WPT1 D2.2.1 REGIONAL REPORT -

September 2016 • Manfred Riedl WPT1 Regional report: Tyrol – Austria

2 European Regional Development Fund WPT1 Regional report: Tyrol – Austria

Institution

Amt der Tiroler Landesregierung Eduard-Wallnöfer-Platz 3 6020 Austria t +43 512 508 f +43 512 508 741990 e [email protected] w www.tirol.gv.at/landesstatistik-tiris

Authors

Riedl Manfred, Dipl.-Ing. Sg. Landesstatistik u. tiris Heiliggeiststraße 7 (Raum 3-026) 6020 Innsbruck Austria t +43 512 508 3650 f +43 512 508 743605 e [email protected]

3 European Regional Development Fund WPT1 Regional report: Tyrol – Austria

4 European Regional Development Fund WPT1 Regional report: Tyrol – Austria

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Index

1. INTRODUCTION ...... 7 Short description of administrative system of your country ...... 7 Institutional Structures of TA Außerfern ( of ) ...... 9 2. INTEGRATION IN THE STRATEGIES ...... 11 Basic Report on the Strategies ...... 11 General problems, related to the delivery of SGI ...... 12 Administrative framework, major stakeholders ...... 14 Integration models ...... 15 Need for integration ...... 16 3. CONCLUSIONS, INPUT FOR WPT3 ...... 16 Existing Plans, Trends ...... 16 Identified gaps ...... 17 4. REFERENCES ...... 18 5. APPENDICES...... 18

Figures

Figure 1: Administrative system of Austria (Perhelion: Wikimedia Commons, 2011) ...... 8 Figure 2: Cut-out plan of the central in the Tyrol ...... 10

Appendices

Report on the Collection of Strategies ...... 18 Report on carrying out the interviews ...... 18

5 European Regional Development Fund WPT1 Regional report: Tyrol – Austria

6 European Regional Development Fund WPT1 Regional report: Tyrol – Austria

1. INTRODUCTION

Short description of administrative system of your country

“The organisational variety of the Austrian administration is derived from two principles:  from the constitutional basic principle of the  and from the principle of local self-administration of Austrian municipalities

These two principles result to an administrative structure consisting of three levels of subdivisions each with corresponding administrative organisations:  at central government level the Federal Government  at federal level, the federal state administrations of the nine States of , , , , , , Tyrol, and and  at local self-administration the municipal administrations of 2.100 Austrian municipalities

All over Austria there is also a network of 95 administrative , which are not independent territorial authorities but are rather organizationally integrated in the federal state administration (as district authorities) or within the greater .

As such, Austria can be said to have a four-tiered administrative structure throughout:

Federal Government – Federal States – Districts – Municipalities The Federal Government is the largest administrative organisation in Austria. It is under the leadership of the Federal Ministers, who preside as monocratic organs of a particular department. As a whole, the Federal Ministers make up the Federal Government. The Federal Chancellor is the chairman of the Federal Government and as such, exercises the central function. A Federal ’s department consists of a Federal Ministry (also called Central Offices) and the subordinate agencies. In this way, finance offices are subordinate agencies just as police inspectorates or even individual schools are. In the last decades, various legally independent establishments were founded outside of the Federal administration. This occurred through so called “disincorporation”, in which a governmental establishment was converted into a legally independent institution or a company under company law on the basis of a special law.

In contrast to the Federal Administration, the administrative apparatus of the nine Federal States are not organised according to the branch system. The State Government as a leadership organ of the state administration basically acts as a committee, although many aspects are still delegated to individual members for decision. There are no separate State Ministers with or without portfolios as administrative assistance, but rather a common State Government Office. Internal affairs of the Office are led by the State as chairman of the State Government (at political level) and the Head of

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the State Government Office (at administrative level). Most of the 95 District Administrations are also part of the State Administration. Outside the 15 larger , which act as administrative districts, there are 80 District Authorities established as administrative districts throughout Austria, and which play a leading role especially in national administration. District authorities are led by one of the persons nominated as District Governor by the State Government. Furthermore, State Administrations also have subordinate agencies and numerous disincorporations from State administration have taken place. State hospitals especially have been going through a process of legal independence.

