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CoesioNet launches a call for papers to researchers and experts on the cohesion in Europe.
Once the papers are submitted to the editorial committee, they may be published on the CoesioNet web site.
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Governance
Governance
The pioneering concept of “multi-level governance” is considered by some observers as representing the added value of applying the community method to cohesion policy. The “governance” group is thus just as concerned as the preceding one by the concept of crisis. There has been much criticism of the clumsiness of the system to which this method has given rise. How can it be reduced? The clarification and real implementation of subsidiarity are at stake. Moreover, while it is broadly acknowledged that no policy anchored in the local territory has a chance of bearing fruit if it does not first draw upon a well-constructed central policy, how is better coordination between these two levels to be conceived? At the same time, no central policy can claim to achieve a local target by itself. While the local dimension must be supported by the center, the latter can not ignore the local dimension. Local knowledge, local actors and local networks all participate in the definition of “territorial capital” as one of the major forms of governance. This raises the question of the state. In these times of generalized and lasting crisis, which no believes can be thwarted by the recipes of pure liberalism, the state is at the heart of the matter. Having marked the return of the state after a 30 year hiatus from economic life, can one expect the crisis to sweep away the dynamics of decentralization, which have accelerated in recent decades? How is the re-centering of the state at the heart of systems of intervention to be conceived? How are the resulting partnerships with the regions and other local collectivities to be conceived? How are the exchanges and development duties between parts of the same national whole and between states to be negotiated?
Issues Addressed by the Group
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Return of the State?
Under the impact of the financial and economic crisis, the implementation of international agreements in the fight against climate change and so on, the role of central governments has been strengthened. By contrast, the necessary reduction of public deficits has obliged them to reduce the number of state employees and cut back on their means of intervention. Can one speak of a return of the state and what would that imply for the governance of regional development?
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Territorial Basis of Cohesion Policy Programs:
Is the choice of other NUTS 2 regions always relevant in regards to the development projects to be carried out in the framework of cohesion policy? The recommendations of the Barca report argue for going beyond administrative frontiers in order to take the relevant notion of territory into account. In addition to the limits imposed by administrative management realism, can one imagine a geography of intervention that is better suited to territorial reality at an infra-regional, pluri-regional and transnational level, thereby facilitating intervention in places where people live, large cities, mountain ranges, river basins, etc.?
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How Effective is Multi-Level and Multi-Sectoral Governance?
In the framework of the institutional and administrative system proper to each country, organizations have been established brining together the various levels of government and the various sectors of public policy to pilot and implement regional development programs, in particular those co-financed by European structural funds. Some of these systems have proven to be of limited effectiveness. Without calling into question the principle of multi-level and partnership-based governance, can light be shed on these methods to allow such systems to be optimized (in the area of decision-making, conflict management, operational conduct, etc.)?
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Contractualization in the Area of Cohesion Policy:
What form should agreement take between the parties and at what institutional level in order to implement a cohesion policy that:
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Confers a strong strategic dimension on the policy, in keeping with the EU 2020 strategy?
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Guarantees the involvement of the various levels of government (European, national, regional and local)?
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Ensures effective implementation in respect of community rules?
How are frameworks of cooperation to be reconceived in this respect?
See the programme of the 2010-2011 workshops of the group in pdf format.