Cohesion policy – providing fair economic and social opportunities for all – is one of the concrete expressions of EU solidarity. It is also one of the EU’s largest investment policies.
In 30 years, the groups concerned by this policy have become increasingly diverse. And one of the key principles of EU cohesion policy is participation (see the European Code of Conduct on Partnership. It applies to all stages of the funding process under the policy:
Participation by the general public helps public authorities be more transparent and accountable. Their involvement in decision making about and monitoring of programmes and investment lead to better results.
To help public authorities to develop their capacities and to improve their practices in this area, several initiatives have been developed.
Public authorities can find additional support by sharing experience with peers.
From July 2020-December 2021, the European Commission and the OECD ran a joint project to explore how 5 authorities across Europe could place people at the heart of their investment decisions.
The final report summarises the lessons they learned and, particularly, the results of applying innovative citizen participation methods to cohesion policy more broadly.
The 5 authorities achieved the following:
The Cantabria region organised the Besaya Citizens Jury to deliberate on the question of “How to take advantage of European green funds in the Besaya basin to create and/or maintain jobs that respect the criteria of a just and inclusive ecological transition?”. The jury produced 26 final recommendations that all received at least 80% approval among the members.
Lesson learned: Besaya Citizens Jury - process report
Contact point: Paz Diaz Nieto, General director of the department of EU funds, Regional Ministry of Economy and Finance, diaz_mpa@cantabria.es
The Emilia-Romagna region created a Citizen Participation Playbook to help identify opportunities and plan for citizen participation in designing, implementing, and evaluating their regional development strategies under cohesion policy.
The playbook is a practical help to beneficiaries (mainly municipalities) of the regional operational programme.
Lesson learned: Citizen Participation Playbook
Contact point: Daniela Ferrara, coordination of programming and implementation for ERDF and ESF projects, Regione Emilia-Romagna, Daniela.Ferrara@regione.emilia-romagna.it and Anna Maria Linsalata, Head of Communications, Regione Emilia-Romagna, AnnaMaria.Linsalata@regione.emilia-romagna.it
The Centre for EU Transport Projects (CEUTP) set up Citizen Participation Guidelines. They are a practical tool for beneficiaries, including municipalities and other investors, to help identify opportunities and plan for citizen participation in designing, implementing, and evaluating transport infrastructure projects.
Lesson learned: Citizen Participation Guidelines
Contact point: Edyta Jaszcuk, CEUTP, expert in the Department of Transport, Analysis and Programming, EJaszczuk@cupt.gov.pl and/or cupt@cupt.gov.pl
The Joint Secretariat of the Interreg V-A Flanders-Netherlands programme developed a Citizen Participation Playbook to be used in the application process for beneficiaries of the programme. The playbook helps beneficiaries engage the public in shaping and implementing projects under the programme.
Lesson learned: Citizen Participation Playbook
Contact point: Bram de Kort, Interreg V-A Flanders–the Netherlands, Director of the Joint Secretariat, Bram.dekort@grensregio.eu
The Joint Secretariat for the Interreg Romania-Bulgaria programme has developed a checklist for designing and commissioning citizen-participation processes.
It helps programme managers and beneficiaries identify when public participation is useful. It also includes a step-by-step guide on implementing a high quality public consultation process.
Lesson learned: Citizens Participation Checklist
Contact point: Simona Vatafu, Managing Authority for the Interreg V-A Romania-Bulgaria Programme, public manager, Simona.Vatafu@mlpda.ro
In 2021, with financial support from the EU (worth maximum €25,000), non-profit organisations, either public or private, worked on a variety of 12-month projects to design and implement solutions for engaging with citizens and public authorities.
The projects focus on young people and the local area, but also on other specific and general topics.
Youth in Action for Cohesion Policy (YACOPO) – Italy, Sardinia
The Malik Association helped young Italians from disadvantaged areas on the island of Sardinia to learn about cohesion policy and how to influence local decisions that impact their lives. See the project results.
Estado de la ciudad – Ferrol, Spain
The Asociación Xeración offered an online space for young citizens to debate and organise ideas for a sustainable city, culminating in a public hackathon to propose solutions.
Youth for Cohesion – Italy, Greece, Croatia, Bosnia, Albania and Montenegro
The Adriatic Ionian Euroregion (AIE) trained 60 young people from 10 countries around the Adriatic Ionian area to be “cohesion builders”. See the project results.
