Metropolitan Colours of Europeanization. Institutionalization

Raumforsch Raumordn (2017) 75:275–289 DOI 10.1007/s13147-016-0447-y WISSENSCHAFTLICHER BEITRAG Metropolitan Colours of Europeanization. Institutionalization of Integrated Territorial Investment Structures in the Context of Past Cooperation in Metropolitan Regions Joanna Krukowska1 ·MartaLackowska1 Received: 3 December 2015 / Accepted: 10 October 2016 / Published online: 2 November 2016 © The Author(s) 2016. This article is available at SpringerLink with Open Access. Abstract The paper focuses on the institutional solutions Keywords Europeanization · Metropolitan governance · adopted in various Polish metropolitan regions due to the Intermunicipal cooperation · Integrated Territorial requirement to create structures facilitating the operation Investment · Poland of Integrated Territorial Investment (ITI) in the 2014–2020 EU financial perspective. This phenomenon is analysed in the light of the process of the launching and functioning Metropolitane Farben der Europäisierung. of metropolitan cooperation and of the concept of Euro- Die Institutionalisierung von Strukturen peanization. Our considerations are based on the assump- der integrierten territorialen Investitionen tion that past attempts to institutionalize metropolitan co- vor dem Hintergrund bisheriger Zusammenarbeit operation influence the process of the creation and func- in den Metropolregionen tioning of ITI cooperation. Our research has confirmed this proposition. We found various reactions to the top-down Zusammenfassung Die polnischen Metropolregionen sind incentive in all of the investigated metropolitan regions. In aufgefordert, Strukturen zu entwickeln, die die Durchfüh- general four main types of situation are identified depend- rung der integrierten territorialen Investitionen (ITI) der ing on past metropolitan cooperation and its relation to the EU-Finanzvorschau 2014-2020 ermöglichen. Dieser Bei- ITI institutions. On the national level an interesting “double trag untersucht entsprechende institutionelle Lösungen in top-down” pressure was discovered, as the EU guidelines verschiendenen polnischen Metropolregionen in Anbetracht have been made much stricter by the Polish government, des Prozesses der Initiierung und Arbeitsweise der metro- turning an incentive for local actors into a must. Finally, politanen Zusammenarbeit und des Konzepts der Europäi- Integrated Territorial Investment has enlivened metropoli- sierung. Unsere Überlegungen basieren auf der Annahme, tan governance in Poland, which is interesting to follow dass vorherige Versuche, metropolitane Zusammenarbeit zu in the future, especially as it has no connection to other institutionalisieren, Einfluss auf die Initiierung und Arbeits- national regulations proposed for metropolitan regions. weise der ITI Zusammenarbeit nehmen. Unsere Untersu- chungen bestätigen diese These. Verschiedene Reaktionen This article was written as part of research performed within the zu dem top-down Ansatz wurden in den untersuchten Me- project “Intermunicipal Cooperation: Political and Economical tropolregionen festgestellt. Abhängig von der bisherigen Dimension”, funded by the National Science Center in Poland metropolitanen Zusammenarbeit und der Beziehung dieser (grant no. 221504). zu den ITI-Institutionen wurden vier Haupttypen identifi- Dr. Joanna Krukowska ziert. Auf nationaler Ebene wurde ein interessanter „dop- [email protected] pelter top-down“ Effekt aufgedeckt: Die polnische Regie- Dr. Marta Lackowska rung hat die EU Richtlinien wesentlich strenger gestaltet [email protected] und hat dadurch einen Anreiz für lokale Akteure zu einem Zwang gewandelt. Schließlich hat ITI metropolitane Go- 1 Department of Local Development and Policy, Faculty of Geography and Regional Studies, University of Warsaw, ul. vernance in Polen belebt. Dies wird auch in der Zukunft Krakowskie Przedmiescie´ 30, 00-927 Warsaw, Poland interessant sein, vor allem weil ITI keine Verbindung zu 276 J. Krukowska, M. Lackowska anderen nationalen Vorschriften für die Metropolregionen Commission.1 In the light of the above two frameworks, aufweist. we present the solutions implemented in the urban areas of Poland as a response to the introduction of Integrated Schlüsselwörter Europäisierung · Metropolitane Territorial Investment. Governance · Interkommunale Zusammenarbeit · There are at least three reasons why focusing on Poland Integrierte territoriale Investitionen · Polen is particularly interesting. First, Poland, despite its 25 years of experience of local government, has hardly any tradi- tion of metropolitan governance. It could therefore be ex- 1 Introduction pected that arrangements may be more prone to external influence. Second, there is still little research on metropoli- Metropolitan governance is an issue which has