Governance of Territorial and Urban Policies from EU to Local Level

Topics

• New forms of decision-making
• Governance capacity, Policies and instruments

Abstract

Within the project, governance of territorial and urban policies has been defined as the capacity of actors, social groups and institutions (public, private, third sector) to build an organizational consensus, to agree on the contribution of each partner as well as on a common spatial vision. The challenge to governance is seen in its capacity to create new forms of integration out of fragmentation, and new forms of coherence out of inconsistency. Project report is divided into two parts: (1) The summary contains explication of the main concepts and methodology, of typologies developed and indicators used, as well as an overview of the work performed in single work packages. (2) The second part of the report contains the results of the poject. (i) Classifications have been developed or used with reference to styles of planning, traditions of spatial planning, spatial planning-devolution powers, citizen participation in spatial planning, forms of co-operation (horizontal and vertical), cross-border and transfrontier co-operation. These are applied in order to analyse spatial planning patterns characteristic of the countries of the ESPON area. A complex picture emerges within each of the categories researched, mirroring the complexity of issues. Regarding forms of co-operation for example, a number of dominant categories have been identified: co-operation between national government and regional authorities; inter-regional co-operation; intra-regional co-operation of regional actors; inter-municipal and inter-communal co-operation; public-private co-operation agreements; private-private co-operation agreements; co-operation councils and committees; contractual arrangements. For example, inter-municipal and inter-communal co-operation is characteristic of 19 ESPON area countries, among them also of several "Alpine" ones: Austria, France, Germany, Italy and Switzerland. Contractual arrangements, on the other hand, are applied in France, Italy, The Netherlands and UK. (ii) Data and indicators to assess governance in urban and territorial policies: Data have been collected from various sources (Eurostat, Eurobarometer etc.), from national overviews and case studies. The results are presented in the form of maps, tables and spider diagrams. An attempt is made to elaborate a governance indicator based on: official acceptance of governance concepts and principles in the countries; changes in formal government in the direction of governance; experiences with participation processes; experience with partnerships; and extent of financial dependence of local government on central government.

Most relevant parts of the publication

Very informative is the chapter on characteristics of territorial planning in the countries of the ESPON area, containing descriptions of categories (listed in the abstract above), as well as placing of countries - Part Two, Chapter 7.

Journal / Publisher / Institution

University of Valencia, Department of Geography

Reference to the original publication

http://www.espon.lu/online/documentation/projects/policy_impact/policy_impact_146.html

Remarks

The project has until now delivered three interim reports, each containing information on the state of elaboration of the research topics. The contents of the last, that is third interim report, are presented in the abstract. The final report of the project, which is due to be finished in 2006, will summarize all findings and present recommendations.