Brussels, 14 August 2012 139th MEETING OF THE COMMITTEE OF THE REGIONS BUREAU 7 SEPTEMBER 2012 ITEM 8a) IMPLEMENTING EUROPE 2020 IN PARTNERSHIP - REVISED STRATEGY FOR THE EUROPE 2020 MONITORING PLATFORM AND THE COMMUNICATION PLAN - Submitted by the secretary-general FOR DECISION R/CdR 1513/2012 item 8a) EN
- 1 - MEMO FOR CoR BUREAU MEMBERS 139th MEETING OF THE COMMITTEE OF THE REGIONS BUREAU 7 September 2012 Item 8a) Implementing Europe 2020 in partnership -Revised strategy for the Europe 2020 Monitoring Platform and the CoR Communication Plan- Introduction Europe's enduring economic and social crisis is affecting heavily all EU Member States, their regions and cities. Europe needs to resume growth as quickly as possible. It can do so by making the most of Europe 2020, the EU strategy for growth and jobs, which will make a difference only if it is implemented in partnership by all levels of government. Therefore, the CoR welcomes that the European Council Conclusions about the Compact for Growth and Jobs adopted on 29 June 2012 stressed the European Council's "determination to stimulate smart, sustainable, inclusive, resource-efficient and job-creating growth, in the context of the Europe 2020 Strategy" as well as "the need to mobilise at every level of governance in the European Union all levers, instruments and policies to that end". The Europe 2020 strategy consists of two central elements: the Europe 2020 policy cycle to increase the co-ordination of European and national reform programmes and the Flagship initiatives (FIs), which combine the specific policies towards reaching the Europe 2020 objectives. The FIs are complemented by actions to remove bottlenecks to growth (in the fields of the internal market and infrastructure). Within the context of the Europe 2020 policy cycle starting with the European Semester, the CoR is committed to strengthen the role of EU cities and regions as partners. To ensure that the new governance based on the European Semester delivers its expected results, the CoR is underlining the need to anticipate and monitor the impact of growth, fiscal consolidation and structural policy measures on the autonomy of the local and regional authorities, as well as the need to include delivery-oriented measures, such as territorial pacts, in the National Reform
- 2 - Programmes. They could take the form of political commitments, agreements or contracts established on a voluntary basis between layers of government to ensure the implementation of the Europe 2020 Strategy while fully respecting the principles of subsidiarity and proportionality. The CoR also wants to be active in assuring a follow-up to the Flagship initiatives which play a key role in co-ordinating the policy instruments for implementing the Europe 2020 objectives. For successfully implementing the Flagship initiatives, multilevel governance and an integrated territorial approach could play a more significant role in implementing Europe 2020, to increase ownership and involvement and contribute to exchange of experiences between regions and cities from different Member States. This engagement is a political priority for the CoR 1 and a key feature of its new Presidency (2012-2014) leading up to the mid term evaluation of the Europe 2020 strategy at the Spring European Council in 2014. Regional and local authorities play a key role in the delivery of a number of priorities of Europe 2020 including the majority of public investments and the implementation of EU programmes. Many regions and cities already make Europe 2020 an important element of their own development strategies. Based on the Common Strategic Framework and the European Code of Conduct on Partnership, the Europe 2020 strategy will have increased visibility in the new generation of regional development programs supported by the structural funds. This document proposes the CoR monitoring and communication activities between July 2012 and March 2014. It also complies with the request made by the Bureau 2 to the Political Coordinators of the Europe 2020 Monitoring Platform, that they "submit an annual report on the Platform's activities to the September CoR Bureau and to outline forthcoming initiatives". 1. The Europe 2020 Monitoring Platform Since 2010, on the basis of a Rolling Programme adopted by the Bureau upon proposal of political coordinators, the surveys of the Europe 2020 Monitoring Platform have fed into the first and second CoR Monitoring Report on Europe 2020 as well as several CoR Opinions and political positions across the whole policy cycle of Europe 2020. The state of affairs of the ongoing Rolling Programme of the Europe 2020 Monitoring Platform, as adopted by the CoR Bureau in Poznan (September 2011) is presented in Annex II to this document. 1 2 In 2010 and 2011, several CoR opinions1 have highlighted the importance of regional and local authorities when it comes to delivering Europe 2020. During the same period, the CoR has dedicated - together with the European Commission and other EU institutions - eight major conferences1 to the local impact of the 2020 flagship initiatives. Finally, the CoR's 'Europe 2020 Monitoring Platform' involves currently about 150 Local and Regional Authorities from all over EU and provides support to CoR rapporteurs. In this context, a handbook of the CoR presenting guidance and examples from regional and local authorities was published on the occasion of the 7th Territorial Dialogue on 13 June 2012. The Bureau made this request in its October 2010 meeting (see: R/CdR 218/2010 item 7c), p. 1) and reiterated it at its Poznan meeting (September 2011).
