RESEARCH NETWORK EVENT REPORT - Regional · PDF fileRESEARCH NETWORK EVENT REPORT ... 24 March...

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RESEARCH NETWORK

EVENT REPORT

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RESEARCH NETWORK TITLE: RSA Research Network on EU Cohesion Policy

DATE AND PLACE OF EVENT: 24 March 2014, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Brussels

ORGANISER(S)’ NAME(S): Nicola Dotti (Cosmopolis, VUB), Magdalena Sapała (IES, VUB), Bas van Heur (Cosmopolis, VUB), Marcin Dąbrowski (Dept. of Urbanism, TU Delft), John Bachtler (EPRC, University of Strathclyde).

I. Please write the event report below (this may be published in Regions)

The year 2013 was very important for the researchers and practitioners dealing with EU Cohesion Policy. At

the end of this year, after many months of difficult negotiations the EU institutions agreed a long-term budget

and a new legal framework for the implementation of the policy for 2014-2020. These important

achievements gave an impulse for the members of the RSA Research Network on EU Cohesion Policy to

organize a workshop on the new cycle of the policy, its new instruments, challenges and perspectives for its

implementation promoting a discussion among academics and policymakers.

The workshop took place in Brussels on 24th

March and was hosted jointly by the Cosmopolis and the

Institute for European Studies (both from Vrije Universiteit Brussels) and organized with the support of the

Delft University of Technology.

The timely topic of the workshop attracted such a high number of speakers and audience that it has taken a

form of a small international conference. It involved more than fifty participants, including researchers,

practitioners, policy-makers and students. The special feature of the meeting and an advantage of locating it

in Brussels was the opportunity to invite to the debate many representatives of EU institutions – the European

Commission, the European Parliament, the Committee of the Regions, including experts who directly

participated in the process of negotiating the Cohesion Policy regulations for 2014-2020. Their presence at

the workshop was an opportunity to confront the scientific considerations with the views of the policy-

makers.

The programme of the one-day conference focused on selected aspects of the reform of European cohesion

policy, namely on the scope and directions of the reform, the urban dimensions of the policy, the role of EU

institutions in the negotiating process and the multi-level governance. The workshop was articulated in four

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parts. In the opening session, the two keynote speakers discussed the strengthening of the instruments for

supporting urban development and the role of cities in EU cohesion policy.

The first speech by Professor Rob Atkinson (University of the West England) provided an insightful

overview of the evolution of these instruments since the beginnings of this policy. Professor Atkinson also

presented his analysis of what the reformed policy framework for 2014-2020 programming period implies for

cities and their development. In particular, he examined the prospects for the use of impacts of measures such

as earmarking of 5% of funds as part of the European Regional Development Fund for integrated sustainable

urban development; or new tools such as Integrated Territorial Investment or Community Lead Local

Development. While recognizing the potential benefits of those developments, Professor Atkinson

highlighted that they are most likely to be applied to a differentiated extent and in different manner across the

EU Member States. He also stressed that implementing them will involve considerable governance and

capacity challenges.

The second keynote speech (video available here) was given by Jan Olbrycht, Member of the European

Parliament, the Rapporteur for the European Regional Development Fund Regulation during the negotiations

over Cohesion Policy legislative package 2014-2020 and President of the URBAN parliamentary intergroup.

Mr. Olbrycht reflected on the emancipation of the cities as powerful players on the European arena, their

growing role in CP and how the EU instruments facilitated these processes. In this context, he criticized the

idea of incorporation of the Community Initiatives, such as URBAN, into the mainstream Structural Funds.

He argued that due to this particular element of the policy reform introduced in 2007, the European

Commission lost an important part of its power to transmit its vision on the local development to the EU

cities. On the contrary, the new regulations for 2014-2020 with the strengthened urban dimension allow the

Commission to engage in more direct actions and create more opportunities to develop and influence the

policy on the city level. Mr. Olbrycht finished his speech highlighting how the success of this policy will be

largely conditioned by the economic crisis and the effectiveness of the reform of the eurozone.

The second session continued the discussion on the urban dimension of the CP with Simonetta Armondi

(Politecnico di Milano) examining and discussing the Italian urban agenda; Laura Colini (IRS Leibniz

Institute - Sorbonne Paris IV) and Darinka Czischke (TU Delft) discussed issues on socio-spatial segregation

in cities in a post-crisis context. The session was concluded with the presentation by Pontus Lindberg (Region

Skåne) and Tassilo Herrschel (University of Westminster) discussing the pecularities of the urban tissue and

policy in the Skåne region, involved in cooperation with other territorial entities within the cross-border

initiatives of the Øresund region and the Baltic Sea Region.

In the afternoon, the third session focused on the reform of EU cohesion policy and the implications of the

economic crisis. Wolfgang Petzold (Committee of the Regions) sparked a particularly lively debate with his

critical appraisal of the evolutions of recent reform of the CP; while, Simone Reinhart (Greens/EFA Group in

the European Parliament) presented a detailed analysis of the influence of the recently reinforced role of the

European Parliament in the inter-institutional negotiation for the 2014-2020 programming period. The third

presentation by Angel Catalina-Rubianes and Rocco L. Bubbico (DG-Regio) highlighted the problem of

declining private and public investments in the Member States in times of the crisis, emphasizing the

increasingly vital role of the CP as fundamental source of public investment across several of the EU Member

States.

The final session included two presentations investigating the implications of the reform of the CP for multi-

level governance. First, Serafín Pazos-Vidal (Convention of Scottish Local Authorities) offered an in-depth

look on the expected impacts of the new instruments and regulations on the practice of partnership across the

Member States. Second, Milana Korotka (University of Twente) presented her joint work with Nico

Groenendijk investigating the extent to which the role of monitoring committees, the key element of the

application of the partnership principle, are likely to evolve in new programming period, drawing on the case

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lfma10VXJQ4


of the Netherlands.

