Multiregional cooperation – recipes for success Andrea Vugrinovic, director Varazdin County Development Agency AZRA Croatian Regions Office Achieving critical mass – can regions become more competitive through transnational networking initiatives?

Croatian Regions Office in Brussels Bottom-up initiative of AZRA – Varazdin County Regional Development Agency, Croatia Cooperation of 7 counties, 5 cities and 2 regional development agencies Activities: networking, partner search, fundraising support, education of civil servants and local development experts, information, destination marketing

Croatian Participation in the Community Programmes EU FINANCIAL ASSISTANCE TO CROATIA The three pre-accession funds (PHARE, ISPA, SAPARD) MEUR CARDS Programme MEUR CARDS + pre-accession instruments MEUR 2007: IPA, Customs 2007, Fiscalis 2007, IDAbc, Culture 2007, Seventh Research Framework Programme (FP7), EURATOM, Civil Protection Financial Instrument, Competitiveness and Innovation Programme (CIP), PROGRESS 2008: Marco Polo II, Europe for Citizens, e-Content + Safer Internet

How Sustainable is the Impact of Soft Projects? No (governmental or non-governmental) STRUCTURE available Implementation COORDINATION lacking (to avoid project-duplications) No pipeline for providing INPUTS for joint programming activities

INTERREG IIIA Neighbourhood Programme Slovenia/Hungary/Croatia 2 M from CARDS (1st Call, opened December 2004, closed March 2005) 6 M from PHARE (2nd Call, opened in November 2005, closed in February 2006) Strategic objectives: odevelopment of economic and social conditions for creation of an integrated regional economic area, ostrengthening of cross-border relations between people, organizations and institutions in every structural area 2nd Call: 315 projects received (144 joint), 117 rejected, 198 assessed – Quality Check, 54 projects recommended for co-financing

Border Strategies Influence of the political and social changes of the last decade forced local stakeholders to search for new approaches New attitude: transforming disadvantage into advantage (typical problems of the border regions, the curse of the Capital City as a neighbour) High hopes related to cross-border programmes Solutions Croatia to join the EU tomorrow (!?) Former comrades in an arranged marriage – now strategic partners Effective fundraising – EU funds for cross-border cooperation First steps: joining the MATRIOSCA, the Drava basin… Interreg projects

The ICE Project Project duration: 15 months Priority: 1. Economic-Social Cohesion and Human Resources Development, Measure: 1.1 Joint Economic Space, JOINT type of project Target area of the project - Cross-border area Slovenia – Croatia

Why Did We Need a Project Like ICE? Limited knowledge among SMEs on the possibilities of cooperation and cross-border business opportunities, limited knowledge of the region in general (culture, language, doing business) Market entry issues the same on both sides of the border Supporting institutions have limited sources of information and limited access to experts needed for improving competitiveness of SME/crafts sector

Do We Have Any Measurable Results? Established cross-border co-operation of supporting institutions extending to Italy, Austria, Hungary, BiH, S and CG through contacts with partners – much wider impact than expected Institution-building impact - Croatian Development Initiative, partnership agreements with cross-border partners Improved information services for SMEs: information available from a number of sources (partners), fast, reliable, non-biased

Do We Have Any Measurable Results (ctnd.)? Active exchange database: business offers and requests among SMEs, craftsmen and supporting institutions in a wider area Sectoral meetings among SMEs and supporting institutions improved cooperation in chosen sectors, particularly in the field of common development strategies and creation of cross-border business networks and clusters Improved qualifications of experts and access to specialists from supporting institutions who are able to provide more efficient support to SMEs with the emphasis on the implementation of the acquis and Lisbon strategy goals

Is This Enough? Without organized cooperation and sustainable models of cross-border problem solving facilities – we have only paper-networking Real cooperation starts when the project implementation stops

Thank You! Any Questions? CONTACT Andrea VUGRINOVIC, director Katarina BULIC and Damir PLESE Heads of Office CROATIAN REGIONS OFFICE Avenue de Tervueren 84, 1040 Brussels Tel/Fax: +32 –