- 3 - In the two and a half coming years the Monitoring Platform will continue to monitor the Europe 2020 policy cycle looking at how multi-level governance is implemented, as it has mainly done until now. These activities will feed into: the Bureau Declaration and the CoR Monitoring Report ahead of the Annual Growth Survey; the Territorial Dialogue ahead of the Spring Council and the annual meeting with President Van Rompuy prior to the June European Council. The Platform will also continue supporting rapporteurs of opinions relevant to the legislative implementation of Europe 2020. Furthermore the Europe 2020 platform will be directly linked to the seven flagship initiatives. This thematic work will be organised around the milestones of the seven conferences on the flagship initiatives. To deliver on these more challenging tasks, the Platform will work to enlarge its membership and provide incentives to active participation of its members in order to better represent the variety of regional and local realities across the EU territory. The Platform's Governance As decided at the Bureau meetings in October 2010 and September 2011 3, the governance of the Platform will consist of 1) a Political Coordinator who will report to the CoR Bureau. He/she will have to actively ensure that the working programme of the Platform is widely shared and owned within the CoR, both at the political and the administrative levels. The Political Coordinator will also help promote the outcome of the Platform's monitoring activity externally, first of all in the dialogue between the CoR and the EU institutions; 2) a political Steering Committee of the Europe 2020, including the Coordinator and one political representative from each political group, which the PGs are requested to appoint. The Steering Committee will ensure wide internal ownership of the decisions taken by the Political Coordinator; 3) the CoR administrative Task Force on Europe 2020, in its present format including representatives from the Secretariats of Committee's Political Groups as well as all the relevant CoR services. The Task Force will: prepare the design and implementation of the Platform's working programme, by: providing inputs to the Platform's team; allowing for broader circulation of information among the main internal stakeholders; increasing internal coordination; in particular, it will ensure administrative support to the Platform's Political Coordinator. 3 R/CdR 235/2011 pt 8a, September 2011, Bureau memo, Annual report on the implementation of the Europe 2020 Monitoring Platform's Rolling Programme, http://portal.cor.europa.eu/europe2020/news/pages/updateorollingprograme.aspx.
- 4 - Monitoring Europe 2020 towards 2014: main activities In line with the above approach, between the second half of 2012 and the 2014 Summit of Regions and Cities, the Platform will carry out the following actions: 1) in 2012 and 2013, provide content for the Bureau Declaration on the Annual Growth Survey and for the CoR monitoring Report on Europe 2020, ahead of the European Commission's Annual Growth Survey (expected in November each year), as well as for other possible Resolutions on Europe 2020. To this aim, the following activities are foreseen: providing a political input to the Bureau's Declaration ahead of the Commission's Annual Growth Survey, as well as content to the CoR Monitoring Reports on Europe 2020, through a general overview survey: "Europe 2020: what is happening on the ground?". This survey will focus on the extent to which the partnership principle is adopted in the implementation of the strategy, on local and regional good practices, and, from 2013, also on thematic issues related to the seven Flagship Initiatives. The next Survey will be launched in Spring 2013 and the 4th Monitoring Report on Europe 2020 will then be presented at the 2013 OPEN DAYS; providing an "assessment of the partnership principle in the implementation of the National Reform Programmes", supported by external contractors (to be presented ahead of the June European Council in 2013); organizing a Territorial Dialogue, as a high-level meeting between CoR Members (and other representatives of LRAs) and leaders of key EU institutions making the CoR contribution to Europe 2020 governance and contents publicly visible ahead of the Spring European Council; providing content in view of the annual meeting between the CoR and the President of the European Council, ahead of the June European Council adopting Country Specific Recommendations; publishing the study "Is Europe 2020 delivering?" (based on in-depth research on 8 case studies of multi-level governance examples of the implementation of Europe 2020 related policies) in October 2012 and the follow up (early 2014). 2) carry out a survey for each Flagship conference as well as collecting and updating the output of the conferences and surveys in view of the mid-term review in 2014. To this purpose, the following activities are foreseen: launching thematic pages on the Europe 2020 Monitoring Platform website, to collect inputs in view of each conference. In particular, European and thematic associations will be invited to contribute to the content of the pages; identification of experts within and outside the Platform for each theme; a thematic mailing list (with additional names of participants from each conference) will be used in other related-activities of the Platform;