About 80 % of all municipalities (2.100) in Austria have less than 3.000 inhabitants. Since the size and capacity of a is not considered in task setting, a distinct structure of cooperation has developed amongst Austria’s municipalities. As such, many municipal associations are founded especially when concerning high investment and employment opportunities, in order to enable more efficient management. The Municipal Offices are under the leadership of the Mayor. An office leader generally referred to as Municipal Secretary or City Office Director takes care of the administrative leadership (Chief Magistrate in cities with their own statute). Many municipal responsibilities fall under the provision of subsistence and concern the creation of educational, social, environmental and cultural infrastructure.” (Bundeskanzleramt Österreich, 2011)

Figure 1: Administrative system of Austria (Perhelion: Wikimedia Commons, 2011) Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Verwaltungsgliederung_%C3%96sterreichs.svg

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Institutional Structures of TA Außerfern (District of Reutte)

The district of Reutte – in terms of geography also called "Außerfern" - is located in northwest Tyrol and is isolated from the Tyrolean central space by some mountain ranges. The borders in the east and north to () and in the west to the Bregenzer Wald (Vorarlberg). Populated valleys in this region amount to only 9 % of the total area, whereas forest and alpine areas cover large areas. The district of Reutte is connected with the central area of Tyrol only by a year-round open mountain pass road. Moreover, this transport axis is at times overloaded serving as a transit route for the tourist traffic from and to Germany. In contrast, there are seven roads and two railway connections leading into the Bavarian neighbour . Cooperation across national boundaries has always been vital for the Außerfern region.

Concerning its topographical outline, the region contains four areas: the Tannheim valley, the market of Reutte and its surroundings, the Upper valley and the Zwischentoren valley. These four regional parts are congruent with the organizational areas of the respective planning associations (PV) and tourism (TVB).

Appearing in the statistics with its 31,691 inhabitants (as of 2015) and an area of 1,237 km², the Außerfern region is the smallest of the nine districts of Tyrol. The population density adds up to 26 inhabitants per km². The 37 municipalities in total show a very small-scale structure. Even the district capital Reutte has only little more than 6,000 inhabitants; there are 27 small communities with less than 1,000 people, including 16 very small communities having less than 500 inhabitants. Three-quarters of the municipalities had to accept a decline in population in the past decade, whereas a growing population can only be seen throughout the planning association of Reutte and its surroundings (about 18,000 inhabitants). Due to the sharp increase of senior citizens, also the age structure of the population will be very different in the future.

The public administration in the District of Reutte is being implemented by means of  decentralized administrative bodies of the Federation such as the Public Employment Service, District Court, District Police Command and several police stations, Tax Office, regional headquarters of the Torrent and Avalanche Control, Land Surveying Office;  decentralized administrative structures of the State Government such as the District Administrative Authority including subordinate offices like the District Building Authority and the District Forestry Directorate;  the municipal offices and their local authorities and municipal undertakings.

Social and technical services are often rendered by municipal associations, which are purpose-related groupings of municipalities for the joint performance of certain tasks, such as maintaining schools, management of the district hospital, regional spatial planning as well as the regional waste management, sewage water disposal and energy

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supply (municipal undertakings holding a regional public utility mandate). The Tourism Associations (public authorities), the regional social and health service bodies (association) and the regional management (association) for regional development are also important for certain services.

According to a state-wide survey of the availability of private and public services for different communities (data status as of 2010) and the subsequent classification concerning the importance of these municipalities as local centres, 6 communities are regarded as central settlements of importance to the surrounding in the district of Reutte. In this context, the of Reutte serves as a regional centre of medium-sized facilities offering a total of 130 services, of which 38 are of enhanced (33 in number) or high (5 in number) importance. In addition to , the municipalities of , , Tannheim and Vils are regarded as places of central meaning offering few facilities due to some enhanced services at the site.

