Are European funds and projects an accessible opportunity for Italian municipalities? A review of tips, proposals and experiences dedicated to municipalities.
European projects in small municipalities
We have already dedicated an article to the path to European projects for small organizations, and more recently an initial in-depth study devoted to territorial and local authorities and their prospects for accessing European funds. In this new article we would like to delve into some more specific aspects: an initiative (still little known) specifically designed for municipalities and cities; the interesting activities in this area of two cities in Piedmont; and the insights elaborated by the Municipality of Modena, based on its experience on European projects.
The European Urban Initiative
The European Urban Initiative (EUI) is an initiative dedicated to municipalities and cities of all sizes to build capacity and knowledge, support innovation, and develop innovative, transferable, and scalable solutions to urban challenges of European significance. The European Urban Initiative is provided for in Article 12 of the ERDF Regulation and is managed by the French region of Hauts-de-France. It has a budget of 450 million euros for the period 2021-2027 and was created to bring together, consolidate and develop various experiences from the previous 2014-2020 programming period:
- the Urban Innovative Actions (UIA) initiative, which provided direct support to cities to experiment with innovative solutions,
- theUrban Development Network (UDN), established to support dialogue and information exchange among cities (and between cities and the European Commission),
- the EU Urban Agenda (a platform for exchange on institutional and regulatory aspects of urban policies),
- actions financed by the Structural Funds (some of which are directly managed by urban authorities) and the URBACT program (flagship program for capacity building and networks dedicated to urban challenges), which are currently underway and with which the EUI works in synergy.
EUI support to cities is organized into 3 main areas:
- Innovative Actions.: support for urban authorities to test innovative, sustainable, transferable and scalable solutions to key urban challenges. Provides 80% co-financing (up to €5 million) for the development and transfer of the proposed solution. Targets cities with at least 50,000 inhabitants;
- Capacity Building: Capacity building of cities in the integrated and participatory design of sustainable urban development strategies, policies and practices. It provides for three main types of activities: City-to-City Exchanges ( City-to-City Exchanges, i.e., in-person or online exchanges between a requesting city and one or two peer cities to share working methods and innovative approaches on specific implementation challenges identified by the requesting city), Peer Reviews ( Peer Reviews, i.e., workshops in which cities are peer reviewed by other cities and stakeholders to compare and improve their sustainable urban development strategies) and Capacity Building events (available in a wide range of formats and aimed at improving capacity to design and implement sustainable urban development strategies for cities grouped by country or by type of common challenges);
- Knowledge Building & Communication.: a knowledge and best practice exchange system dedicated to the topic of sustainable urban development. It includes both a dedicated platform, called the Portico, which in turn contains a wide variety of tools and thematic focuses, and a network of Urban Points of Contact (of which a representative for Italy is not yet indicated), which provides support to policy makers and urban practitioners at the local, regional and national levels.
The European Urban Initiative is thus an attractive opportunity, dedicated to cities and municipalities-and operationally within their reach-to initiate activities to plan, exchange and open up to Europe. This graphic(taken from this webpage) summarizes the structure and components of the initiative.
EUI: the experience of Alexandria and Borgomanero
Participation in the activities of the European Urban Initiative is not a remote possibility and beyond the reach of an Italian municipality. ANCI Piemonte (a grassroots organization of the National Association of Italian Municipalities, which is active at the Piedmont level) has become a spokesperson for this opportunity and presents the experiences of the municipalities of Alessandria and Borgomanero as success stories. The experiences of Alessandria and Borgomanero recently received official recognition as “URBACT good practice” by the program’s monitoring committee. Along with 116 other European urban initiatives(including 10 in Italy), they stood out “for their impact, participation, integration, relevance and ease of transfer to other European cities.” Along with Alessandria and Borgomanero, the experiences of Brindisi, Faenza, Genoa, Lucca, Milan, Perugia, Reggio Emilia and Rimini were recognized as “good practices.” Alessandria’s “Theater for All” project (the only one to have received recognition related to the cultural and social effects of theater) promotes inclusion and widespread participation in theater culture, with community theater initiatives that revitalize the city’s cultural landscape, also in view of the future opening of the new Municipal Theater. The City of Alexandria has previously secured support from EUI’s City-to-City Exchanges call, and has entered into a collaboration with the Irish city of Dún Laoghaire (Ireland), to explore and learn innovative approaches to sustainable mobility for tourism promotion. On the other hand, Borgomanero’s “Lake Contract for the Protection and Enhancement of Water Resources” project proposes a participatory tool to safeguard natural resources. The Municipality of Borgomanero (NO) also took the path of European projects with its participation in the EUI’s City-to-City Exchanges call, which was an opportunity to draw inspiration, relationships and lessons learned on the issues of strategic planning, sustainable mobility and tourism attractiveness. The positive experience led the City of Borgomanero to apply (and be selected) for another of the activities under the European Urban Initiative, the Peer Review. During the Peer Review, Borgomanero and three other cities worked together on specific challenges related to their sustainable urban development strategy, with the help of a panel of expert representatives from other European cities.
The Europe of Local Authorities
As part of the invitation to municipalities and local authorities to consider with interest the development opportunities offered by specific European programs and initiatives, we offer some content from a guide published by the Municipality of Modena, suggestively titled: “The Europe of Local Governments. “.
We recommend reading the guide to municipalities that intend not only to seize these opportunities, but also to equip themselves with the organizational structures useful for deriving maximum benefit from them. A benefit that is measured in terms of resources, but also and above all in terms of policy, the ability to respond to the needs of the citizenry, awareness and European civic participation. Starting with the experience of the Municipality of Modena, the guide takes up the stages of the birth and development of Europe Offices in Italian Local Administrations and addresses some very important questions:
- What are the reasons for a local government to have a Europe Office? What is it for and what skills are needed to develop a Europe Office?
- How to address some central issues, such as the development of collaborative leadership and the integration (and development) of internal expertise with that from external consultants?
- What are the working tools, objectives and target activities, and organizational models that work best for developing a European project activity in a municipality?
With these interesting insights, we leave you to read “The Europe of Local Authorities.” We offer again the text of its preface, which provides a summary of the experience of the Municipality of Modena.
The experience of the Europe Office in our administration, as in some others in Italy, was born in the 1990s out of the need to learn how to intercept the resources that the European Union allocates directly to local governments.
It was an insight that soon proved to be of great strategic importance and that in recent years has enabled our local organisations to seize significant opportunities and, for example, to arrive ready for the PNRR challenge with the Next Generation Modena program of interventions, obtaining essential funding for the regeneration of the city, the energy upgrading of schools and public buildings, and the social and cultural development of our community.
And now this planning capacity is the matrix on which to work to seize new regional, national and European funding opportunities. But in recent years the Europe Office has also been the tool for schools, associations and social organizations to grow their knowledge of European institutions.
The people of Modena were accompanied on a journey marked by meetings, exhibitions, courses, and initiatives to gain a greater awareness of the rights and duties of European citizenship, at a time of great concern for the future and increasing inequality. Above all, young people were guided to discover the many opportunities to gain study and work experience in other countries.
In short, born to bring a little bit of Europe to Modena, the Europe Office has turned out to be a key tool to accompany Modena to play a leading role in Europe and the world.
