The EUKN EGTC results from a partnership between Cyrpus, Belgium, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Luxembourg, The Netherlands, Romania, and Spain as observeur.
It is supported by the European Commission, EUROCITIES Network and URBACT.
The EUKN is an intergovernmental network of member states and national knowledge institutes dealing with strategic urban issues.
The EUKN provides knowledge support to its members via demand-driven Policy Labs targeting national issues in a wider European context and offers support to national knowledge institutes dealing with urban policy, research and practice.
The EUKN interactive website constitutes a learning platform around an extensive e-library with case studies, research results, policy documents, context issues, network descriptions, updated news and meetings.
Review of acitvities in 2016
Tasks
Through the exchange of knowledge on economic, social and urban issues between different European countries, the EUKN aims to integrate different regions, promote inter-territorial cooperation and exchanges to minimise disparities. The EGTC provides knowledge support to the Urban Agenda for the EU and is part of the technical secretariat for the Urban Agenda for the EU, funded by DG REGIO.
The EGTC cooperates closely with ETC programmes, mainly URBACT and ESPON, on events and projects. In 2016, the EUKN EGTC and URBACT have organised a seminar to support the Urban Poverty Partnership, which is part of the Urban agenda for the EU.
The grouping contributed indirectly to the objectives of the Europe 2020 Strategy by providing information on topics that are important for the Strategy.
Challenges or issues
It took a long period (two years) to constitute the EGTC as a legal entity. National institutional frameworks were not ready for EGTCs. The grouping also encountered problems regarding the fact that initially, the EGTC was subjected to the normal national VAT system.
Budget
€ 500,000, based on two forms of funding: membership fees proportional to the size of the country population to cover all member activities, and funding for additional activities, e.g. strategic research activities (for both members and non-members).
Staff (in FTE)
The staff is either employed in the Dutch national urban research institute Platform that hosts the EUKN or hired as freelancers. The EUKN is currently exploring employment of own staff (4 FTE in 2016).