The workshop closed with concluding remarks by Laura Polverari (European Policies Research Centre) and

by Nicola Francesco Dotti (Cosmopolis, VUB). Laura Polverari reminded some limits of the CP in terms of

capacity to address very complex challenges with relatively limited resources. This call for realism is

fundamental to calibrate goals, resources and results according to policy expectations. Nicola Francesco Dotti

highlighted three major dimensions: the complexity of the policy in terms of governance, objectives and

evaluation, the need for adequate capacities to implement the CP and the strong differences in territorial

contexts where the CP has to intervene.

The meeting in Brussels demonstrated once again that the RSA Research Network plays an important role as

a platform for engaging interdisciplinary and cross-sectoral discussions between researchers, experts,

decision-makers, and politicians. The organizers, speakers and the audience of the workshop spent an

intensive day, filled with thought-provoking discussions on the added value and the future of EU cohesion

policy. These lively debates will continue at the future events planned by the RSA Research Network on EU

Cohesion Policy scheduled for 2014 and the coming two years.

Dr. Magdalena Sapała (IES, Vrije Universiteit Brussel) Dr. Nicola Dotti (Cosmopolis, Vrije Universiteit Brussel) Dr. Marcin Dąbrowski (Department of Urbanism, TU Delft)

II. Please list the speakers of the event and describe their contribution to the development of the Association’s prioritized themes of research: Regional Theory

Regional economic development

Regional planning and policy

Regional policy, public management and policy evaluation

Territorial politics, governance, regionalism and federalism

Regional ‘impacts’

Data, methods and spatial econometrics

Regional identities

Name of speaker Country Institution Theme(s) presented How did this contribute to the development of the RSA’s prioritized themes of research?

Prof. Rob Atkinson

UK University of the West of England

Urban dimension of EU cohesion policy

Keynote speech addressing the following themes:



Regional policy, public


management and policy evaluation


Dr. Jan Olbrycht, MEP

EU European Parliament

Urban dimension of EU cohesion policy, future of EU cohesion policy

As above

Peter Berkowitz EU DG Regio, European Commission

Urban dimension of EU cohesion policy, future of EU cohesion policy

Discussion with the keynote speakers, themes as above

Simonetta Armondi

IT Politecnico di Milano

The Italian urban

agenda: a renewed role

for cities in the Cohesion

Policy setting?

Presentation of research addressing the following themes:





Laura Colini FR / IT IRS Leibniz Institute - Sorbonne Paris IV

Socio-spatial segregation

in a post-crisis context in

the European Union:

Opportunities and

Challenges for the

Cohesion Policy in 2014-

2020

As above

Darinka Czischke NL TU Delft As above

As above

Pontus Lindberg SWE Region Skåne Region Skåne: Between Øresund and the Baltic Sea Region (BSR) – Addressing Challenges and Opportunities of Geographic and Functional Peripheralisation

Presentation based on research and insights from a practitioners perspective, themes:






Tassilo Herrschel

UK University of Westminster

As above As above

Wolfgang Petzold EU Committee of the Regions

Legitimacy, efficiency and impact: Lessons learned from the 2013 reform of EU cohesion policy





Simone Reinhart

EU Greens/EFA Group in the European Parliament

The role of the European

Parliament in the reform

of Cohesion Policy and

its contribution to

economic, social and

territorial cohesion

Presentation of research addressing the following themes: Regional planning and policy


Angel Catalina-

Rubianes

EU DG REGIO, European Commission

Investment in European

Regions during the

Economic Crisis


Regional policy, public management and policy evaluation Regional ‘impacts’

Rocco Bubbico EU DG REGIO, European Commission

As above As above

Serafín Pazos-

Vidal

UK Convention of Scottish Local Authorities

The partnership principle

in Cohesion Policy 2014-

2020: breaking new

ground in Multi-Level

Governance?






Milana Korotka

and

NL University of Twente

The role of monitoring

committees in the

programming period of

Cohesion Policy for 2014-

2020



Regional policy, public


management and policy evaluation



Nico Groenendijk NL University of Twente

As above As above

Laura Polverari,

UK EPRC, University of Stratclyde

Concluding talk As above

Nicola Dotti BE Cosmopolis, VUB

Concluding talk As above

III. Please send an email addressed to [email protected]

attaching any photographs that the RSA may use in its report.

This has been/will be sent No photographs available

IV. Please send an email addressed to [email protected]

attaching any presentation or additional material that you have permission to display on the

Association’s website.

This has been/will be sent No additional material available

V. Please outline below how you promoted the Association at your event and what follow up

actions are planned.

We used the logo of the RSA at all materials related to the workshop (call for papers, programme, background slide for discussions).

RSA promotional materials were on display at the reception desk.

In the opening and closing speeches at the workshop we highlighted the generous support from the RSA, which made the event possible, thus advertising the research network scheme.

Perhaps the best promotion of the RSA was the fact that the speakers, discussants and observers took part in an excellent and stimulating workshop organised under the auspices of the Association, thus showing them that the RSA is interested in the issues they deal with and offers invaluable help in fostering an environment for cooperation and exchange of ideas on these issues.

We have received a lot of praise for the activity of the Network and many expressions of interest for future collaboration, therefore we have developed plans for future events and will request the RSA for an extension of its support. The plans include organisation of further three workshops in 2015-2016.

We will also discuss the possibilities for preparing a special issue on the basis of the contributions to




this workshop.

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