- 5 - through the thematic web pages and expert lists, providing rapporteurs with an opportunity to disseminate their working documents and questions so as to collect input from local and regional representatives and practitioners for Europe 2020 relevant CoR opinions. The active participation of local and regional stakeholders (including CoR & Platform Members) in the above preparatory works will be ensured by the invitation of the CoR Presidency and the possible visibility at the conference (either as a speaker or at the exhibition). These activities will be taken as an opportunity to boost membership of the Platform, through appropriate actions, to better represent the variety of regional and local realities across the EU territory. 3) contributing to the CoR' s position on the contribution that Partnership Contracts for Structural funds 2014-2020 could make to pursuing the Europe 2020 goals. This will be done through a specific survey of the LRAs to get their viewpoint on the planned Commission Communication on "Partnership contracts and Europe 2020" (in 2013). 4) contributing to the CoR's overall communication on Europe 2020, as well as to the circulation of good practices for the LRAs to learn from each other. The following actions are foreseen: enriching and making more user friendly the existing database of good practices hosted on the Platform's website. The database allows identifying local and regional "2020" initiatives by member state, by policy domain and by the extent to which multilevel governance tools are adopted. Its enrichment will also contribute to a better preparation of the seven conferences on FIs; coordinating updates of the CoR's Handbook for LRAs on Europe 2020, among others, by adding a section on 2014-2020 cohesion policy link with Europe 2020 after the 2014-2020 negotiations are finalized; turning the printed publication/pdf of the Handbook into an online tool. 2. Communicating Europe 2020 in partnership: a new communication approach involving regional and local stakeholders Between 2012 and 2014, existing and new elements will be combined in a new CoR communication strategy with the objective to deliver a mid-term assessment of the impact of Europe 2020 on regions and cities on the occasion of the CoR's 6th European Summit of Europe's Regions and Cities in Spring 2014. During this period, one major communication priority of the CoR will be "communicating Europe 2020 in partnership" and will aim to:
- 6 - increase visibility and political impact of Europe 2020 among stakeholders at regional and local level and advocate for enhanced multilevel governance in its implementation and its possible revision after 2014; increase attention to the CoR works and in particular to Europe 2020 relevant CoR opinions; establish a dialogue with the Member State's governments so that the views of regional and local authorities are taken into account in the national reform programmes; exchange and disseminate good practices and increase capacity at regional and local level with respect to Europe 2020 and its flagship initiatives; check back with the preparation of relevant EU funding programmes for the period 2014-2020 and their implementation at sub-national level; reinforce cooperation with the European Parliament, the European Commission, the European Economic and Social Committee (in particular, its Steering Committee on Europe 2020) and the European associations on the follow-up of the seven flagship initiatives; provide the framework for a pro-active CoR input into the mid-term evaluation of Europe 2020 from the perspective of regions and cities. A series of events related to flagship initiatives A new and reinforced approach to communicate the regional and local dimension of Europe 2020 will be built on a series of events, both in Brussels and in the member states. Thematically, the series will focus on the seven flagship initiatives and will be closed by the 6 th European Summit of Regions and Cities in March 2014 addressing mid-term assessment of Europe 2020 from the perspective of the CoR. Most conferences will accompany CoR plenary sessions in Brussels and meetings of the CoR's external Bureau in Ireland in February and in Lithuania in September. In the framework of the external commissions meetings, seminars would also address issues related to the EU 2020 headlines goals. Other elements such as the identification and presentation of good practice cases, surveys, reports, local events and publications will accompany the series. A possible line-up of the seven conferences could be as follows: Youth on the Move (in conjunction with ECOS Commission): 13 December 2012, Brussels; An agenda for new skills and jobs (external Bureau): 28 February 2013, Dublin; European platform against poverty: 10 April 2013, Brussels; (tbc) Industrial policy for the globalisation era, 29 May 2013, Brussels; (tbc) Digital Agenda (in combination with the Digital Assembly, tbc): 2 July 2013, Brussels; (tbc) Resource efficient Europe (LT presidency priority is energy safety; external Bureau): 6 September 2013, Vilnius; (tbc) Innovation Union: 26 November 2013, Brussels. (tbc) In order to increase the timely institutional impact of the conferences their final scheduling will be fixed in taking into consideration the inter-institutional and legislative calendar. Conferences would target CoR members as well as representatives from regional and local authorities, EU institutions, social partners, civil society and financial institutions.
