Urban Transport Group Board Report to the meeting to be held on 13 th January 2016

Transcription

1 Urban Transport Group Board Report to the meeting to be held on 13 th January 2016 Subject: EUROPEAN AND INTERNATIONAL ISSUES 1. PURPOSE OF REPORT 1.1 To report on European and International issues. 2. INFORMATION Ways of working on Europe and international 2.1 At the July Board meeting it was agreed that there is an opportunity to enhance the role we play through better coordination of input into UITP and other relevant European networks as well as through acting as a more effective conduit between UITP / European networks and the officers who work for our members (and vice versa) through a high level overview of policy, funding and good practice opportunities. 2.2 Progress has since been made on a number of fronts. Representation on UITP committees and commissions has been refreshed and the changes are now being implemented (see annex one). 2.3 The Chair has attended a series of key high level UITP meetings and the Director attended the UITP annual dinner for MEPs in Brussels on 2nd December. An oral update will be given at the meeting. 2.4 A revised European and International contacts list is being finalised. This will be used as the basis for an initial contact marking launch of UTG and also for quarterly UTG e-updates. A tweaked version will be produced for internal contacts with an interest in European and International issues which will have a focus on useful info from Europe and beyond on funding opportunities, legislation and good practice. Topics to be covered in the e-updates include: European funding project examples and outcomes from within the UTG partnership and elsewhere; European legislation heading your way; News from UITP/Polis/EMTA/Eurocities/UN; UITP events and training; Funding opportunities profiles of funding programmes that are approaching the right time to engage; An idiot s guide to the EU - explaining different aspects of how it all works; - Profiles of forward-thinking cities; - Global trends local opportunities report from LSE cities on technological change or other developments of interest locally; - Profiles of innovative/interesting/far-reaching projects from our members; - Our views/concerns about particular EU policy/legislative developments; 1

2 - Promotion of UTG policy reports and activities. 2.5 A statement setting out our overarching principles in relation to EU transport policy was agreed at the Nov 11th meeting (see below) and is attached as annex two. The Brussels team is drafting a more specific statement about EU urban policy. 2.6 We have also moved to a more open / seminar format for European group meetings. The most recent meeting of the group, and the first under this new format, attracted some new attendees, had more varied content and more external speakers, and was more participatory when compared to previous meetings. The issues addressed at the meeting were as follows: A presentation on UITP followed by discussion of the arrangements between UTG and UITP with guest speaker Sylvain Haon, Director of Knowledge and Membership Services, UITP. Sylvain gave a presentation on UITP s work, how the organisation is structured and how UTG might optimise its involvement. After the European Group meeting Sylvain stayed on for further informal discussions of the relationship between UTG and UITP, resulting in the outcomes mentioned in points and annex one of the present report. Various presentations on EU trans-national funding opportunities for transport. The main focus was on the new Interreg programmes, as these had not been covered in any depth in previous UTG seminars yet are now beginning to get under way and will run till Interreg NW Europe was presented by the UK National Contact Point (NCP) for this fund, Ian Hill; it provides good opportunities for all UTG partners to fund projects on decarbonising transport. Interreg North Sea was presented by its UK NCP, Alison Childs; this can fund a broader range of transport projects but applies only to certain UTG partners (those in the eastern half of the country). The UTG Brussels Team also presented a brief state of play on the other EU trans-national funds for transport, notably the Connecting Europe Facility (TEN-T fund) and looked forward to the separate UTG seminar planned for December in Manchester on transport in Horizon Meanwhile, an update was given on the new ERDF and ESF programmes in the UK, as per paragraph 2.7 onwards of the present report. Presentations from the Brussels Team on various EU policy developments, as covered in the present report, notably the urban agenda (see paragraph 2.27 onwards). EU FUNDING DEVELOPMENTS Regional funding latest 2.7 Both the ERDF and ESF programmes continue to develop frustratingly slowly in England. Although a number of calls for projects have been issued by all LEP areas across England so far no projects have actually been contracted, nine months after first calls were issued and six months after the ERDF programme was agreed. 2

