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Brussels, 1 October 2013
148th MEETING OF THE COMMITTEE OF THE REGIONS BUREAU
– 7 OCTOBER 2013 –
ITEM 8DECISION ON THE CREATION OF AN AWARD
FOR THE EUROPEAN GROUPINGS OF TERRITORIAL COOPERATION
Submitted by the secretary-general
FOR DECISION
CDR5779-2013_11_00_TRA_NB …/…
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MEMO FOR CoR BUREAU MEMBERS
148th MEETING OF THE COMMITTEE OF THE REGIONS BUREAU
– 7 October 2013 –
Item 8Decision on the creation of an award
for the European Groupings of Territorial Cooperation
1. Introduction: The EGTC award
The Committee of the Regions launches a European award named 'EGTC award' to recognise and give visibility to the best practice of a European Grouping of Territorial Cooperation (EGTC) related to the creation of growth and jobs in Europe (Europe 2020 Strategy).
38 EGTCs have been created since the entry into force of the Regulation (EC) 1082/2006 of the European Parliament and the Council, according to the Register of the CoR, and there are more groupings in the pipeline. The existing EGTCs involve more than 650 local and regional authorities in 19 Member States. The monitoring report published every year by the CoR has revealed that most of the EGTCs implement strategic actions of economic development directly linked to the generation of growth and jobs. The employment and entrepreneurship are at the forefront of these actions, and the groupings are also operational in many other spheres like innovation, vocational training, education, transport, tourism, environment, health, or culture, most of them with direct tangible effect on the economy of the territories involved. In addition to this, the revision of the EGTC Regulation will open new perspectives and fields of the action for the EGTCs[1].
In the run-up to 2020, the Committee of the Regions considers the EGTC to be one of the main mechanisms for promoting cross-border, transnational and inter-regional cooperation, in line with the aim of territorial cohesion, and committed promoting the EGTC within cohesion policy for the 2014-2020 period.
The Committee of the Regions defined its strategic approach towards the EGTC in 2006[2], which resulted in the launching of the Platform of EGTCs in 2011[3], and renewed its strategy of support to the groupings in in 2012[4].
Concerning the lines of action related to the EGTC, the Committee defined the line (g)“Actions in the areas of communication, visibility and exchanging information will form a cornerstone of the work of the Committee of the Regions and the EGTC Platform, covering the EU institutions, national, regional and local authorities and the general public.”
The political action plan of the EGTC Platform for 2013[5] foresaw the creation of a European award:
"To highlight the CoR's focus on a swift implementation of the Europe 2020 strategy on the ground the Committee of the Regions will launch in 2013 a European award, to be proposed in partnership with the other EU institutions, to recognise and give visibility to the best practice of an EGTC related to the creation of growth and jobs in Europe (Europe 2020 Strategy)."
This award intends to give visibility to the potential of the EGTC as an instrument to deliver growth and opportunities, considering that the economic growth and the implementation of the Europe 2020 Strategy are the top priority of the current Presidency of the CoR.
Several EU-wide prizes (e.g. European Entrepreneurial Region by the CoR, European Enterprise Award, Regio Stars Award) and schemes for rewarding EU initiatives (e.g. European Green Capital, Regions for Economic Change, European Capital of Culture) do already exist, mainly for concrete policies, and are oriented to Local and Regional Authorities in general. The EGTC award is solely oriented to EGTCs and intends to highlight and give visibility to the added value of these groupings, in line with the commitment of the CoR to promote this instrument of cooperation.
This award will be established in partnership with other EU institutions.
2. Objective and added value of the award
In line with the CoR strategy of support to the EGTCs, the objective of the award is to underscore the role of these groupings as a lever for economic growth in the territories concerned, and especially for implementing the Europe 2020 Strategy.
The award intends to recognize concrete achievements of the existing EGTCs, showing the added value of this instrument and making them serve as example for other groupings of similar structures.
The expected impact of the award is to endorse and to stimulate the 'bottom-up' efforts made by the local and regional authorities to create growth and jobs via result-oriented EGTCs. In addition, territorial cooperation should be more perceived as a means to improve territorial cohesion, implementing Europe 2020 Strategy while enhancing multi-level governance.