- 7 - A systematic reporting from each conference to the CoR Bureau and plenary sessions is envisaged as well as to the other institutions and a wider public. To this aim, timely proceedings will be prepared and wrapped up together with the results of the Platform's monitoring activity. These documents will be forwarded to the CoR commissions' chairs and the rapporteurs potentially interested at the earliest possible moment. Externally, an advisory board to be established by the Secretariat general would facilitate communication and guidance and involve the EP, the European Commission services, the Council's Secretariat, the EESC and European associations to ensure timely preparation, coherence and learning throughout the series. The CoR's administrative Task Force on Europe 2020 would also look into both the events' preparation and their follow-up, evaluation and development throughout the process. Exhibitions of good practices Each event will be accompanied by an exhibition of a limited number of good practice cases from regions and cities, ideally suggested by CoR members from their respective constituencies, as well as good practice cases from the Europe 2020 Monitoring Platform, the European Commission, European associations and other sources. The 6 th European Summit of Regions and Cities in March 2014 will showcase a selection of about 50 good practice cases identified during the course of the conferences. Finally, the CoR contribution to the mid-term review of Europe 2020 will be presented at the Summit. Decentralised events A roll-out of local events could be organised throughout 2013 by CoR members in order to reach out to national and local stakeholders and the general public. For such a series of local Europe 2020 events, cooperation would be sought with European associations, the EP offices and Commission representations in the Member States. Such decentralised actions could focus even more on the topic in 2013 and would aim to: provide information on how to engage in the specific Europe 2020 flagship initiatives; support capacity building of regional and local authorities to increase their involvement in the policy cycle and the preparation of the National Reform Programmes as well as to increase their ownership of the strategy; present and disseminate good practices; develop decentralised networks of regional and local authorities; present financing opportunities for the projects under specific flagship initiatives. The OPEN DAYS local events could serve as a role model for this exercise. The 280 local events, which will be organised between September and November 2012 in the context of the OPEN DAYS already address Europe 2020 to a significant degree.
- 8 - It appears that the European associations CEMR, Eurocities, CPMR and AER could become partners in the preparation and realisation of activities at member states' and local level by contributing best practice examples. In addition, European network programmes such as ESPON, INTERREG 2020 (successor of Interreg IVC) and Urbact could become involved as well. Communication tools Finally, in supporting the CoR communication strategy, other communication tools would be developed such as: Europe 2020 communication guidelines derived from European Commission's guidelines to be applied to all communication tools; a dedicated media strategy targeting regional and specialised journalists; a partnership with Euronews giving visibility to some of the good practice cases; the CoR web site presenting Europe 2020 at European and local level; national e-newsletters highlighting the flagships' implementation in the regions/cities and CoR members' initiatives. Communicating in partnership Europe 2020 is an essential part of the European Commission s corporate communication which is currently implementing a branding policy around "Europe 2020 Europe's Growth strategy". All Directorates-General as well as the Representations of the Commission across the EU should ensure in their communication activities that Europe 2020 as a brand name is consistently taken into account. Moreover, the approach of communicating Europe 2020 in partnership foresees to involve the Committee of the Regions and to extend to regional and local authorities, to social partners and to stakeholders and civil society, so that everyone is involved in its delivery. They are also be encouraged by the European Commission to refer to Europe 2020 in their communication activities. The CoR will contribute to this branding policy, implementing a communication concept conveying local and regional authorities' added-value to Europe 2020 with the following slogan: "Regions and Cities supporting Europe 2020 Europe's Growth strategy" This claim would be applied, within a frame of a graphic chart, to all CoR communication tools, events and its Platform.