3 2.8 LEP areas only received confirmation of their notional financial allocations in December and are still awaiting allocations of outputs, meaning that value for money calculations on any pending projects are impossible to do at local level. Output allocations are now expected on the 15 th January, which will allow LEP areas to finalise revisions to their local ESIF strategies for a submission deadline of the 5 th February. 2.9 From discussions at the most recent Growth Programme Board (the national committee responsible for the programmes) it seems that Priority Axis 4 Low Carbon, which is also where the sustainable urban mobility activity sits, is causing particular problems and may need to be renegotiated with the European Commission. It is not yet clear whether the issues will affect any sustainable urban mobility activity but the European team will monitor developments and alert DGs if any action is required On a more positive note, all of the Core Cities are discussing with Government how delivery of EU funding through an element of local management can be built into devolution deals. This is being done through Intermediate Body (IB) status where an IB is designated (likely to be a combined authority where they exist) to take on some of the functions of the Managing Authority On face value this looks like a positive development, however in terms of the powers actually being devolved to the Core Cities this is far less encouraging, and does not generally match the spirit of the wider devolution agenda and offers limited input to local areas in terms of project selection and approval, mostly around strategic fit and advice on value for money Discussions with CLG (the ERDF Managing Authority) are continuing and it is hoped that a more satisfactory deal can be secured for the cities that want more control over funding locally. Connecting Europe Facility/TEN-T 2.13 The latest annual (2015) call for proposals for the CEF or Connecting Europe Facility (the EU fund for supporting development of the Trans-European Transport Network) is currently open, with a recently extended deadline of March The call has a budget of 7.6bn, of which only 1.1bn is available for richer member states such as the UK (the remainder being reserved for poorer countries in Southern and Eastern Europe seen as requiring more external help in rolling out their transport infrastructure) This is in contrast to the 2014 call, which made available a much larger budget ( 13.1 billion), a large proportion of which was available to richer member states. Given that the fund has an overall budget for of 24.05bn, this large allocation under the previous 2014 call means that the budgets for the coming years calls will be small These smaller allocations translate into a restriction of the parts of the programme open for funding, notably the corridors. As previously reported, the CEF is largely based on a series of terrestrial transport corridors, each running across several member states. One such corridor covers major north-south routes across the UK before continuing onto the near continent and the CEF will fund infrastructure works and studies along such corridors. However, the 3

4 restricted budgets mean the corridors will be closed as a priority over the next few years calls Accordingly, the current 2015 call does not cover the corridors and instead is restricted to the other part of the CEF, the so-called horizontal priorities, which are : ITS, ERTMS and other such systems covering other modes Motorways of the Sea (new shipping routes that lead to a corresponding reduction on onward land-transport journeys), urban nodes, logistics platforms, safety and security, new technologies and innovation At some future point (possibly 2018) there will be another big call and the corridors will re-open as a priority. This call will have its own budget to which will be added monies recouped from some of the projects supported under the 2014 call that have underspent. Horizon The new biennial work programmes for Horizon 2020, the EU s R&D and innovation fund, have now been published. The work programmes cover and therefore tell us what the two big upcoming annual rounds of calls will contain The two main work programmes of relevance to UTG partners are the transport and energy ones, the latter because it contains the major EU funding for Smart Cities, which includes a strong sustainable urban mobility dimension The transport programme has a budget of m for over the following priorities : Mode specific: aviation and water Cross-modal/integration: safety, urban, logistics, ITS, infrastructure Cross-cutting: socio-economic and behavioural, policy-making 2.21 These break down into many further sub-priorities, each with its own budget and timetable for bidding. By way of example, the table below gives the main lines of the urban priority. Urban priority Opens Stage 1 deadline (project outline only) Stage 2 deadline (full application) Budget Take-up and scale-up of innovative urban mobility solutions 19/9/16 26/1/17 19/10/17 22m Smart electric mobility 19/9/16 26/1/17 19/10/17 4