Seen from the state-level, the number of communities offering facilities of central importance is relatively small, whereas 31 municipalities in the district offer few private and public services. These existing services have (only) local significance. There is no central in the planning association of the Upper Lechtal valley (counting about 5,000 inhabitants), higher or enhanced services can only be found in the district capital Reutte at a distance of 52 km.

Figure 2: Cut-out plan of the central municipalities in the Tyrol

Source: https://www.static.tirol.gv.at/t3tiro/fileadmin/_migrated/content_uploads/Zentrale_Orte_2010_01.jpg

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2. INTEGRATION IN THE STRATEGIES

Basic Report on the Strategies

In principle, Austria can be described as a social welfare state that is characterized by a high degree of public intervention and social protection mechanisms according to the principle "safety is more important than dynamics". Therefore, the Austrian welfare system shows a high degree of market independence in the supply of citizens due to a large contribution of government services. However, the Austrian social system is relatively impervious in relation to the given social stratification; social services are closely aligned with achievements out of gainful employment and thus depend on educational preconditions.

Similar to pan-European history, the expansion of technical infrastructures and social services followed a chronological path from the cities to the countryside. The large cities play a pioneering role, particularly in building social infrastructure - housing construction, hospitals etc. Compared to other European countries, the Austrian Federal States nowadays show good average numbers regarding the regional implementation of SGI.

The organisation of SGI distinguishes between the elements of production, financing, responsibilities and delivery. Responsibility is to be seen as a kind of public warranty. Whereas financing and production can be offered by the government, the market and/or the society, the crucial question of the spatial dimension arises, when it comes to the delivery of services. The economic situation of a region also constitutes an important framework for the development of the SGI.

Due to the lower population density and the topographical conditions in the alpine regions, the (mostly) market-bound SGEI services are poorly developed in such areas. This is particularly true for the largely liberalised field of technical communications and for the transport system.

The SSGI social services are being predominantly organised in national autonomy and their structure show a mostly spatial distinctiveness. The federal states and the local communities (in the organisational form as municipal associations too) play an important role in the delivery of social services. The federal states are constitutionally coequal to the federal government and have certain legislative and autonomous competences. Accordingly, Austria is the organisational type of a multi-level welfare state, in which responsibilities are shared among several governmental levels and where the local level is of great importance for the delivery of SGI.

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In Austria, the organisation of a specific SGI is a sectoral task concerning legislation, finance and delivery, whereas it is also a matter of spatial planning as regards the territorial configuration of places and locations to be reached.

Austria (along with Belgium) is an exceptional case, because spatial planning as a cross- sectoral policy is here assigned to the nine federal states under constitutional law. The Austrian Conference on Spatial Planning ÖROK is a permanent political platform, where space-related matters between the local authorities can be coordinated. Due to the autonomous competences of the municipalities, the local spatial planning and thus the spatial coordination of the settlement development including the respective SGI locations show a distinctive small-scale structure. (as in Humer 2014)

General problems, related to the delivery of SGI

SGI are organised not only vertically (EU-federal government-federal states- communities) but also among sectors, and also among different carriers within complex areas of expertise. The multifaceted structure of the Austrian political system and the range of different SGI are the reasons why different sectoral fields of policy are in charge of their organisation. Location issues and spatial patterns of provision are different in dependence on the respective SGI, which is also associated with the question, whether the respective SGI is located centrally and under which conditions it is accessible. The concerned sector-political participants aim at a coherent, spatially distinct organisation of the services. Therefore, the various SGI in Austria have basically the same starting position.

