The colourful landscape of European regional policy

When my country, Slovenia, was joining the EU, we wanted to do everything as it is done in Europe. When people were unhappy with how things were done at home, they said that we should adopt European solutions and practices.

But thinking that there is something like a European model for everything was simply wrong. As we learned with time, the European Union is a colourful – and often challenging – mix of common rules and values combined with specific solutions and models that member states developed in their own best interest. Or just simply in the way they prefer to do things at home.

What can we learn from Europe?

Such institutional diversity makes the European Union a great learning laboratory. We should not look for “best practices”, as there is simply no such thing as a single best practice for everyone. But we can certainly learn a lot by studying examples of other countries and seeking inspiration in them for improving our own way of doing things.

In this spirit, we studied examples of how regional development policy and spending of European cohesion funds is coordinated in some very different member states. Our small sample included Italy, a large country with asymmetric regional governance, where some regions enjoy more autonomy than others due to historical and cultural reasons; Ireland, considered by many as a champion in utilizing EU funds for regional development; and Croatia, a smaller and more centralized member state with counties (županije) instead of regions as the second level of governance.

This article presents some of the interesting solutions we found and that could inspire upgrading the current practices in Ukraine.

A strong developmental role of regions

Where regions exist as a separate administrative and political level of governance, they play a key role in development. In Italy, regions prepared and managed operational programmes for using the EU funds. In Ireland, the three regional council adjusted the national strategy to their needs and independently prepared and negotiated programmes and projects funded by the EU.

Ukrainian regional administrations and councils should prepare for taking such an active role in development policy, and the state level should become ready for embracing and supporting it.

In Croatia, such instruments are the way of implementing the state level operational programme for regional development.

With these instruments, the state level does not decide on each individual project proposed by regions and municipalities but rather awards a lump sum of financial support to a region or municipality for implementing their own development programme. The selection of projects that would best meet the objectives of such programmes is left, and entrusted to, regional and local authorities.

Supporting local communities

Irish Regional Assemblies provide technical assistance and support to local authorities, helping them access and manage EU funds effectively. In addition to capacity-building initiatives, such support includes cooperation with local stakeholders, regular consultations and a feedback mechanism to align funding with local development goals.

Croatian counties are legally required to establish regional development agencies as public institutions supervised by the ministry responsible for regional development. Their functions include preparation of territorial development strategies, expert support to regional and local authorities and institutions in developing and implementing their projects and implementing programmes of national authorities related to regional development.

Furthermore, local development agencies may be established by one or several municipalities. In the event of being established, the local agencies coordinate preparation and monitor implementation of local development strategies and action plans, develop joint projects with other local and regional agencies, and participate in the development of projects at the level of statistical regions.

These cases underscore the need for supporting local communities in their development initiatives, and such need is only greater in Ukraine. One should not count on international technical assistance to do the job, as it is often scattered, uncoordinated and focused on selected territories. A country-wide system of local technical support offices needs to be established, populated with national experts and made ready to work in cooperations with international assistance.

Italy’s conferences: a place for all to meet

Italy has developed an intricate system of so called “conferences” for consultation and coordination between the state government and lower governance levels. One conference brings together the government ministries and heads of regions. Another conference intermediates between the government on one side and cities, local communities and provinces (similar to Ukrainian rayons). The third, unified conference, brings them all together.

The conferences are consulted on all legislative proposals with impact on regions and local communities. This also applies to EU level legislative act – the government is obliged to consult the conferences before forming its position on proposed EU regulations and directives affecting the sub-national levels of governance. Beyond their advisory role, the decision-making power of the conferences is primarily exercised through the formation of agreements. Decisions are taken on a one member – one vote principle, implying that government’s representatives may be outvoted by other members. The decisions, although not legally binding, are usually respected by the government.

The Italian system of conferences could serve as an inspiration for developing and structuring the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities under the President of Ukraine. The main lesson from the Italian case is that such broad consultative bodies may be more effective when structured into separate forums depending on the level of governments involved, and more influential when the obligation to consult before adopting decisions affecting their interests is legally grounded.

Croatia’s partnership councils: legally grounded stakeholder cooperation

Croatian regional development legislation requires establishment of partnership councils at all levels of governance. The national level Regional Development Council monitors regional development trends, proposes directions for the regional development policy, reviews national strategic documents, programmes and measures for regional development, as well as the impact of sectoral policies on balanced regional development.