5 Integrating urban nodes in TEN-T Public procurement of innovative sustainable transport and mobility Neighbourhood and district-level transport innovations 19/9/16 1/2/17 2m 14/10/15 26/1/16 2m 14/10/15 20/1/16 29/9/16 10m 2.22 Meanwhile, the energy programme makes available 131.5m ( 60m in 2016, the remainder in 2017) for Smart Cities lighthouse projects. These are large projects for demonstrating a range of Smart Cities solutions (clean energy measures, sustainable urban mobility and innovative IT solutions all having to be demonstrated in the same project). Several UTG members have bid for and/or received EU Smart Cities lighthouse project funding under previous rounds. The 2016 call is currently open with a deadline of 5 April Horizon 2020 offers considerable opportunities for UTG members but is complex. To help with understanding the fund and homing in on the most relevant parts of it, the Brussels Team organised on 11 December in Manchester a half-day seminar on transport in Horizon This included the following external speakers Louise Mothersole, UK National Contact Point (Innovate UK) for transport in Horizon Louise presented how the fund works as a whole and the specific transport opportunities, explained how to navigate your way around it and outlined the help available to UK bidders. Dr Delia Dimitriu, Horizon 2020 Transport Advisor Group Expert at the European Commission. Delia is the UK representative on the group that will be starting work (in March 2016) on what the next biennial Horizon 2020 transport work programme will support. She is keen to work more with UTG so she can try to influence the future priorities according to our priorities. Sofia Taborda, Funding & EU Project Manager of the Future Cities Catapult 2.24 All Presentations can be found on this link. EU POLICY DEVELOPMENTS Fourth Railway Package 2.25 The Council of Ministers (representatives of member-state governments) agreed on 10 December its first-reading position on the so-called technical pillar of the package, concerning European directives on safety certification, market authorisations and the role of the European Railway Agency (ERA). The position, adopted without debate, is based on previous discussions with the European Parliament, the other co-legislator. As previously reported, these agreed the following broad lines: that for cross-border operations, the ERA 5

6 should be responsible for certifications and authorisations; that for domestic operations there should be a choice of either the national agency or the ERA The other part of the package (the so-called political pillar, concerning more contentious issues such as rail contract franchising and rail governance) has also made progress recently. In October the member states agreed a general approach, according to which: Tendering should be the rule but direct award will still be permitted for small contracts or, where justified, on quality/cost-efficiency grounds. On the latter, operator performance should be measured against criteria set by the member state concerned on punctuality, frequency, etc. If performance has not measured up to these criteria, the contract should be tendered the next time. National authorities would be able to continue to award public service contracts directly in any case for ten years after the regulation enters into force without having to justify their use. Existing, directly awarded public service contracts would be allowed to run until they expired. On governance, measures for infrastructure managers independence should focus on essential functions, such as path allocation and charging. EU urban agenda 2.27 As previously reported the European Commission has been preparing for some time an urban agenda for the EU. This is likely to be published in the spring. To prepare, the EU has been undertaking a series of consultations, starting last year with a major public one, based on the responses to which the Commission is now proposing the following approach: Focusing on specific priorities able to deliver and show results, such as Smart Cities, in particular when it comes to the low-carbon economy, climateresilient cities and social inclusion; Applying better regulation; Better coherence and coordination of EU policies relating to cities; Improved urban intelligence, benchmarking and monitoring The urban agenda needs to gain traction among the member-state governments if it is to become a meaningful EU policy. Following work to canvass views from member states for priority themes that might be the basis of an agenda, a set of twelve key themes has begun to emerge. These are: Jobs and skills in the local economy. The objectives are prosperity and low unemployment. The focus will be on: (a) attracting and keeping enterprises; (b) creating new enterprises; (c) producing and consuming locally; (d) supporting new ways of working; and (e) ensuring that skills meet the needs. Urban poverty. The objectives are to reduce poverty and improve the inclusion of people in poverty or at risk of poverty. The focus will be on: child poverty, deprived neighbourhoods and homelessness. Housing. Inclusion of migrants and refugees. 6