GreenMyWay - A citizen observatory to support the transition to a circular economy for young generations – Portugal
The Associação para um Centro de Estudos em Desenvolvimento Sustentável (CEDES) developed a website containing information, initiatives & best practice examples to inspire youth contributions to the circular economy. Join the community.
RoBulUs: Tools for enhancing youth engagement in Romania-Bulgaria cross-border cooperation – Romania and Bulgaria
The International Management Institute empowered young people to influence how cohesion funds are used, by offering them tools such as an online guide, videos and an app. Check out the tools.
Community Engagement on Cohesion – Italy, Umbria
The Centro per lo Sviluppo Agricolo e Rurale (CESAR) used focus groups and gamification to reach, engage and brainstorm with residents of the small Italian region of Umbria on how to expand green infrastructure and reduce waste. Read more.
National civic monitoring network of European funds for the environment and sustainable development – Italy, all regions
The Lunaria Associazione di Promozione Sociale and Monithon built a map to help citizens discover thousands of ERDF-funded projects related to energy, environment, sustainable mobility and culture & tourism in their local area, and to comment on them. Look for this project at project finder.
Participatory Mapping in Cohesion Policy (PartiMap) – Hungary
K-Monitor Közhasznú Egyesület developed an open-source, geo-based tool that the Hungarian Cyclists' Club and Budapest Public Transport Centre used to consult citizens on the city’s bike parking and cycling network. Explore the tool.
Kleroterion – Italy, Greece and Portugal
The Conference of Peripheral Maritime Regions (CRPM) helped the regions of Central Greece (Greece), and Alentejo (Portugal) to organise regional citizens’ assemblies, which provided opinions and recommendations on programmes for the 2021-27 period. See the project.
Libellula - a ‘civic-monitoring’ lab in Palermo – Italy
Parliament Watch Italia (PWI) helped the municipality of Palermo to get citizens contributing to the action plan for open local government in the city.
Participatory Agenda of the Territories – Italy, Lombardy
The Fondazione Giangiacomo Feltrinelli (FGF) piloted an innovative participatory process for regional development. It involved citizens in developing indicators to shape EU cohesion policy in the Lombardy region of Italy. See the project results.
Closer Europe – Open platform for citizens’ initiatives – Bulgaria
The Association for Social Responsibility and Development through Innovation in the Bulgarian city of Lovech built the LovechLab open-space platform, to map problems and share solutions. All the proposals made by citizens received financing. Visit the platform.
People Shaping Cities for the People (PSCP) – Romania
The Institute for Local Development - Think Global, Act Local organised a series of urban talks and a hackathon with citizens, local government and stakeholders, to shape the future of cities. Check out the results.
#madebycitizen4cohesion – Italy
The CINSEDO Centro interregionale di studi e documentazione organised structured dialogues between citizens and regional managing authorities on the achievements of EU cohesion policy and future priorities. See the results.
Good(s) Monitoring, Europe! – Italy, Bulgaria, Romania, Belgium, Spain
The Libera. Associazioni, nomi e numeri contro le mafie helps the public supervise how confiscated assets are reused by authorities and NGOs. Explore the monitoring toolkit.
EuroMoney.bg – Bulgaria
The Anti-Corruption Fund Foundation created a watchdog website where Bulgarian citizens have a say on how EU money is being used in their region, e.g. by reporting corruption, suggesting improvements in local EU-funded projects. See the watchdog website.
CITI4GREEN – Italy, Central Apennine District
The Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei (FEEM) engages stakeholders and citizens in understanding, monitoring and evaluating/assessing projects carried out in areas affected by the 2016-17 Italian earthquakes (see project results).
ENGAGE - Enhancing Generative Approaches for Gender Equality – Italy
The MEET Digital Culture Centre srl Impresa Sociale co-designed policies with citizens, civil society groups and policymakers for more inclusive services, education and access to jobs in Italy’s Lombardy Region. Explore new thinking on how to break the mould of gender inequality.
In October 2020, a group of young Europeans helped to publish the Manifesto for Young People by Young People to Shape the European Cooperation Policy. This was published on the occasion of the 30-year anniversary of the Interreg programme, which is the EU’s flagship scheme for cooperation across borders at regional and national level to benefit all EU citizens.
The Manifesto is the result of a truly democratic and bottom-up process to involve young people in shaping the future of EU cohesion policy, and especially in shaping the future of Interreg and the macro-regional strategies.