The national partnership council has a wide membership consisting of government, regional and local representatives, accompanied by a member of the relevant parliamentary committee, a member of the national competitiveness council and independent experts. The regional level is represented by two county prefects and two directors of regional development agencies, appointed by the Association of Regions. The local level members are two city mayors, selected by the Association of Cities, and six local community mayors, selected by the Association of Municipalities.

Partnership councils at subnational governance levels comprise councils at the level of statistical regions, administrative counties and urban conglomeration areas. Their functions are similar to the country-wide council but limited to their respective territory. Membership of these councils must include representatives of lower governance levels.

In Ukraine, a legal requirement for establishing partnership councils at regional and local level, in addition to the national level Congress of Local and Regional Authorities, could help develop an inclusive and consultative approach to development policy.

At the state level, the Croatian practice where associations of territorial authorities at different levels appoint their representatives to the national level bodies could be used as a model for appointing regional and local representatives to the current Interdepartmental Coordination Commission on regional policy. This would upgrade the commission into a regular consultation forum between government ministries and subnational representatives. If developing such a solution, care would need to be taken that all types of territories regarding their developmental constraints and needs would be represented. A two-tier, or block voting procedure would need to be instituted, in the sense that a decision could only be confirmed by a majority of both government and local representatives. Such a voting procedure is used, for example, in the Polish Joint Commission of Government and Territorial Self-Governments.

Irish regional assemblies: appointment of local deputies to regional legislative bodies

In Ireland, members of the regional assemblies are elected by the local authorities within their respective region. For example, the Southern Regional Assembly is composed of 34 local councillors appointed as members of the Regional Assembly for a five-year term. Of these, 28 are appointed by the assembly’s constituent local authorities, while 6 members are the representatives of the region in the EU’s Committee of the Regions.

The regional assemblies are tasked with promoting and supporting balanced regional development, managing and monitoring EU structural and investment fund programmes, securing EU funding for specific regional projects, assisting local authorities in engaging with EU institutions and linking the EU funding with the spatial and economic development strategy.

In Italy, 200 elective seats of the Senate, the upper chamber of the bicameral parliament, are distributed among the twenty Italian regions in proportion to their population. Any law must be passed by both houses of the Parliament.

With such institutional arrangements, local representatives are directly integrated in the decision-making bodies at the higher level of governance. Compared to merely consultative bodies, this gives them a much stronger voice and influence. Such strong influence comes with a risk of partial territorial interests prevailing over the broader, common public interest. In any case, following such models in Ukraine would demand profound legal and constitutional which are currently not being considered.

Strategic steering is linked to EU funds

Finally, the coordination through strategic planning documents differs significantly between the analysed cases. In Ireland, there is a comprehensive long-term national development strategic, including the spatial development aspect. There is no state-level regional development strategy, but the regional councils are obliged to adopt development strategies for their regions, translating and adapting the national objectives to their specific circumstances. In Italy, regional development is part of the national strategic framework prepared for the purpose of programming EU funds. In Croatia, there is currently no valid state-level regional strategy. Development actions are coordinated through partnership councils. There is also a set of laws that define the state level support to territories with specific development constraints, including a territory most affected by the impact of the Croatian war of independence.

These examples show that a top-down approach to regional development planning, as currently enshrined in the Ukrainian legislation, is not the only option and that more flexible and adaptive approaches may also be used.

Furthermore, member states avoid having a parallel set of strategic documents, one for national and one for EU purposes. In Ireland, the national strategy “Project Ireland 2040” is also used as the framework document for planning the use of EU funds, at both national and regional level. In Italy, the strategic framework prepared to meet the requirements of EU regulation on structural funds, also took the place of a national development strategy.

The current state-level regional development strategy in Ukraine will expire in 2027. At that time, the draft EU regulation for cohesion and structural funds for the next multi-annual financial perspective, starting in 2028, will already be known. The new state-level strategy should take this into account and be prepared in such a way that it could also serve as the national strategic framework for EU funds. The current legal requirements for regional and local planning documents should be streamlined and focused on what will be required for successful absorption of EU funds for regional development.

Conclusion

Hopefully, this short and admittedly schematic journey through a part of the European regional policy landscape has shown the variety of practices in member states. None of them can be directly transplanted to any other country, but hopefully they can serve as an inspiring input into discussions about Ukraine’s own regional policy landscape.