Since the turn of the millennium, the demographic development in Austria has been showing a divided development throughout the country. While the big cities and settlements in the easily accessible environs and the areas along highly frequented roads are heavily increasing in population - especially by immigration - the wide-ranging, predominantly mountainous and peripherally located areas are sustainably losing inhabitants. The same spatial context applies not only for quantitative, but also for structural changes of the resident population showing increasingly different age distribution or education levels. Concerning unemployment (and this is true especially for women), there are higher rates (with the exception of the city of Vienna) in regions with declining population.

SGI (in all areas) might be of vital importance for a future-proof structuring of the living environment, however, there will also arise questions concerning national solidarity and the regional usefulness of certain government services. Many rural and peripheral regions must face a controlled dismantling due to the population decline, though they have to maintain regional labour markets and endogenous development opportunities. It is not likely that limited public budgets and decreased national scope of action will be able to ensure the maintaining of common SGI facilities all over the country with many

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areas showing population figures less than required. The line of solidarity shows, where the multifaceted challenges of the state and the regions begin in order to form a future- proof structuring of the provision of SGI. (as in Humer 2014)

Telecommunications - Broadband Expansion Fibre optic networks are particularly important for remote areas, because they work very well over long distances without the application of active components or power supply (up to approximately 80 km). Distances can perfectly be bridged by means of information transfer and based on internet protocols in the communication network, important services can be provided everywhere and at equal quality levels.

Concerning broadband expansion, rural areas are disadvantaged and fibre optic networks that are implemented outside of densely populated areas result in funding gaps between 50% and 80% of the construction costs. The interaction between federal and state subsidies allows a funding rate of up to 75%. This rate largely corresponds to the needs of the rural communities.

The regional broadband campaign in the Tyrol is an initiative to implement sustainable broadband infrastructure and is not just limited to the (gradual) technological adaptation (e.g. from DSL to vectoring of copper networks). The Tyrolean model of municipal broadband expansion in rural areas is the most beneficial one regarding autonomy, location safeguarding and social participation (there is an EU study on this issue).

One difficult point is that according to EU rules, the communities as providers of local broadband infrastructure must be considered equal to private telecommunications operators in terms of competition and public funds.

Health Care The aims of the national health policy are among others to provide the population as quickly as possible with optimum medical care. The optimal medical care of critically ill persons can only be provided in medical centres, where high specialisation according to the state of research is applied and very good personnel and technical facilities are available. However, the demand for a most quick medical treatment requires decentralisation corresponding with the respective settlement distribution and transport conditions. This spatial conflict of objectives leads to the establishment of a distributed system of different medical services. However, the rapid development of the medical sector and budgetary constraints also require the consideration of economic criteria in the location planning and the equipment of health care facilities. The responsibility of coordinating the health care system lies in the hands of the Federal Ministry of Health, whereas the mostly public carriers of hospitals are companies owned by the federal states, communities and social insurance institutions. Private non- commercial operators are also obliged to observe the standards of the legislator. 22

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compulsory insurance institutions and the contributions of patients raise the money for the operation of the hospitals altogether. The Austrian Health Care Structure Plan 2012 is currently the decision-making tool for finding new locations for public hospitals. First, this process deals with the coordination of all sector-relevant institutions, in combination with organisational, financial and spatial aspects of health care in Austria. The spatial planning of the federal states does not play a crucial role in the process of location planning concerning health care facilities.

Social Care Compared to metropolitan areas, the supply in rural, peripheral areas is deficient:  Lack of night shift stand-by personnel or night services provided by mobile care and nursing organisations  Lack of advice/training/support for caregiving relatives  Lack of short-term care and day care causes the overloading of caregiving relatives or institutionalisation/re-hospitalization  Lack of a concept of integrative care (networking the documentation among hospitals, nursing homes, family doctors, etc.)  Lack of awareness of the older people about the possibilities of support

However, supply and demand are to some extent areas regulating each other. Since especially the peripheral regions of the test area provide hardly any or no offer regarding certain basic services, there is also a lack of awareness among the people that such SGI are necessary and therefore they are not claimed. To a certain extent, general practitioners for instance assume the functions of specialists, or professional care and social support are only then requested, when the affected persons are exhausted and they start feeling helpless and stressed.

