European House Skopje

By Johannes Flensted-Jensen, County Mayor of Aarhus and Chairman of the Jutland–Fyn Business Cooperation Scheme e-mail: jfj@ag.aaa.dk www.aaa.dk and www.jylland-fyn.dk The Jutland–Fyn Business Cooperation Scheme The Jutland–Fyn Business Cooperation Scheme was set up in 1998 by the 8 counties and 173 municipalities in the region, along with the Danish Ministry of Economic and Business Affairs. Just over 50% of the Danish population live within the Jutland–Fyn region. Long before 1998, these Danish counties and municipalities had observed that Greater Copenhagen was developing at a much faster rate than their own region. They also noticed that this rate of development was intensifying over time. A significant reason for this was that state funds were being spent to a greater degree in Greater Copenhagen than in the rest of Denmark. Until 1998, the individual counties and municipalities competed for investments from both the state and private sectors. This meant that it became much too

Planning regional development of „lagging regions“- example from Slovakia Andrej Steiner, PhD. Carpathian Development Institute, Slovak Republic steiner@kri.sk ; www.kri.sk It is generally acknowledged that there has been a steady trend towards an increase in spatial and regional disparities within the EU. The European Commission has long recognized that the process of economic integration championed by the EC through the construction of the Single European market and the EMU could and does sharpen regional inequalities in the EU. This could ultimately undermine the cohesion of the EU and the political viability of (and support for) the project of European economic and political integration. An active EU policy to address above-mentioned challenges has been reflected mainly in creation of the “European Regional Development Fund” to assist the development of the lagging or declining regions of the European Community. However, it has often been highlighted that there are strong tensions

How can regionas be more involved in research and innovation – science goes practice Wolfgang Fischer Institute of Geography and Regional Sciencies. Karl-Franzens-University Graz Summary 1. Graz Declaration on Committing Universities to Sustainable Development The European Union through the Resolution of the Gothenburg Council and the Lisbon Process has put itself on the frontline of the implementation of sustainable development in the global context. By this, the European Union has taken over a major responsibility to reach the UN Millennium Development Goals. The Bologna Process constitutes one of the most efficient means to realize this ambitious objective in the arena of Higher Education. On the occasion of launching the United Nations Decade of Education for Sustainable Development in higher education, an international conference on “Committing Universities to Sustainable Development”, was held from 20-23 April 2005 in Graz, Austria. The conference was jointly organized by COPERNI

LESSONS LEARNT FROM MANAGING STRUCTURAL FUND PROGRAMMES: AN ENGLISH VIEW Overview: The aim is to identify key aspects of successful programme management, providing a basis for effective delivery during 2007-13. The methodology is to consider aspects of Programme management, based on considerable personal experience. Issues to be examined include: The difficulties of keeping a balance between maintaining quality in interventions, while meeting challenging annual expenditure targets: successful delivery. The contributions that formal and informal evaluations and a more rigorous approach to project monitoring can make to successful programme management. The roles of the Managing Authority, the Programme Secretariat and partnerships in successful programme delivery. Wherever possible, practical advice and suggestions, based on experience, and with a view to helping others to avoid difficult management issues will be offered. 1) Introduction: personal and organisational information; I

Information/communication – lessons learned in Sweden This presentation will be about story telling. I have chosen this expression because I think it is often more to the point and easier to understand than Information-communication. I will focus on storytelling to the media and by the media. What can we do, as officials, to help the media to tell some of the very interesting and thrilling stories that are to tell about the structural fund’s interventions? There will always be brochures and leaflets and websites and advertising, but there is nothing like the media when credibility is concerned. My name is Maria Evertsson. I work as a communication officer at Nutek, a Swedish state agency dealing with business development and structural funds. I have worked with EU-related issues since Sweden became a member in 1995. Before that I worked as a journalist. My e-mail adress is: Maria.evertsson@nutek.se I will divide my presentation into three parts: The media situation Success factors Dif

Prof. Andrew Scott University of Edinburgh, School of Law Old College Edinburgh EH10 4HX United Kingdom andrew.scott@ed.ac.uk The regional dimension to the Lisbon Process. The central argument developed in the presentation is that the governance of the Lisbon Strategy lacks a structured "regional dimension", and that this omission is a major weakness of the entire process. The resulting weakness is twofold. First, as a matter of achieving the substantive Lisbon objectives within the economic pillar, the absence of a structured regional dimension risks excluding from the strategy a range of sub-state governments, administrations and economic stakeholders responsible for devising and delivering those economic policies 'locally' which will shape the overall rate of growth of output and employment across the EU. Socio-economic development actually occurs at the local level, yet there is no EU-wide discussion on the best-practice approach to including local economic play

Preparing structural funds programmes for 2007-2013 Presentation: Felicia DARELL ( felicia.darell@midi-pyrenees.pref.gouv.fr ) Tel : 05 34 45 33 12 – Fax: 05 34 45 33 04 Prefecture of Midi-Pyrenees region - Europe department - control unit Contact: Secretary General: Didier FRANCOIS Control Service: Head of Unit: Claude SAINT-MICHEL Prefecture of Midi-Pyrenees Region SGAR, Europe Service 1, place Saint-Etienne 31038 Toulouse cedex FRANCE Website: http://haute-garonne.pref.gouv.fr Introduction: Practice of structural funds in Midi-Pyrenees: Presentation of the particularities of the region and the management of structural funds in 2000-2006 programming area § Managing structural funds in France Level 1: European Commission Level 2: Member State/National level Level 3: Local Governement/Prefecture of Midi-Pyrénées: Mananing authority/control unit/Partnership regional and local partners The organisation of the partnership differs according to the implementation stages: •

