Opportunities for interregional cooperation in Regional Operational Programmes: Article 96.3.d) of the Common Provisions Regulation INTERACT Future Pilot Activity 16 September 2014 | Milano

Legal basis: Art (d) CPR Regulation 1303/2013 Content, adoption and amendment of operational programmes under the Investment for growth and jobs goal […] 3. Taking into account its content and objectives, an operational programme shall describe the integrated approach to territorial development, having regard to the Partnership Agreement, and showing how that operational programme contributes to the accomplishment of its objectives and expected results, specifying, where appropriate, the following: […] (d) the arrangements for interregional and transnational actions, within the operational programmes, with beneficiaries located in at least one other Member State; 2 Art d) CPR Regulation 1303/2013

According to this article a regional Operational Programme setting its objectives for the Investment for jobs and growth goal, therefore NOT an ETC programme, can plan activities to be developed in collaboration (in partnership) with other regions belonging to the EU.  Cooperation approach  Perform joint activities with another European region  Working on the same topics or priorities What are we talking about? Art d) CPR Regulation 1303/2013 3

Such choices must be supported by evidence (SWOT analysis or reference to ex-ante evaluation in the Partnership Agreement) and should also have a description of the types of the activities the Region plans to carry out to improve the situation or tackle the difficulties. At this point, a possibility is to show that some gaps that the Region suffers may be filled in by the partnership with other European regions. The choice of themes should be coherent with the priorities of the Region itself and may relate to a specific sector of one priority. What should be taken into account? Art d) CPR Regulation 1303/2013 4

Interregional and transnational (ESF) cooperation can bring a great added value to regional development as it allows the exchange of practices and experiences among regions all over Europe, especially those that are excluded from ETC because of their unfortunate geographical position and those having specific interests and priorities that cannot be easily tackled by the sometimes limited means of ETC Why? Art d) CPR Regulation 1303/2013 5

In order to do so, the region must state in its OP the necessary information and arrangements, plan of working in cooperation, knowing that such activities are subject to certain limitations like stated in Article 70.2 of the same Regulation In case a Region wants to provide more detail in addition to the specific section of the ROP, the Region can draft an annex to it. If not, such a document, usually the implementing document, can describe all the technical details and administrative procedures related to the implementation of the cooperation activities at the programme level. How? Art d) CPR Regulation 1303/2013 6

Such implementation can include: creation of calls for proposals, specific application forms, networking and partnership events, set up of technical assistance centers The use of cooperation at regional level (management, administration, technical assistance) cannot be easily improvised but it should be the result of an internal assessment of the Region, which should understand if it has the capabilities to manage international relations. Regions using cooperation methodology may choose to set up an additional technical service to manage calls, assess projects and arrange partner meetings (e.g. Staff should be very well prepared and skilled in foreign languages). How? Art d) CPR Regulation 1303/2013 7

Support to interested regions Launching of an exchange network: - Consolidation of the previous one and adhesion of interested regions - Focused benchmarking and networking events  Consultations and debates on management and operational issues Delivery of a specific publication (4th quarter 2014)  Please subscribe the list contacting IP Valencia or do it on-line What does INTERACT do? Art d) CPR Regulation 1303/2013 8

MAIN OBJECTIVE To help regions wanting to implement article 96.3 (d) to acquire information, examples and support from our growing network. SECONDARY OBJECTIVES To disseminate knowledge and information about this article and support the Commission in its purpose. To continue an informal network of European regions sharing know-how and experience in the implementation of projects under article 37.6(b), and to review this experience in the light of the new Cohesion Policy framework, especially as in art (d). To give visibility to good examples started up by regions that were successful in implementing the link between the “mainstream” and “European territorial cooperation” goals of Cohesion Policy and other programmes in the period. To support and highlight the strategic need and concrete possibility to link ETC and goal 1 as well as other sectorial programmes. Main objectives The New Project 9

1 kick-off and brainstorming meeting to be held on September 16, 2014 in Milan at the Lombardy Region. This event will be a 1 day technical workshop where the participants will be limited to the regions having implemented the article and the regions wanting to learn about it. The participants expected will be about 40. We will present the previous pilot activity implemented during 2011, the examples we have so far and we will highlight the differences that every region has developed in its approach to underline the flexibility of the article. The main output of this event will be the definition of a possible implementation road map with the interested Regions. INTERACT intends to propose the creation of thematic working groups where regions will analyse and share the acquired experiences and specific needs. Next activities The New Project 10

Structure of possible WGs: WG 1 – Management and financial issues: Regions will exchange their experience in the implementation of the former article 96.3 (d) and try to outline the main management needs and features, difficulties and tips to be taken into account. A specific focus will be on financial issues and the implementation under art. 70 CPR WG 2 – Pilot fields: Regions will figure out cooperation possibilities in some fields to be proposed (Innovation, competitiveness of SMEs, especially in the rural and agricultural sector, etc.) WG 2a – Seeking Partnerships: Regions will try to identify specific themes where to implement this cooperation and partner Regions’ profiles to be sought. This sub-group will be the output of the thematic fields partnerships’ and it will be run in close cooperation with INTERREG- EUROPE Programme, where relevant. Next activities II The New Project 11

Thematic events (tbd after the kick-off meeting) 1 closing event (tbd after the kick-off meeting) presenting the final state of play of the whole activity and its outcomes. … What is fitting more with your interest? Next activities III The New Project 12

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