- 9 - Annex I
- 10 - Annex II Progress Report on the implementation of the Rolling Programme - September 2011 August 2012 In the course of the last 12 months, on the basis of its latest update of the Rolling Programme 4, the Europe 2020 Monitoring Platform (see the list of its members below) was actively engaged in providing evidence based information feeding into the CoR positioning on Europe 2020. In particular it provided input to the CoR political message on the Europe 2020 governance (e.g. 2nd CoR Monitoring Report on Europe 2020). Survey "Europe 2020: what's happening on the ground?" with 90 contributions feeding into the 2nd CoR Monitoring Report. The Platform gave an opportunity to LRAs to contribute to the debate about Europe 2020 implementation (e.g. surveys, Open Days workshop on Europe 2020, 7th Territorial Dialogue). The Platform facilitated exchange of practices and access to information (e.g. website, Europe 2020 Briefs). In June 2012, it published the "Handbook for Local and Regional Authorities: Delivering on the Europe 2020 Strategy". Last but not least, it contributed to CoR Opinions via its thematic surveys as agreed by the Conference of Presidents: Quick Survey on the "European Union Programme for Social Change and Innovation" with 24 contributions from 12 Member States (France, Germany, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Spain, Sweden, UK) feeding into the preparatory work on the CoR Opinion on the same topic, Rapporteur Enrico Rossi, Opinion adopted in May 2012; Survey on "SME-friendly Regions and Cities" with 41 contributions from 17 Member States (Austria, Belgium, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Poland, Slovakia, Spain, Sweden, UK) feeding into the preparatory work on the CoR Opinion on the proposed Programme Competitiveness of enterprises and small- and medium-sized enterprises (2014-2020), Rapporteur Witold Krochmal, Opinion to be adopted in October 2012; Survey on the "New Common Strategic Framework 2014 to 2020" with 33 contributions from 11 Member States (Austria, Denmark, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, UK) feeding into the preparatory work on the CoR opinion on the same topic, Rapporteur Marek Woźniak, Opinion to be adopted in October 2012. Information collected by the Europe 2020 Monitoring Platform contributed to the evaluation of the value added of multilevel partnership in the implementation of the Europe 2020 in Member States 4 R_CDR235-2011_PT8a_NB - Item 8a, September 2011, Bureau memo, Annual report on the implementation of the Europe 2020 Monitoring Platform's Rolling Programme, http://portal.cor.europa.eu/europe2020/news/pages/updateorollingprograme.aspx.
- 11 - (e.g. monitoring the National Reform Programmes, carrying out two studies 5 to be published in October 2012). Survey among CoR National Delegations on the adoption of 2012 National Reform Programmes with 20 6 contributions (out of 27) feeding into the 7 th Territorial Dialogue (June 2012) and the 3rd CoR Monitoring Report (to be published in October 2012). The multi-level governance approach in the implementation of Europe 2020 was continuously promoted by the Committee of the Regions and its Platform and was endorsed by other EU institutions (e.g. the European Commission 7, the European Council 8 ). The political coordinators of the Europe 2020 Monitoring Platform provided political guidance to the implementation of the Rolling Programme of the Platform and ensured input to the political discussion on Europe 2020 in the inter-institutional context. In terms of internal governance, the internal Europe 2020 Task Force allowed for a coordination of actions between the Platform team, the political coordinators of the Platform, the CoR political groups, the Private Offices of the CoR President and the CoR Secretary General, the CoR's consultative works and the communication department. 5 6 7 8 "On the Role of the Local and Regional Authorities in the Europe 2020 National Reform Programmes"; Is Europe 2020 delivering?". 17 CoR National Delegations filled in the distributed questionnaire, while 3 others (Belgium, Greece, the United Kingdom) submitted written statements without filling in the questionnaire The CoR National Delegations from Bulgaria, Estonia, Spain, Hungary, Portugal, Slovenia and Slovakia have not answered to date. "( ) the Europe 2020 strategy should be developed in close partnership with all national, regional and local authorities, closely associating parliaments. Depending on the division of competencies in individual Member States, regional and local authorities also play an important role in implementing the strategy. When reporting on implementation of the NRPs, Member States are invited to refer to any good practice at regional or local level", Guidance for the National Reform Programmes 2012 update, European Commission, 18 January 2012. "(...) last year s Spring Council, the Leaders recognised the role of the Committee of the Regions in the EU 2020 governance process. Today I am glad to see that local and regional authorities are actively involved in the process. Through the EU 2020 Monitoring Platform, you are following the EU 2020 process closely. I retain some positive conclusions from the Monitoring Report on EU 2020, which was published in December 2011 (...)", President Van Rompuy at the Plenary Session of the Committee of the Regions, 3 May 2012.
- 12 - PROPOSAL Bureau members are asked to adopt this document. R/CdR 1513/2012 item 8a