Inspire policy making by territorial evidence
ESPON Seminar
“Territories Acting for Economic Growth:
Using territorial evidence to meet challenges towards 2020”
European Macro-Regions
Andrea Gramillano
t33
Key questions
1. Are there certain standards that can be found in all
macro regions? What are unique conditions for the
European macro-regions?
2. How do macro-regions take on-board European
and global development dynamics?
3. How could continuous territorial evidence and
tailor-made
benchmarking
support
efficient
implementation and investments?
Outline of the presentation
1) Macro-regionalisation process in Europe
a) Macro-regions at a
glance
b) Common standards
c) Uniqueness
2) The experience of ESPON TerrEvi project
a)TerrEvi
b) Evidences on territorial dynamics
and governance
3) Conclusions: opportunities for ESPON development
1) Macro-regionalisation process in
Europe
1) Macro-regionalisation process in Europe
a) Macro regions at a glance
•
Focus: institutional macro-regionalisation process
Front-runners (under
implementation)
• Baltic Sea region
• Danube region
•
New (definition of the
strategy)
• Adriatic Ionian
region (2014)
• Alpine region (2015)
Future (under
consideration)
• Carpathian region,
Black sea, Atlantic
Arc, Mediterranean
Sea, North Sea
Purpose:
 Promoting place-based and coordinated Cohesion policy
 Promoting multi-level governance
 Strengthening cooperation with neighboring countries(foreign policy)
 Reducing regional disparities and promoting territorial cohesion
 Increasing value for money (effectiveness)
1) Macro-regionalisation process in Europe
b) Common standards to all macro-regions
Features
Challenges
1
Sharing common territories
and
functional
characteristics
(“soft
spaces”)
-“Transforming” the common natural
resource (sea, river) from being a barrier
in a bridge
- Given financial allocation of the
programmes
2
Based
on
multi-level Complexity of multi-level governance
governance (vertical and procedures (a lot of cooperation spaces)
horizontal coordination)
European and
global dynamics?
1) Macro-regionalisation process in Europe
c) Unique conditions for European Macro-regions
 1) European and global development dynamics
Strategy
Baltic
Sea
Danube EUSAIR
region
Innovation and blue growth
X
Prosperity
X
X
Quality of environment
X
Accessibility and connection
X
Attractiveness and tourism
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
Social and territorial
disparities
Safety and security
Education policy
Alpine
region
X
X
X
1) Macro-regionalisation process in Europe
c) Unique conditions for European Macro-regions
 1) European and global development dynamics
Sustainable management of
the resources and exploitation
of the growth potential
(attractiveness + accessibility)
1) Macro-regionalisation process in Europe
c) Unique conditions for European Macro-regions
 2) The specificity of the natural environment (EUSAIR, DANUBE)
 3) Cooperation background (EUSAIR, BALTIC)
 4) EU and non-EU members
2) The experience of ESPON TerrEvi
project
2) The experience of ESPON TerrEvi project
a)TerrEvi project
Why question of the project: Can ESPON evidence be relevant
(usable and useful) for Programming?
Stakeholders’
consultation
Territorial
needs
identification
Monitoring
and
evaluation
Strategy
justification
Project
selection
2) The experience of ESPON TerrEvi project
a)TerrEvi project
 Main evaluation activities and tools
1. Various tools: Maps (Zoom – in and zoom-out), Box-plots and
Traffic lights, Table with list of relevant ESPON readings
2. Products
• 66 factsheets (53 CBC and 13 TNC programmes)
• 10 Territorial Evidence Packs
3.
Dissemination activities (website, app, social network and 5 local
events)
12
What can be used for
“Macro-regions”???
2) The experience of ESPON TerrEvi project
b) Evidences on territorial dynamics and governance
TerrEvi products
Macro-region
Factsheet
Evidence Pack Diss. report
Baltic Sea region
X (Baltic Sea)
Danube region
X (SE Europe)
X (SE Europe)
Alpine region
X (Alpine Space)
X (Alpine Space)
EUSAIR
X (SE Europe)
X (SE Europe)
North Sea
X (North Sea)
X (North Sea)
Mediterranean Sea
X (Med)
Atlantic Arc
X (Atlantic Area)
Multi-level governance
Thematic paper +
t33 paper (2012)
X (Atlantic Area)
Thematic paper
3) Conclusions: opportunities for
ESPON development
3) Conclusions: opportunities for ESPON development
-
Results of TerrEvi project on the use of ESPON Evidence
Territorial
identification
needs
Strategy justification
Stakeholders’ involvement
ESPON is used  
ESPON could be used  ?
ESPON is difficult to be
used  
Project selection
Monitoring and evaluation
system
-
Macro-regions: additional challenges (e.g. non- Eu
countries)
3) Conclusions: opportunities for ESPON development
Cohesion policy maker
perspective
ESPON for
benchmarking
across
programmes
ESPON support
for policy
16
implementation
and evaluation
(“name &
shame”)
3) Conclusions: opportunities for ESPON development
Outside Cohesion policy
perspective
ESPON as a tool
of policy
accountability
and awareness
17
ESPON as a
reference
beyond
Cohesion policy
Thanks a lot for your attention
Andrea Gramillano
a.gramillano@t33.it