Study on the ‘Review of adopted European Territorial Cooperation Programmes’. Nicola Brignani and François Levarlet presented the main findings and recommendation at the European Parliament.

Written By Nicola Brignani
Publishing 21 October 2016

On October 11 2016, Nicola Brignani and François Levarlet, at the premises of the European Parliament in Brussels, presented the main findings and recommendations of the study on European transnational and cross-border cooperation programmes.

The objective of the study was to analyse how the new elements introduced by European Territorial Cooperation (ETC) regulation (thematic concentration, result-orientation, new implementation tools, higher synergy with other policy instruments, rules for administrative simplification) were taken into account by ETC programmes 2014-2020.

Through the desk review and collection of interviews, the main findings concerned:
- The necessity of greater partners’ involvement in defining the programme’s strategy that, in turn, should be more focused.
- The need for Member States and programme authorities to should adopt a more result-oriented approach and ensure closer synergies with other programmes in the area.
- The use of new implementation tools (CLLD, Integrated Territorial Investments, Joint Action Plan, financial instrument), which, despite their useful potential, are seen as complex for cooperation programmes and thus, not used by the majority.
- The need to adopt approaches for simplifying governance, e-cohesion and simplified cost options(SCOs).

On the last point, Nicola Brignani stressed the potential of SCOs when presenting the recommendations. Indeed, as SCOs are perceived as the key solution to reduce administration costs, it is recommended to adopt new guidelines in ETC context both on SCOs, on practical instructions to improve synergies with other policies and on Public Procurement and State Aids.

Recommendations designed by the experts concern the follow-up of the current cooperation programmes and the programming period beyond 2020. They are directed to the EU institutions, Member States and programme authorities and call for increased support to the managing authorities and special focus on the cooperation at the EU external borders.