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EVALUATION OF THE NETHERLANDS MINISTRY OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS’ INTER-MUNICIPAL CO-OPERATION PROGRAMME FOR THE ACCESSION TO THE EUROPEAN UNION GST WILLEM CORNELISSEN (SEOR BV, ROTTERDAM) MART NUGTEREN & MAAIKE OOSTERBAAN (ECORYS-NEI, ROTTERDAM) WORKING DOCUMENT | NOVEMBER 2003 This working document is a contribution to an evaluative study of the Municipal International Co-operation as conducted by the Policy and Operations Evaluation Department (IOB) of the Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs. It is a product evaluation of the co-financing programme in support of inter-municipal co-operation between Dutch local governments and those in accession countries (Gemeentelijke Samenwerking Toetredingslanden - GST). Willem Cornelissen (SEOR B.V., Erasmus University) elaborated the report based on country studies in Poland and the Czech Republic written by Mart Nugteren and Maaike Oosterbaan (Ecorys-NEI). The authors express their gratitude to the local authorities in the Netherlands, Poland and the Czech Republic, who all have been forthcoming in providing information and opinions, and highly appreciate the comments made by the IOB Reference Group on earlier drafts. The report is the sole responsibility of SEOR BV and Ecorys-NEI and does not necessarily reflect the views or opinions of either IOB or the Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs. ii FOREWORD Inter-municipal co-operation is a kind of multiple twinning. At both ends of the city linkage public and private organisations are involved. The Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs supports Dutch municipalities and other local governments in their efforts to strengthen the governance capacities of their partners abroad through decentralised co-operation. The Ministry co-finances inter-municipal activities through subsidy programmes. In addition, the Ministry supports specific independent projects aimed at strengthening local government capacity in partner countries. These together are known as municipal international co- operation. One of the subsidy programmes is targeted at the Central and Eastern European accession countries to the European Union (Gemeentelijke Samenwerking Toetredingslanden - GST). The day-to-day administration of the co-financing funds has been delegated to the Association of Dutch Municipalities (Vereniging van Nederlandse Gemeenten - VNG). The Policy and Operations Evaluation Department (IOB) of the Netherlands’ Ministry of Foreign Affairs is an independent department, responsible for the evaluation of the policies and activities of this Ministry. IOB embarked upon an evaluation of the municipal international co-operation. In the framework of this overall evaluation, it contracted the association of companies SEOR B.V. and ECORYS NEI, both from Rotterdam, to conduct sub-studies. The present report, written by Willem Cornelissen, covers the assessment of the results of the GST-programme. To that end, teams composed of Dutch and local experts, led by Mart Nugteren, carried out field studies in Polish and Czech municipalities. A draft of this report was presented to the Reference Group and was discussed on 14 May 2003. The study took place under overall responsibility of Francis Kettenis, evaluator of IOB. IOB’s evaluation of municipal international co-operation is published in the series of evaluation reports of IOB. This study is of interest to those involved in inter-municipal co- operation in Eastern Europe and published as an IOB Working Document. The authors are solely responsible for the contents of this report. Rob D. van den Berg Director Policy and Operations Evaluation Department iii iv CONTENTS 1SUMMARY AND MAIN FINDINGS ............................................................................. 1 2INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................... 5 2.1 Municipal International Co-operation............................................................ 5 2.2 The intervention model and implementation modalities................................ 8 2.3 Objective of the evaluation and research methodology...............................11 2.4 Population and sample ...............................................................................14 2.5 Organisation ...............................................................................................16 2.6 Structure of the report .................................................................................17 3LOCAL GOVERNMENT IN POLAND AND THE CZECH REPUBLIC ...............................19 3.1 Introduction.................................................................................................19 3.2 Local government in Poland........................................................................20 3.3 Local government in the Czech Republic ....................................................21 4EXTERNAL SUPPORT AND INTERVENTIONS ...........................................................23 4.1 External support in Poland..........................................................................23 4.2 External support in the Czech Republic ......................................................24 4.3 The Dutch programme for municipal co-operation in the context of external support to local governments 25 4.4 Twinning relations and GST........................................................................26 4.5 GST-activities .............................................................................................26 4.6 Profiles of the participating municipalities....................................................28 5THE ACTIVITY PROCESS ......................................................................................31 5.1 Demand or supply driven ............................................................................31 5.2 Administration and accounting ....................................................................34 5.3 Implementation ...........................................................................................34 5.4 Monitoring, role of the Embassy..................................................................35 6RELEVANCE.......................................................................................................37 6.1 Introduction.................................................................................................37 6.2 Relevance vis-à-vis problems encountered.................................................37 6.3 Recipient’s policy relevance........................................................................38 6.4 Relevance for strengthening of local government .......................................38 6.5 Donor’s policy relevance.............................................................................39 6.6 Relevance at activity and programme level.................................................40 7 Efficiency........................................................................................................43 7.1 Introduction.................................................................................................43 7.2 Input and output..........................................................................................43 7.3 Duration and size of the interventions under GST.......................................44 7.4 Relative importance of GST-finance ...........................................................46 7.5 Quality of the organisation of the activities ..................................................46 7.6 Efficiency at activity and programme level ..................................................47 v 8 Effectiveness..................................................................................................51 8.1 Introduction ................................................................................................51 8.2 Achievement of objectives..........................................................................52 8.3 Side effects and impact ..............................................................................56 8.4 Sustainability of activities and contextual factors ........................................57 8.5 Effectiveness at activity and programme level ............................................58 Annex 1 List of tables and figures……………………….………………………… 61 Annex 2 Abbreviations……………………………………………………………… 65 Annex 3 Terms of Reference (short version)……………………………………. 69 Annex 4 Overview GST-activities in Poland and the Czech Republic……….. 81 Annex 5 Objectives of the GST-activities in Poland and the Czech Republic.. 87 Annex 6 List of people interviewed in Poland and the Czech Republic………. 95 Annex 7 References………………………………………………………………… 99 vi 1 SUMMARY AND MAIN FINDINGS The objective of the inter-municipal co-operation programme for the accession to the European Union -GST- is to contribute to either the adoption of measures at the local governance level resulting from the acquis communautaire, or to strengthen the capacities of local governments to implement regulations and services that may emerge from the adoption of the acquis at the national level. GST is a co-financing (subsidy) programme started in 1998, which forms part of the broader Matra pre- accession programme for Central and Eastern European countries, funded by the Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs contracted out the management of GST to the Dutch Association of Municipalities, VNG. The GST- programme is implemented through inter-municipal co-operation (city twinning or friendship relations).

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