Following targeted surveys, polls, and online group discussions with young people from all over Europe, the Manifesto presents 5 areas of concern for European young people:
The Manifesto makes 12 concrete recommendations that mainly address decision-makers and administrations at EU, national, regional and local levels to show what they can do to best address young people’s concerns.
A core group of young people and stakeholders, as well as European Commission staff, hold regular informal exchanges on how best to disseminate and implement the Manifesto.
The stakeholders include civil society organisations interested in European cooperation, public engagement and engaging young people.
The Fund focuses specifically on fossil-fuel dependent and carbon-intensive regions, to ensure these areas do not lose out in economic terms, compared to other regions. To be successful, the Fund must ensure that local people feel ‘ownership’ of it, and everyone must be involved in how the funds are spent.
It is also clear that young people have an important role to play in the Just Transition Fund. Their future will be directly affected by the upcoming transition, and their needs, opinions, fears and hopes are an important part of the dialogue.
In this context, the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Regional and Urban Policy published its Toolkit for Youth Participation in the Just Transition Fund. It aims to:
The Toolkit is accompanied by an annex providing detailed descriptions of 30 best-practice examples of youth participation from across Europe.
The Toolkit is addressed in particular at regional and local policymakers responsible for implementing the Just Transition Fund, as well as other stakeholders involved in the process.
One group of stakeholders that was particularly targeted was young people living in the transition regions. It is hoped that they will be inspired by the Toolkit to actively advocate for their involvement in implementing the Fund.
The Toolkit can also be useful for other policies addressing the transition.
Young people serving – or having served – as volunteers under the Interreg Volunteer Youth (IVY) project can organise local events to promote EU cohesion policy.
These local events can address the public and involve the local community, thanks to specific financial support given by the European Commission.
IVY volunteers can design, plan and hold events to raise awareness about EU cohesion policy, via ‘citizens’ engagement activities’. The aim of these activities is to share information on cohesion policy with the public, while informing them about Interreg projects in the region that would aid local development.
Volunteers are encouraged to come up with their own ideas of how to organise citizens’ engagement activities and promote European regional cooperation. See some examples.
‘At the School of Open Cohesion’ (ASOC) is an educational challenge and a massive online open course designed for high-school pupils. It promotes pupils’ engagement in monitoring the effectiveness of EU cohesion-policy investments by using public open data.
The initiative also aims to:
The educational challenge is coupled with a competition: participating students produce a communication product to illustrate the results of their work and compete with their peers nationally and across Europe.
The project has already been implemented successfully in Italy since 2013. Following a call for expressions of interest, with the support of the Commission the project was replicated during the 2019-20 school year in the following regions/countries: Bulgaria; Croatia; Alentejo (Portugal); Catalonia (Spain); the Peloponnese (Greece); Thessaly (Greece); and Ionian Islands (Greece).
The European Commission's Directorate-General for Regional and Urban Policy has selected for funding the proposal made by a consortium composed of Startup Europe Regions Network; Youth and Environment Europe, CEE Bankwatch Network and supported by Generation Climate Europe.
The title of their proposal is “EUTeens4Green – A new generation of youth ambassadors for an inclusive green transition” and it has a budget of almost €1 million.
The consortium will organise a call for projects open to teens or groups of teens resident in one or more territories that are eligible for the Just Transition Fund (see list of eligible territories).
These projects will aim to increase participation and involvement by people who are less exposed to the benefits of the green transition. This means people with limited awareness and understanding of the impact of the transition on their professional and private life, and who also have limited resources and/or opportunities to express their needs – making it hard for them to participate in specifying what action is needed to bring about sustainable transition.
Through the call for projects, at least 70 projects from teens will be funded. Each project will receive a contribution up to €10,000. Projects will have up to 12 months to be implemented.
The Open Data Platform of the European Structural and Investment Funds (ESI Funds) displays data on investment financing and achievements under the ESI Funds 2014-20. For over 530 programmes, the platform displays the latest data available (up to December 2018 for achievements; up to June 2020 for finances implemented; and daily updates for EU payments). See the tutorial on using the platform.
Kohesio gathers together all the scattered project-related data and information for projects funded by EU cohesion policy in 2021-27.
This means all projects funded by the European Regional Development Fund, the European Social Fund, and the Cohesion Fund.
Kohesio also contains information on the beneficiaries of these funds.
Corruption in public procurement harms the public interest, undermines public trust and has a negative impact on people’s lives. Civil society organisations can provide a valuable input by monitoring procurement procedures and promoting transparency, accountability and preventing corruption. Explore this innovative tool to find out how to set up your own Integrity Pact.
