna, 1997) Political argument (Van de Veen, 1994; Soeters, 1991, Anderson, 1998) Functionalist analysis Functionalism as a strategy (Lang, 1989) Functionalism Vs territorialism (Aggestam, 1997) Spill-over concept (Balthazar, 1993; Soeters, 1999; Weyand, 1996) Elites (O’ Neill, 1996) Functionalism and conflict resolution (Taylor, 1990) Inter-governmental analysis Bringing non-territorial regimes under control (Weaver, 1997; Ohmae, 1993) TTC and the decentralization debate (Decaux, 1985; Van Walsum, 1985) The rise of the EU stands as a TTC actor (Van De Walle, 2000)