The Territory of municipalities: Comune di Gorizia (I), Mestna občina Nova Gorica (Slo) and Občina Šempeter-Vrtojba (Slo) EGTC results from a partnership between Slovenia and Italy, involving 73 750 inhabitants in a 365 km² area.
In spite of many years of cooperation over the past 14 years of European cross-border programmes, the cities of Gorizia, Nova Gorica and Šempeter-Vrtojba struggled to achieve tangible results in building joint infrastructure, creating shared management systems for natural and cultural resources since they had no tools and legal instruments to shape a common strategy for cross-border projects.
This EGTC was established to overcome difficulties in developing and managing territorial cooperation activities under different national legislation and procedures.
Review of activities in 2019
Tasks:
This opportunity was the reason for the three municipal administrations to decide to establish an EGTC since they were convinced that only truly joint operations could have a tangible impact on their shared territory. An EGTC is currently the only legal instrument offering the following possibilities:
- shaping a shared strategy of urban development;
- bringing forth the needs of the three communities through an Assembly of representatives and thus avoiding any of the three cities to have a predominant role;
- capitalizing the outcomes of past cooperation and preserving continuity;
- operating across the entire cross-border area regardless of municipal borders.
During the remaining programming period, the EGTC will take a strong role in the Italy-Slovenia cross-border cooperation programme, through implementing these actions:
- "Isonzo – Soča" pilot action that will develop an integrated cross-border network of cycling and walking, linked to SO 3.1 of the CP Italy-Slovenia "Conserving, protecting, restoring, and developing natural and cultural heritage";
- "Health" pilot action that intends to build a network of integrated services providing a joint use of the health systems, contributing to SO 4.1 of the CP Programme "Strengthen the institutional cooperation capacity through mobilizing public authorities and key actors of the Programme area for planning joint solutions to common challenges";
- Another pilot project is envisaged for which the framework conditions are currently created. The project aims to launch new economic perspectives in the field of transport & logistics by connecting the missing railway link between Italy and Slovenia in the area of Gorizia-Nova Gorica-Šempeter-Vrtojba.
During the long period of negotiation to set up the ITI operation, the EGTC clearly realised that ETC continues to be based on the principle of territoriality of expenditures. The national management and control systems (both in Italy and Slovenia) were not yet ready to put in practice the 2014-2020 regulatory framework for EGTCs acting as sole beneficiary. The strict rules set up by the Member States created many constraints and it was very difficult to create a new management model based on the principle that an EGTC acts as a single contracting authority both in the Italian and Slovenian territories. The LP principle is still considered the only methodology to deliver project outputs although if it is not an asset to plan a real cross-border strategy. This principle would again imply a territorial separation both of the investments and of the human resources needed to implement the cross-border strategy adopted by EGTC GO Assembly in an innovative way. Thanks to a strong commitment both of the MA and of DG Regio, which helped in assessing the whole procedure, the sole beneficiary model was created. Being the only ITI operation managed by an EGTC as sole beneficiary in Europe, it is likely that framework conditions are not "in favour" of this type of operation.
The strategic plan, set up by the EGTC contributes to the Danube macro-region with the pillars "Mobility rail road air" Action (4) - “To ensure sustainable metropolitan transport systems and mobility” and Action (5) - “To improve the regional/ local cross-border infrastructure and the access to rural areas" are elements of the EGTCs' strategic plan. The EGTC also contributes to the Adriatic-Ionian macro-region through the ITI pilot project "Isonzo Soca" and to the EUSALP Strategy through the alignment of projects towards the strategic objectives.
Challenges or issues:
The EGTC needs further development since the third pillar of its strategy related to launching new economic perspectives in the field of transport & logistics has not been reached. This action needs a very strong multilevel governance approach since national, regional and local administrative levels are involved in the process. Despite a considerable amount of funding spent in the past programming period of the CP Italy-Slovenia programme to realise feasibility plans, many difficulties have been met in the negotiation process for the realisation of the railway infrastructure. In 2018, an updating of the EGTC’s strategic plan is planned, taking into account the first outcomes of the EU Cohesion Policy.
Budget: € 40,000
EU-funded projects and programmes in phase of imple-mentation in 2016:
No projects were implemented during 2016. An ITI operation will start in 2017. The two pilot projects of the ITI operation have been financed for a total budget of € 10,000,000 - ERDF contribution € 8,500,000. During 2017, the EGTC will implement the project "CycleWalk" financed by the second call of Interreg Europe Programme for a total budget of € 293,207 - ERDF contribution € 24,225.95.
Staff (in FTE):
1 Director appointed directly by the assembly and 4 people as permanent staff transferred by the three municipalities on the basis of an agreement signed by the three mayors (2 on full-time basis and 2 on part-time basis).
Impact of changes of EGTC regulation on EGTC:
According to the EGTC, the regulatory framework is sufficiently developed. Critical impacts have been met in the implementation procedures since the Member States’ application of the EGTC rules is too strict.
