Thematic Evaluation of the Territorial Employment Pacts Final Report to Directorate General Regional Policy ANNEX III : NATIONAL AND CASE STUDY REPORTS OCTOBER 2002 by ECOTEC Research & Consulting Limited 13B Avenue de Tervuren B-1040 Brussels BELGIUM Tel: +32 (02) 743 89 49 Fax: +32 (02) 732 71 11 Ecotec Research and Consulting Ltd Thematic Evaluation of the Territorial Employment Pacts Final Report to Directorate General Regional Policy ANNEX III : NATIONAL AND CASE STUDY REPORTS October 2002 ECOTEC Research and Consulting Limited 13b Avenue de Tervuren Priestley House B-1040 Brussels 28-34 Albert Street Belgium Birmingham B4 7UD Tel: +32 (0)2 743 8949 United Kingdom Fax: +32 (0)2 743 7111 Tel: +44 (0)121 616 3600 Fax: +44 (0)121 616 3699 Web: www.ecotec.com E-mail: [email protected] Modesto Lafuente 63 – 6a E-28003 Madrid Spain Tel: +34 91 535 0640 Fax: +34 91 533 3663 6-8 Marshalsea Road London SE1 1HL United Kingdom Tel: +44 (0)20 7089 5550 Fax: +44 (0)20 7089 5559 31-32 Park Row Leeds LS1 5JD United Kingdom Tel: +44 (0)113 244 9845 Fax: +44 (0)113 244 9844 Ecotec Research and Consulting Ltd COUNTRY REPORTS AND CASE STUDIES BY ECOTEC’S NATIONAL CORRESPONDENTS CONTENT BELGIUM: TEP Programme as a whole 3 • TEP Halle-Vilvoorde 14 • TEP Bruxelles-Capitale 25 DENMARK: TEP Programme as a whole 34 • TEP Viborg 38 GERMANY: TEP Programme as a whole 46 • TEP Berlin-Neukölln 55 • TEP North-Rhine-Westphalia 74 • TEP Chemnitz 90 GREECE: TEP Programme as a whole 113 • TEP Imathia 120 • TEP Magnesia 125 SPAIN: TEP Programme as a whole 130 • TEP Ceuta 140 • TEP Valles Occidental 155 FRANCE: TEP Programme as a whole 178 • TEP Albertville 201 • TEP Montpellier-Hérault 216 • TEP Pays de Valois 230 • TEP Saint Herblain-Indre-Coueron 244 IRELAND: TEP Programme as a whole 257 • TEP Dublin 278 • TEP Dundalk-Drogheda 288 ITALY: TEP Programme as a whole 292 • TEP Agro Nocerino Sarnese 310 • TEP Calatino Sud Simeto 325 • TEP Catania Zona Sud 336 LUXEMBOURG: TEP Programme as a whole 354 • TEP Dudelange 357 THE NETHERLANDS: TEP Programme as a whole 368 • TEP Limburg 371 AUSTRIA: TEP Programme as a whole 386 • TEP Vorarlberg 395 PORTUGAL: TEP Programme as a whole 412 • TEP Northern Alentejo 416 FINLAND: TEP Programme as a whole 427 • TEP Iilsami 435 • TEP Kemi 442 SWEDEN: TEP Programme as a whole 447 • TEP Strömstad 459 Ecotec Research and Consulting Ltd • TEP Värmland 464 UK: TEP Programme as a whole 470 • TEP St-Helens 484 • TEP Tottenham 492 • TEP Tynneside 502 Ecotec Research and Consulting Ltd National Report on the overall performance of the TEP Programme: Belgium Prepared by: Stephanie Devisscher IDEA, Brussels 3 Ecotec Research and Consulting Ltd Thematic Evaluation of the Territorial Employment Pacts – Final Report – Annex 3 Evaluation of the Territorial Employment Pacts Country report Belgium Section 1 of this report describes the TEP programme in Belgium. The detailed information gathered for the case studies of Halle-Vilvoorde and Bruxelles Capitale will be described in Section 2. Section 1 - TEP PROGRAMME AS A WHOLE Introduction: Government Context in Belgium Belgium’s federal structure is reflected in the division of responsibilities over different government levels, namely national (Belgium), regional (Flanders, Walloon and Brussels) and local. Economic and labour market responsibilities are divided as follows: • Employment: national and regional • Skills and training: regional • Entrepreneurship: national and regional • Local economic development: regional. Employment policy has been partially delegated to the federal member states (the regions). These federal member states are responsible for the implementation of European programmes such as ESF Objective 3 and EQUAL. The selection procedure for the TEPs, therefore, is under the separate authority of the Flemish, the Walloon and the Brussels government. The federal Belgian government does not play a significant role the programme. We will therefore discuss the member state context, the overall pact performance and its effects in Flanders, Walloon and Brussels, respectively. The following table presents the five 5 Belgian pacts. TEP Responsible region Motive for the establishment of the TEP Halle-Vilvoorde Flanders closure of Renault – Vilvoorde car factory Tongeren Flanders closure of Nova factory Bruxelles Capitale Brussels new form of social dialogue Ouest du Brabant Walloon closure of Forges de Wallon Clabecq steel factory Hainaut Walloon industrial regeneration and existing dynamics from Objective 1 programme Regarding the concept of a “TEP programme”, a TEP programme at Belgian level did not exist since the regional governments are responsible for that matter. But even at the regional level, no evidence of a TEP programme as such can be found. The governments were