::"MEDISDEC - STRATMED" PROJECT::

Final Steering Committee n°7 and Public Conference
Rome (Italie), 25-26th October 2007

Technical Meeting and Steering Committee n°6
Palermo (Italy), 25-26th June 2007

Technical Meeting about Mediterranean Project-Pilot 2030
Rome (Italy), 2nd May 2007

Technical Meeting and Steering Committee n°5
Pharo (Portugal), 19-20th May 2007

Technical Meeting and Steering Committee n°4
Kos (Greece), 30th-31st October 2006

Technical Meeting with Italian partners
Palermo (Italy), 6th October 2006

Technical Meeting and Steering Committee n°3
Barcelona (Spain), 26-28th April 2006

Technical Meeting and Steering Committee n°2
Marseille (France), 21th -22nd November 2005

Technical Meeting and Steering Committee n°1
Rome (Italy), 27-28th June 2005

This proposal is motivated by the substantial lack of joint discussion and coordination amongst the national, regional and subregional institutions responsible for economic programming and regional planning concerning management and administration methods and techniques relative to the problems linked to urbanisation phenomena in peri-urban areas and extensive regions. Such joint discussion and coordination would be particularly important on certain themes common to the Mediterranean area, which are the object of general and strategic orientations illustrated by the ESDP (SDEC), (e.g. issues relative to metropolitan area rebalancing, agrarian landscape defence, definition of compatibilities between regional infrastructures and installation contextes). These issues have so far been tackled by each Member State in the contexts of ordinary programming and URBAN programmes, whereas discussion and coordination on the consistency of national and regional policies with regard to ESDP objectives generally occurs in the framework of evaluation processes carried out a posteriori by external observers belonging to central government structures such as ESPON, etc...
The perspective we intend to apply in this project is the “bottom up” construction of regional management plans and projects which consciously make use of methods and working tools jointly examined at transnational level and oriented towards the definition of efficacious procedures for the implementation of the ESDP. The approach proposed is that of the promotion of organic actions for territorial redevelopment, infrastructure improvement and introduction of social facilities in weak contexts present in the Medocc area.

A possible reference-point for these policies could consist of ordinary regional programming tools, or new tool such as Italy’s PRUSST or France’s Grands Projets de Ville (GPV). Building a comprehensive transnational vision of regional development experience with a view to the ESDP is thus an essential condition for the purpose of identifying a coherent set of projects that are genuinely effective and « taylored» to their context.

Regione Lazio (capofila)
Regionale Territorio e Urbanistica (Direction Territoire et Urbanisme)

Regione Piemonte
Pianificazione e Gestione Urbanistica (Direction Gestion et Aménagement Urbain)

Regione Umbria
Direzione Regionale Politiche Territoriali, Ambiente e Infrastrutture, Servizio 3 - Politiche per l’Assetto del Territorio (Direction régionale des Politiques Territoriales Service 3 - Politiques pour l’Aménagement du Territoire (P.A.T.)

Regione Siciliana
Dipartimento di Urbanistica (Département d’Urbanisme)

Regione Murcia
Direcciòn General de Ordenación del Territorio y Costas (Direction Générale de l’Aménagement du Territoire et Côtes)

Generalitat de Catalunya
Secretaria per a la planificació territorial (secrétariat de l’aménagement territorial)

Ypoyrgeio Aigaioy Kai Nhsiotikhs Politikis (Ministere De La Mer Egee Et De La Politique Insulaire)
Direction d’Affaires Généraux, Internationales et Européennes

Direction Régionale De L’équipement Paca
Direction Régionale De L’équipement, Service Déconcentré De L’état

Institut De La Mediterranee

Comissão De Coordenação E Desenvolvimento Regional Do Alentejo (Commission De Coordination Et Developpement Regionale De L’alentejo)
Departamento da Promoção do Desenvolvimento Regional e da Cooperação

Comissão De Coordenação E Desenvolvimento Regional Do Algarve (Commission De Coordination Et Developpement Regionale De L’algarve)

Observateurs :

Regione Toscana
Giunta Regionale – Direzione Generale delle Politiche territoriali e ambientali- Settore Aspetti territoriali dello sviluppo economico ed attività di cava

Regione Liguria
Servizio Pianificazione Territoriale e Paesistica (Service d’Aménagement Territoriale e du Paysage)

Regione Lombardia
D. G. Territorio e Urbanistica - Piani e Programmi Urbanistici Direction Générale Territoire et Urbaniste, Plan set Programmes d’Urbanisme)

Regione Emilia Ronagna
Direzione Generale Programmazione Territoriale e Sistemi di Mobilità

Université du Caire
Faculté d’ Urbanisme et Planification Régional

Conference Des Regions Peripheriques Maritimes D'europe (Crpm)

The aim of the project is to understand to what extent and through what instruments the Member States and other countries can contribute towards, detail and define the regional development themes comprised in:

New European priorities as expressed in the Lisbon and Göteborg declarations
the specificities of the Mediterranean space with regard to the ESDP and the priorities arising out of the latter
National and regional priorities in the five countries relative to the cohesion and competitivity of the Medocc space.

This cooperation must lead to the identification of structurally defining projects of a nature that can strengthen cohesion and competitivity in the area in question, on which the partner countries would be willing to coordinate their efforts.

The project shall seek to:

Formulate criteria for comparison and harmonisation between local-level action and the ESDP in order to integrate stragegies and intervention techniques at «horizontal» and «vertical» levels;
Identify in what manner techniques, instruments and procedures can increase the operational effectiveness of the ESDP objectives and can contribute towards a process of evolution and implementation of the ESDP;

Define the conditions and procedures for strengthened cooperation between the Mediterranean coast countries in the matter of regional development in the MEDOCC space.