The award also intends to contribute to the better knowledge of the EGTC by the national, regional and local authorities of the EU, by the EU institutions and by the public.
3. Rules of procedure
Every second year between October and December , the Committee will publish the call for the biannual EGTC award to recognize actions and projects effectively implemented by a European Grouping of Territorial Cooperation during that period.
Only EGTCs established at the latest the year before the call and whose establishment has been notified to the Committee of the Regions according to Art. 5 of the Regulation 1082/2006 of the European Parliament and of the Council are eligible to participate.
The award will recognize concrete actions and projects implemented by EGTCs in their territory. The candidate EGTC shall submit a detailed memory of its action or project, which will be examined by the jury.
The jury will examine the applications and will exclude those that do not fulfil the criteria of eligibility, those that are not properly documented and those that are manifestly not related to the scope of action of the award. The jury will be entitled to require additional information and verification if needed. This information will be provided as soon as possible.
The jury will assess the applications according to the criteria of the call and to the general criteria of the award, and will decide about the winner. The jury will have the right to decide about additional honour mentions.
The EGTC award will be announced and delivered during the corresponding annual meeting of the EGTC Platform during the first quarter of the year following to the call.
Not awarded projects or actions can be submitted to further calls only if those projects or actions continue to be implemented and continue to produce new impacts during the following years.
The documents related to the award are to be drafted in English, in order to facilitate the work of the jury and the widest publicity and dissemination of the actions. The candidates will provide the English translation of the documents existing in other languages (endorsement letters, external assessments, publications related to the action or project and others), or a summary of their content in English.
4. Awarding criteria
The award will recognize concrete actions and projects implemented by EGTCs in their respective territories.
The jury will take into account the added value of the EGTC in implementing the action, its impact on the territory and its value as best practice, using the following criteria:
· Impact and outcome of the action, based on measurable indicators, that will be assessed in proportion to the size of the EGTC and the actual needs of the territory;
· Innovative approach, transnational dimension and European added value due to the fact that the action is conceived and carried out by an EGTC;
· Implementation of the principle of multi-level governance and bottom-up approach;
· Effective contribution to the implementation of the Strategy Europe 2020 in the fields related to generation of growth and jobs;
· Sustainability and permanence of the action, integration of the measures in a wider strategy for the territory;
· Visibility among the public and the media of the territory;
· Potential of transferability and replication as best practice.
This list is an open list. The Committee will add specific criteria in each call if deemed necessary, in particular if the call focuses on concrete flagship initiatives of the Strategy Europe 2020.
5. The jury
The political coordinator of the EGTC Platform will chair the jury.
The membership of the jury will be offered to:
· A Member of the European Parliament;
· A representative of the European Commission, Directorate General for Regional and Urban Policy;
· A representative of the incumbent Presidency of the Council;
· A representative of the European Economic and Social Committee;
· 1 expert member: e.g. a Director of an EGTC (preferably the EGTC awarded the previous year), or a representative of stakeholders (AEBR or other association) or other expert proposed by the political coordinator of the EGTC Platform.
A representative of the General Secretariat of the Committee will assist the jury acting as secretary.
In each edition, the political coordinator of the EGTC Platform will be entitled to invite further members of the jury among DGs of the European Commission, members of the Committee (in particular members directly involved in EGTC and/or in cross-border, transnational and interregional cooperation), or other political representatives or experts.
6. Governance and administration of the award
The first edition of the award will be launched in 2013 and awarded during the annual meeting of the EGTC Platform in the beginning of 2014. First two editions will focus on the measures implemented by the EGTCs to generate growth and jobs, in line with the Strategy Europe 2020.
The Committee will ensure the visibility of the award and of the EGTC(s) awarded.
The Bureau will be informed regularly about the award in the corresponding annual activity report of the EGTC Platform, and will receive in 2016 a report on the implementation of the award, containing measures for its improvement, in particular related to the possibility of making the award annual, revising the application forms and linguistic regime, or including other policy areas in further editions.