gained a lot tan governance and Europeanization in a post-socialist con- of attention throughout the last century, both from scholars text. Third, Poland – in contrast to all other EU member and practitioners. Yet a perfect solution has not been found. states – has made Integrated Territorial Investment com- The question of how tasks involving an area greater than pulsory for 17 regional capitals.2 The need to establish the one administrative unit can be carried out effectively, with- associations3 forced many Polish municipalities either to out depriving the area of autonomy and local democracy, create new metropolitan cooperation structures or to im- remains open. In the European context, it is strongly influ- prove the existing ones. There were few cases where solu- enced by Europeanization processes (Atkinson/Rossignolo tions compatible with the formal requirements of Integrated 2008; Hamedinger/Wolffhardt 2010). Especially in recent Territorial Investment could have been developed on the ba- years, more and more attention has been paid to the cities sis of pre-existing institutions, and even fewer cases where when planning activities funded with the structural funds the opportunity to do so was really taken. Therefore, the of the European Union. It is important to analyse the city new institution of Integrated Territorial Investment became with its surrounding area from a functional perspective. As a solution (often extremely difficult to implement) that stim- a response to the challenges connected with managing the ulated the process of launching metropolitan cooperation. development of such areas, the European Commission proposed a formula of Integrated Territorial Investment (ITI). The form of the new instrument is innovative, but the man- 2 Theoretical Framework ner of implementation can be largely based on past experience of cooperation and multi-level governance. In The issue of so-called metropolitan governance has been some cases, Integrated Territorial Investment may result in subject to discussion for over a hundred years and has changes in the practices of metropolitan governance. also been described in Polish literature many times (Swian- In this paper, two theoretical frameworks have been im- iewicz 2006; Kaczmarek/Mikuła 2007; Lackowska 2009; plemented to discuss the phenomenon of cooperation under Sagan/Canowiecki 2011). Our analysis focuses on the fac- Integrated Territorial Investment. The cooperation theory is tors that facilitate and hinder cooperation. This helps us to based on the assumption that the stability of structures al- understand the decisions of local governments concerning lowing for cooperation has a positive influence on the whole whether to use existing forms of metropolitan cooperation context of cooperation. We therefore investigate relations when establishing ITI structures. between Integrated Territorial Investment and the past institutions of metropolitan cooperation. Within the second framework, Integrated Territorial Investment is a great lab- 1 This article came into being in the middle of 2015, at a moment when oratory of research on the phenomenon of Europeaniza- European and national regulations regarding the establishment of ITI tion. On one hand, the implementation of Integrated Terri- associations were still subject to various interpretations and were being torial Investment is a sign of Europeanization imposed from adapted locally, sometimes with modifications. For example, it turned above which influences solutions adopted at the state and out that ITI associations will probably play the role of intermediate bodies, which may result in changes in the original management and local levels. On the other hand, the reaction of individual ur- institutional structures established for the purpose of managing Inte- ban areas illustrates a bottom-up aspect of Europeanization, grated Territorial Investment. as do the national regulations providing specific solutions 2 The decision was made to establish separate Integrated Territorial connected with the general idea provided by the European Investments for each of the two biggest agglomerations in one of the 16 Polish NUTS 2 regions (Lubuskie). 3 The term “ITI association” (Polish zwiazek ˛ ZIT) was invented for the purpose of the new instrument; the similarity of terms in Polish re- sulted in ITI associations being mistaken for “joint committees of municipalities” (Polish zwiazek ˛ mi˛edzygminny), operating under the Local Government Act. Metropolitan Colours of Europeanization. Institutionalization of Integrated Territorial Investment Structures in the Context... 277 In a widely quoted study on metropolitan governance, “shadow of the future” (Axelrod 1984: 174). This phe- edited by Heinelt and Kübler (2005), three main

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