The method employed will be as follows:

Phase 1

In phase 1, a dialogue and data-collection platform will be set up on the basis of priorities and themes decided on in the course of this phase; an information exchange protocol will be established, based on unified questionnaires regarding themes and/or priorities. In this phase each region will collect significant instruments and projects on selected themes in its own territory.
The objective of this phase is to try to determine the common themes and problems present in the plans and projects taken into consideration. These common themes will then be analysed to identify shared techniques and methods to be used in the implementation of projects which have characteristics of a European type and are aligned with the objectives of the ESDP.

Phase 2
The analysis performed at national level will be reproposed at transnational level through the comparison obtained by means of joint comparative evaluations in transnational working groups (TWG) between the instruments selected by the various partners. This comparison will bring to light the extent of the presence of the ESDP in local action, the procedures followed and differences of interpretation of the objectives, and the chief points deserving criticism found during the realisation process.
The specific problems pertinent to the realisation of the ESDP will be defined and noted. In fact each specific theme will be identified and dealt with by each of the partners who will be responsible for a theme in relation to the questions envisaged in the ESDP which will be defined in phase 1.

Phase 3

The third phase of the project will be experimental, and will foresee pilot actions for the implementation of instruments that already exist or are in the process of being developed, through the application of methodologies or procedures highlighted thanks to transnational comparison. The implementation process will proceed in terms of principal lines of action on the basis of the findings of phases 1 and 2 and will concern: application of common methods regarding the establishment of projects, plans and programmes; application of validation and communication procedures concerning actions and intervention measures in the regional context; utilisation of techniques and procedures having the aim of long-term “management” of organisations foreseen by the instruments consistently with ESDP strategies.
Three documents will be drawn up at the conclusion of the project which will organise the various territorial repercussions along three main lines: a) strategic level: European policies, ESDP, Medocc; b) operational level: horizontal cooperation of programming actors; c) strategic level: Member States and Mediterranean priorities (structuring projects).
a) Document presenting a strategic vision for the Medocc space
The object here is to gather together the elements collected during the two preceding phases for the following purposes:

on the one hand, to draw up an inventory of the regional policies and strategies conducted at the various levels (EU, States, Regions, sub-regional level) which are of a structuring nature for the Medocc space
on the other, to bring together these different elements in a long-term spatial vision taking into account the policies conducted at the different levels

This vision will be summed up in a series of cartographic representations on the factors involved in the space and how they are taken into account in public policies ; two scenarios will be proposed:

The first scenario, termed «current drift», will be drawn up, projected to 2015, taking into account on the one hand the gross trends observed in the area (démographics), and on the other the policies and programmes implemented at the different territorial levels;
The second, «voluntarist» scenario will take into account a strengthening of the intervention and cooperation capabilities of the public actors, likewise at the various levels applying in the space concerned.

b) Document on the local-level management and intervention instruments that will have been identified as particularly efficient for the application of the ESDP recommendations on a local scale.

Part One will review the good experiences identified during the project and the results of the experimental application of these tools in the course of the pilot projects,
Part Two will take the form of a quality guide presenting the procedures, information systems, analysis tools, follow-up and evaluation models allowing the introduction at local management level of the various policies highlighted on a European and transnational scale.

c) Joint Statement Document agreed upon by the Presidents of the various Regions involved, which will present:

Their strategic vision on the role and position of the Medocc space in an enlarged Europe
Their recommendations regarding the implementation of the various European policies with strong regional impact and the future structural funds in the Medocc space.
A list of the fields in which they are willing to coordinate their efforts, in particular in the matter of gross investments in the areas concerned
The manners of organisation and concertation they wish to see adopted in order to ensure more effective coordination of public policies at the various levels in the space in question.

The project foresees a sensitisation strategy on regional development issues and ESDP perspectives through the organisation of events and seminars throughout the duration of the project with a view to enriching the themes examined with further content and contributions. The final publications will consist of manual and guideline documents that will feature a shared position on the procedures of an interregional and transnational nature with a view to contributing to the definition of a coordinated set of procedures in the framework of the objectives established by the pertinent plans and by the ESDP.

For all Medisdec-Stratmed project management and coordination activities, the Region of Latium as project team-leader has decided to set up an operational secretariat so as to guarantee the correct implementation of the project in close liaison with the transnational partners.

The operational secretariat attends to the day-to-day management of the project: written, electronic and telephone communications with the project partners, everyday administration, organisation of technical meetings and Steering Committees, collection of official project documents, communication and transmission of information to the technical structures and of the consolidated documents to the partners, and archiving of documentation in accordance with a pre-defined audit path.

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The Steering Committee (SC) is set up for decision-making and supervision of the implementation of the project. The SC is responsible for evaluating and approving the project’s intermediate reports, verifying the correct progress of the various actions, deciding on possible variations or supplementary measures to be added to the projects, management of relations with the Programme Management Authority, and supervision of financial management procedures. The SC will establish the project’s management methods and procedures. It will consist of a representative of each partner (11 members) and is organised by the Team Leader. The meetings of the SC will be held at the same time as the meetings of the Technical Committee and the results and programme of the following meetings will be discussed.
The SC will meet at regular intervals, every four months. On the occasion of each meeting, each partner’s representative will present a report detailing the financial and physical state of progress of the project at partnership level, and in particular of that of the module for which he is responsible.

The report will also indicate the actions foreseen for the following four months, specifying any changes or reformulations in the technical programme, the work schedule and/or accordance with financial forecasts by types of expenditure, for the purpose of allowing discussion and obtaining approval of such changes by the SC.

Steering Commitee

Technical and Scientific Commitee

Operational Secretariat