aware of the EC Pact programme, however, the TEP projects were treated as individual cases and 4 Ecotec Research and Consulting Ltd Thematic Evaluation of the Territorial Employment Pacts – Final Report – Annex 3 supported as such by the governments. The regional governments did not prepare a regional programme for the TEPs, and as a consequence, there is a lack of written documentation on the Belgian Pacts. We shall now turn to a description of the TEP projects in Flanders, Brussels and Walloon. First of all, we describe the Flemish context of the Pacts in Flanders. There are two Pacts in Flanders, namely Tongeren and Halle-Vilvoorde. The Pact of Halle-Vilvoorde was selected for the case study (see Section 2 A). Following this, we analysed the general context in the Brussels region and made a case study of the only Pact in Brussels, the Pact Bruxelles Capitale (see Section 2 B). There are two Pacts in Walloon, however no cases have been selected here. A. Flanders The following analysis is predominantly based on an interview with Louis Vervloet, head of the European Employment Unit of the responsible ministry of the Flemish government. Literature relating to the policy context has also been consulted. Government context and Pact selection procedure 1. Government context In 1997, at the time of the TEP’s inception, the Flemish labour market policy already had a territorial orientation, especially with respect to the public employment services and vocational training. Public employment services are local in nature. These services organise placement of jobseekers and training courses. There is a tradition of cooperation between the employment services and sectoral organisations, education institutes etc., both at a regional and a local level. Territorial councils (STCs) at regional or local levels represent social partners in the development of the regional employment strategy. In some areas there are regional platforms to develop the area’s socio-economic strategy (formed by municipalities, social partners, private sector, NGOs, etc.). Furthermore, local initiatives for employment exist in many places, particularly in larger towns such as Ghent. These initiatives often receive support from the ESF’s Objective 3. From this picture, it could be perceived that there is little room for new partnerships to operate. 2. Application and selection procedure In Flanders, the Pacts started under the stimulus of the Flemish government unit responsible for the ESF programmes in Flanders, the European Employment Unit. It felt, from information provided by the EC initiative, that it would be feasible to have two Pacts in Flanders. The two potential areas were both regions suffering from a recent factory closure. The closure of the Renault car factory in Vilvoorde meant the loss of more than 3000 jobs and affected many smaller suppliers. In the region of Tongeren, the closure of the Nova factory (manufacturing household equipment) had a similar impact. The European Employment Unit felt that these two local labour market problems could be tackled with a broad labour market partnership according to the TEP methodology. The STCs, the existing local labour market fora of the social partners, developed this idea into a 5 Ecotec Research and Consulting Ltd Thematic Evaluation of the Territorial Employment Pacts – Final Report – Annex 3 TEP partnership both in Tongeren and in Vilvoorde. With support from the Flemish government, the Pacts’ application was approved by the EC. 3. Attitudes of national, regional and local authorities towards the pacts The Flemish government helped the Pacts in the selection process by providing pre-financing (but no co-financing). Furthermore, the European Employment Unit followed up the Pacts’ activities, to provide information on co-financing sources and support some ESF projects. Overall, there was little interaction between the European Employment Unit and the EC. Overall performance of the Pacts 1. Extent to which the 4 Programme objectives have been met From the point of view of the Flemish government, the Pacts’ main merit was in showing the potential of a broad partnership approach, especially in the case of Halle-Vilvoorde. This partnership idea has subsequently been imitated in other policy initiatives. The Pacts succeeded in bringing partners together that had a different opinion on social-economic development and no previous tradition of working together. 2. Added value of working methods and actions of the Pacts The following factors contributed to the positive functioning of the Pact Halle-Vilvoorde: - a strong leader (the pact co-ordinator) able to mobilise partners and to push the project forward - the continual dissemination of project results to maintain partner motivation - real commitment