7 Sustainable use of land and nature-based solutions. The objective is to ensure that the changes in cities (growing, shrinking and regeneration) are respectful of the environment. The focus will be on: urban sprawl, development of brownfields and on renaturing / greening the cities. Circular economy (resource-efficient production processes and better waste management). Climate adaptation. The objectives are to anticipate the adverse effects of climate change and take appropriate action to prevent or minimise the damage it can cause to cities. The focus will be on: vulnerability assessments, climate resilience and risk management. Energy transition. The objectives are to have a long-term structural change in energy systems i.e. shift to renewable energy and energy efficiency. The focus will be on: improving energy efficiency (also in buildings), fostering innovative approaches for energy supply (e.g. local systems) and increasing the local production of renewable energy. Urban mobility. The objectives are to have a sustainable and efficient urban mobility. The focus will be on: public transports, soft mobility (walking, cycling, public space) and accessibility (for disabled, elderly, young children, etc.). Air quality. The objective is to have the systems to ensure a good air quality for human health. This will cover: legislative and technical aspects linked to a wide range of polluting sources such as cars, industries, agricultural activities, etc. Digital transition. The objective is to provide better services to citizens and create business opportunities. The focus will be on: data collection (including ownership), better use of open data, data management (including the capacity of cities and privacy issues) and digital services (incl. new technologies). Innovative and responsible public procurement. The objective is to use this tool to address social and environmental objectives and to do more with less. This will cover innovative approaches in procurement Again it is reassuring to see that Urban Mobility is listed as a key theme here, although we will have to wait for a call to cover Urban Innovative Actions funding for this theme (see below). Urban Innovative Actions 2.30 This is a pot of ERDF funding created in the ERDF regulations and held centrally by the European Commission for direct applications from eligible cities The fund will have a budget of 371m over the current EU programme. It will make available up to 5m per project at an intervention rate of 80%; projects may last up to three years The purpose of the fund is to finance innovative ideas to test how they respond to the complexity of real urban life. The aim is to support city experimentation, which seems mainly to mean projects that: Cross-fertilise different sectors and administrative departments in order to produce an innovative whole. 7

8 Introduce methods previously unused in European cities, either by devising entirely new methods or by importing best practice from elsewhere in the world It is expected that the fund will be more tolerant of failure than other EU programmes, to encourage experimentation in other words, there will be less pressure to deliver successful outcomes but correspondingly more emphasis on analysing and disseminating why certain experimental approaches have worked or failed Projects will be judged on five main criteria: the degree of innovation; quality; partnership (drawing in as many relevant partners as possible); having measurable results; transferability The first call was launched in December 2015 and with a budget of 100m. Contracts for successful bids should be signed in June There will be four themes in the first round: Energy transition (efficiency, renewables, etc.) Inclusion of migrants and refugees Jobs and skills in the local economy Deprived urban areas Urban and Cohesion Policy 2.37 Cohesion policy is one of the key reasons that Urban remains a distinct policy. Following the absorption of the URBAN Community Initiative into mainstream ERDF in 2000 Urban has been a key area of support for DG Regio of the European Commission, which has an urban unit and was recently renamed DG Regional and Urban Policy At a recent speech on the future of cohesion Regional and Urban policy Commissioner Corina Cretú worryingly suggested that EU cities are already well funded and served by private sector investment and so perhaps should no longer be a target of cohesion policy after Commissioner Cretú has already established a reputation as a less city friendly Commissioner than her predecessor, Johannes Hahn, who as a former member of the Viennese parliament understood the importance of cities and urban issues. This announcement of a possible shift in the focus of cohesion policy is a worrying development, which we should begin to develop lobbying strategies against to ensure that cities remain a focus of cohesion policy and that transport is recognised as a key facet of this. 3. RECOMMENDATION 3.1 The group notes the report. AUTHOR: Jonathan Bray JOB TITLE: Director 8

9 DATE: 22 December 2015 AGREED WITH: Jon Lamonte 9

10 ANNEX: <Insert number> 10