The Experience of Integrated Projects (Ips) for the renewed Community Structural Funds (CSFs) Abstract The Campania Operational Programme shares the Community Structural Fund’s objectives to provide incentives for development throught a radical change in the programming and management of actions and stakeholder practices through Integrated Projects. The Campania Region proposes its experience as an EU best practice. The added value of its Integrated Projects is: a) balance between governance and government; b) integration between funds (European Regional Development Fund – ERDF and European Social Fund – ESF) anticipating the machanisms for the new Structural Funds; c) partnership process with local stakeholders, capacity building and transfer of know-how. Weaknesses to be addressed are: a) political orientation of partnerships; b) difficulties in harmonising the timing of individual operations with the financial programming of the Operational Programme measure

Practical guide for Structural Funds interventions Background Many memberstates have experience with Structural Funds operations. Yet this experience is not always in a practical way available for others nor is it transferred to other memberstates. This was the main reason to start a project to establish a practical guide. EIPA, the European institute for public administration and ERAC a specialised consultant in the Netherlands for structural funds interventions therefore took the initiative. This was made possible by the Dutch government in view of the exchange of experience to new memberstates. Content The guide provides practical step-by-step guidelines about all aspects of dealing with the Structural Funds on the programme as well as the project level, including tips and ways of dealing with the different issues: - Structures and Principles - Plans and programming (from the first step until drafting the programme documents) - Organisation and programme

Decentralising Structural Funds' management to the regional level Decentralised programming = Decentralised implementation? Or, Why (further) decentralisation of implementation is a bad idea Since programming will focus on the NUTS 2 level in the future, there will be a tendency to decentralise management of Structural Funds and Instruments to this level. This paper problematises the management side of this issue, arguing that decentralised programming need not automatically mean decentralised management of the programmes, and indeed that there are many reasons why, particularly in the new Member states, any (further) decentralisation of management is likely to have negative consequences. These conclusions are based on the findings of an institutional capacity measurement recently undertaken at 4 implementing agencies in one new member state (to ensure confidentiality, the results will be presented generically and anonymously). Ten criteria were used to measure capacity at exist

STRUCTURAL FUNDS MANAGEMENT IN GREECE: The experience of the Management Organisation Unit of the CSF Presented by: Dex. Agourides Director General M.O.U. S.A. http://www.mou.gr/ mailto:dagourides@mou.gr EU Structural Funds in Greece Greece is a peripheral EU country with no common land borders with other Member States. The major weaknesses of the Greek economy are infrastructure deficits, unemployment rate above the EU average, high share of employment in agriculture, low productivity (deficits in R&D, skilled workforce and business investment) and a lagging behind telecommunications sector. The whole of the Greek territory qualifies as Objective 1 Region under the Structural Funds. There are currently 7 areas of intervention and 24 Operational Programmes (11 national and 13 regional). Key priorities: Ø Infrastructure 56,5% Ø Support to the private sector 21,9% Ø Human resources development 19% For the period 2000-2006, EU structural assistance to Greece amounts to a total of EUR

MANAGING STRUCTURAL FUNDS AND INSTRUMENTS ADDRESSING THE ABSORPTION CAPACITY IN THE NEW MEMBER STATES Mr Stephen O’Sullivan Assistant Secretary Banking Finance and International Division Department of Finance, Ireland ______________________ Introduction The enlargement of the Union to 25 members and the prospective further enlargements present unprecedented challenges for the Union as a whole and for its constituent Member States. One of these concerns the successful and productive absorption of the very considerable volume of resources to be transferred from the Member States with above average levels of development to those which are catching up. There are many aspects to the challenge of absorption. I will say a few words about the overall level of financial commitment involved and talk about the challenges that we in Ireland had to overcome in utilising the funding placed at our disposal from the Union Budget over the years. I am fully aware of course that what may have worked r

In 1996 The Council of Europe ran this campaign against racism and discrimination. In this 10th year anniversary the emphasis is much more on cultural diversity and positive aspects - promoting Human Rights, Diversity and Participation. The partnership bewteen the European Commission and the Council of Europe is launching the campaign in June 2006 and it will run until September 2007. It will have a young people and grass roots approach. There are National Campaign Committees organising activities on a National level, with much campaign material and slogans being translated into many many languages. International educational activities will also be organised around the main themes, including seminars, training for trainings, youth fora etc. Quality standards are being developed so that activities and education events can have the possibility to be awarded the "All Different All Equal" logo. It will also be possible for places to be awarded this (schools, workplaces, organizat

Deputy Prime Minister of the Republic of Macedonia, Radmila Sekerinska and the UK Ambassador to Macedonia, HE Robert Chatterton Dickson, signed four Letters of Understanding for bilateral technical assistance between the Secretariat for European Affairs and the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, United Kingdom.“We are entering a period when Macedonia will increasingly receive messages that the three conditions for membership will be administration, administration and administration. That does not mean that political and economical criteria are losing on importance, but that we will fulfil them only if we have the necessary administrative capacity, knowledge, competence and transparency”, Sekerinska emphasised.She added that during the British Presidency of the EU, Macedonia was granted the status of candidate country for EU membership and that this is a fact that will be written in history. Sekerinska expressed her gratitude for the UK assistance and stressed that the positive energy con