Administrative framework, major stakeholders

Broadband Master Plan for the Tyrol  The Tyrolean State Government is the lead partner of the project and has the task of establishing the appropriate conditions  Tyrolean municipalities have the task to translate the strategic aims into action: more than 140 of the 279 Tyrolean municipalities are building their own passive broadband infrastructure; for the rest there is no need in present, because those regions have already an appropriate infrastructure and at least one provider;  the TIWAG (regional energy supply company owned by the of Tyrol) provides about 1,500 km of empty conduit infrastructure; the Tyrolean municipalities are allowed to use those existing conduits to build infrastructure in a cost-effective and relatively quick way; the electric power station of Reutte EEA is an energy provider in the Außerfern INTESI test area and supports the local expansion of broadband networks in a similar way providing broadband infrastructure

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 Neighbouring communities cooperate concerning the broadband expansion in order to conduct the joint planning and installation of the regional feeder cable  The Austrian Federal Government provides additional funds in a special grant programme "Empty Conduit Promotion"

Integration models

Broadband Master Plan for the Tyrol: Basically, there is an informal coordination between the federal government, the federal states and the respective funding agencies regarding the broadband expansion. Funds are raised by using own resources of the communities and public funding of the federal state, that means entirely by public funds. The (private) operator of the local network determined by tender after the network expansion pays a sales-based rent for the use of the local broadband network.

Normally, the broadband infrastructure expansion is conducted at the local level by exploiting synergies in the course of civil engineering projects conducted by public or public-owned carriers (gas network, district heating network, sanitary engineering, road construction, etc.).

Social Concept Außerfern The social concept of Außerfern takes into account several overall strategies and responds to the specific demographic, geographical and structural situations in the region. Despite all efforts, there are special requirements that cannot be fully satisfied because the region is very small-structured. This results in various problems. In addition, the geographical position is also a reason why mobile caregivers must travel a lot, which is even more difficult due to the B179 pass road congested by transit traffic.

Regional Development - Leader Action Groups For the development and implementation of regional strategies / concepts and promotion programmes, the establishment of regional management has proven to be successful. The Tyrolean regional management associations (currently adding up to 8 in predominantly peripheral regions) are voluntary associations at the regional level, pursue a target-oriented cooperation of the respective regions with the provincial government, the federal government and the EU, and promote the strategic orientation of regional development. Members of the regional management are usually all municipalities, tourism associations, district chambers and interested leading companies from the respective region. The Tyrolean Provincial Government is coordinating the regional management groups. The staffs in the offices handle all sorts of topics involving a wide range of participants and target groups. The funds for these activities are raised by own resources of the association (membership fees) as well as by European and national subsidies.

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Regional Health Care Structure Plan - Outpatient Module In order to continue the care of patients immediately after the acute care at the hospital, the model of transition care was established. Moreover, the hospital of Reutte is implementing an interface management involving the subsequent facilities that are suitable for the patient. This is a response to problems that have been identified at the interface between health care and nursing system.

Need for integration

Health Care Stronger networking between inpatient and outpatient service supplying companies (e.g. cooperation concerning night services), integrative care (communications and data exchange between doctors, district authorities, hospitals, therapists), tele-medical solutions, e.g. tele-monitoring of the patients, even those suffering from diabetes, cardiac insufficiency, etc. communication platforms for the exchange of data with doctors and nurses.

Social Care Model of integrated care with a focus on customer / patient orientation: ensuring continuous, cross-sector and/or interdisciplinary and standardized care and individual service concepts. The provider of mobile care services should be regarded as a primary health care centre, which implements the model of preventive home visits, the case management in consultation with the discharge management in the hospital, therapists, district/family doctor.