The award is an honorific mention and does not include any financial reward.
7. Budgetary implications
Most of the actions related to the EGTC award can be implemented with the existing resources, except for some costs related mainly to the organisation of the jury meeting:
- Human resources:
o The EGTC team in Unit E2 would be in charge of the administration;
o The graphic support would be provided by the services of the CoR;
o Press release and communication would be provided by the services of the CoR.
- Travel and accommodation:
o No additional cost for the CoR members as the jury meetings should coincide with a CoR Bureau or plenary meeting in Brussels;
o The CoR will cover the travel expenses of 1 expert member of the Jury (half a day to Brussels);
- Meetings, congresses and conferences: The ceremony of award should coincide with the meeting of the EGTC Platform (no additional costs);
- Publications: The EGTC award will be included in the publications already planned for the EGTC in 2014 (no additional costs);
- Translation:
o Possible need to translate a summary of the documents from EN into the language of the political coordinator of the EGTC Platform;
o Translation of communication documents (1-page flyer and information) into all EU languages.
- Interpretation:
o The award ceremony would take place during the annual meeting of the EGTC Platform (no additional costs);
o Half a day interpretation between English, the language of the political coordinator of the EGTC Platform and the language of the CoR members making part of the jury (if needed).
PROPOSAL
Bureau members are invited to adopt this document.
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TABLE A
List of budgetary updates on the EGTC award
Type and title of the activity / Legal basis / Directorate/ commission responsible / Place / Date / Estimated costBudget line 1004
Reimbursement of members' expenses[6] / Estimated cost
Budget line 1402
Interpreting[7] / Estimated cost
Budget line 1422
Speakers and experts[8] /
Additional activities
Jury meeting of the EGTC award / Bureau decision
of 2 May 2012
(CdR 606/2012, item 8)
Bureau decision
of 10 April 2013
(CdR 1335/2013, item 7) / Unit E2 / Brussels / February 2014 (tbc) / No cost / € 1 768
(2 booth,
half a day) / € 1150
(1 expert,
half a day
in Brussels)
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CDR5779-2013_11_00_TRA_NB
[1] The Register of EGTC, the annual publication ‘EGTC Monitoring Report’, and the information about the revision of the EGTC Regulation are available at the portal of the EGTC Platform of the CoR: www.cor.europa.eu/egtc
[2] Bureau meeting of 5 December 2006, Item 7, ref: CdR 322/2006.
[3] Bureau meeting of 26 January 2011, Item 6, ref: CdR 397/2010.
[4] Bureau meeting of 2 May 2012, Item 8, ref: CdR 606/2012. The Bureau decision stated that “The Committee is committed to promoting the EGTC within cohesion policy for the 2012-2020 period. The EGTC will play an important role in the broader debate on drawing up this policy. Indeed, the new cohesion policy sets out new opportunities but also challenges for the EGTC, regarding aspects such as the management of European Territorial Cooperation programmes, in part or as a whole, coordinating the activities of the EGTC with the priorities of European Territorial Cooperation; the new management areas open to the EGTC in actions such as participation in joint action plans, local development schemes incorporated into Cross-Border Cooperation programmes, and action as an intermediary body responsible for Integrated Territorial Investment; the EGTC will also be a useful tool for improving the structure of macro-regional strategies.”
[5] Bureau meeting of 10 April 2013, Item 7, ref: CdR 1335/2013.
[6] For 2013, the average travel and subsistence costs for members have been estimated at EUR 1460 per member (per day). An additional allowance of EUR 310 per participant has been added for two-day meetings.
[7] For 2013, interpretation costs have been fixed at EUR 442 per slot per interpreter, according to the SCIC/PE guidelines for the number of interpreters needed for the requested regime, and 1.25 slot for travel in case of meetings held outside Brussels. The number of interpreters per booth may vary according to the interpretation regime requested. In general, calculations have been made on the assumption of two interpreters per booth in case of six booths or less, and three per booth for seven or more booths.
[8] The average travel and subsistence costs for guest speakers have been calculated at EUR 1150 per speaker/expert.