3. CONCLUSIONS, INPUT FOR WPT3

Existing Plans, Trends

A better vertical implementation of SGI declarations at the European level might succeed by taking a more space-sensitive approach. The principles of the Open Method of Coordination as well as subsidiarity have proven to be successful concerning the vertical political interrelationships between the EU and their member states in many areas. A stronger positioning of space-relevant strategies from the outset would be beneficial for the SGI objectives.

Comparable living conditions by means of an overall coverage in all parts of the country is becoming more and more unrealistic in times of tight public budgets. Inter-municipal cooperation and public as well as private forms of cooperation are established models for the organisation of SGI, particularly in sparsely populated, rural regions. The communication and mobility services play a vital role, as they are feeder canals leading to the more and more sparsely distributed facilities of the social services SSGI.

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Coordinative and cooperative approaches of spatial planning and regional policy are only then useful for an integrated SGI supply, if they can be effectively positioned across sectoral competences. However, these instruments should be applicable to the respective sectoral needs and incentives should be given for a cross-sector planning - for example, of multifunctional SGI locations. (as in Humer 2014)

Identified gaps

The financial resources and the spatial preconditions for the efficient provision in a certain region determine the quality of regional SGI facilities. The provision of SGI in financially well-equipped areas with high population density is therefore definitely more useful for the people there. (as in Humer 2014)

The intentions of provincial strategies such as the Broadband Master Plan Tirol and the Structure Plan Care 2012-2022 Tirol demonstrate, however, that the planning and financing of public services is able to respond to different regional supply situations and different municipal financing contributions. However, it is more difficult to enforce this flexible approach in the case of highly normalized supply strategies and particularly in the case of laws, since such implementations are determined by a normative principle of equality.

The respective national sectoral policies for individual social services SSGI are more influential to the spatial provision than integrative requirements in relation to spatial planning. Spatial planning has taken on a consultative role, because its coordinative and cooperative planning approaches - e.g. for multifunctional locations - are of little importance in matters of sectoral competencies. However, if individual sectoral policies act according to their own spatial ratio, a spatially integrative, location-oriented and accessibility-based planning across SGI sectors cannot be achieved. (as in Humer 2014)

The different points of view and sectoral approaches of national, provincial and local policies prevent joint planning policies concerning the integration of SGI. The regional level seems to be the most successful one (at the levels of districts or municipal associations) when it concerns uniting the practical cooperation of adjacent SGI sectors and their participants.

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4. REFERENCES Bundeskanzleramt Österreich (2011): Verwaltung in Österreich. URL https://www.oeffentlicherdienst.gv.at/fakten/publikationen/verwaltung_in_oesterreic h_2011_en.pdf?3sfue1 [Download 20 Dec. 2016] Humer, Alois (2014): Services of General Interest in der EU – räumliche und raumpolitische Dimensionen. Groningen: PhD Series InPlanning (2016)

5. APPENDICES

Report on the Collection of Strategies

The Tyrolean State Government as a project partner of INTESI has set out the aim to evaluate specific strategies in terms of their spatial effects and possible forms of cooperation in this context. This is the Structure Plan Care 2012-2022 Tyrol as well as the Broadband-Masterplan 2010 for the Tyrol.

Within this application area, further national and state wide strategies (15 in number) showing certain references to the main topics were identified and surveyed more closely. Other regional strategies concerning SGI (9 in number) are just being briefly described and listed.

Report on carrying out the interviews

For the implementation of the project at the regional level, we appointed a project group of experts working in public and private areas. We interviewed this group of people as well as private experts working in the framework of the project. This was done based on the provided questionnaire in written form.

The structure of the surveyed persons was as follows: Male 4 Female 4 Public employees 4 Private employees 4 Experts working in the field of SGI on a long-term basis 8

As an additional document, a graduate thesis was considered in the preparation: Alois Humer: Services of General Interest in the EU - Spatial and Spatial-political Dimensions, 2014

For the report Manfred Riedl, Office of Tyrolean State Government [email protected] Innsbruck, 2017-01-05

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