European Union Cohesion Policy EN Ex-Post Evaluation of INTERREG III 2000 - 2006 Evaluation report June 2010 INTERREG III Community Initiative (2000-2006) Ex-Post Evaluation (No. 2008.CE.16.0.AT.016) Final Report INTERREG III Community Initiative (2000-2006) Ex-Post Evaluation (No. 2008.CE.16.0.AT.016) Final Report Panteia and Partners: • EureConsult S.A. (Luxemburg) • Policy Research and Consultancy (Frankfurt / Germany) • GÉPHYRES EURL (Roubaix / France) • The Radboud University (Nijmegen / The Netherlands) Reference R20100077/30967000/LTR/CWI Zoetermeer, May 2010 The use of figures and/or text from this report is permitted if the source is clearly mentioned. INTERREG Ex-Post Evaluation: Final Report Contents ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 10 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 12 1 GENERAL INTRODUCTION 22 1.1 Background - EU-funded territorial co-operation 22 1.2 Evaluating INTERREG III in a dynamic perspective 28 2 THE OVERALL IMPACT OF “STRAND A” 33 2.1 Initial policy expectations of the INTERREG III Guidelines 33 2.2 The impact on promoting territorial development in cross-border co-operation areas 34 2.2.1 General context, intervention rationale and overall outcome of Strand-A programmes 35 2.2.2 Exploring effects of Strand-A interventions - case study evidence 42 2.2.3 Exploring the impact of Strand-A programmes - case study evidence 52 2.3 The impact on furthering the depth and intensity of cross-border co-operation 58 2.3.1 The overall co-operation performance of Strand A 58 2.3.2 Factors influencing on the overall co-operation performance 63 2.3.3 Complementarity & co-ordination with other Structural Funds programmes 70 2.3.4 Leverage effects generated by EU-funded cross-border co-operation 72 2.3.5 The added value of EU-funded cross-border co-operation 73 2.4 A typology of Strand-A programmes 75 3 THE OVERALL IMPACT OF “STRAND B” 77 3.1 Initial policy expectations of the INTERREG III Guidelines 77 3.2 The impact on promoting territorial integration of transnational co-operation areas 78 3.2.1 General context, intervention rationale and overall outcome of Strand-B programmes 78 3.2.2 Exploring effects of Strand-B interventions - case study evidence 83 3.2.3 Exploring the impact of Strand-B programmes - case study evidence 93 3.3 The impact on furthering the depth & intensity of transnational co-operation 100 3.3.1 The overall co-operation performance of Strand B 100 3.3.2 Factors influencing on the overall co-operation performance 103 3.3.3 Complementarity & co-ordination with other Structural Funds programmes 106 3.3.4 Leverage effects generated by EU-funded transnational co-operation 107 3.3.5 The added value of EU-funded transnational co-operation 109 3.4 A typology of Strand-B programmes 110 R20100077.doc 3 May 2010 INTERREG Ex-Post Evaluation: Final Report 4 INTERREGIONAL CO-OPERATION AND NETWORKING CATALYSING COHESION AND CO-OPERATION: INTERREG IIIC, ESPON 2006 & INTERACT 113 4.1 Interregional co-operation: INTERREG III C 113 4.1.1 INTERREG III C: policy expectations 113 4.1.2 Impact of INTERREG IIIC on EU economic and social cohesion and balanced territorial development 115 4.1.3 Contribution of INTERREG III C to Community policies 123 4.1.4 Factors of interregional co-operation effectiveness 126 4.1.5 Transfer of Strand C good practice to mainstream programmes 136 4.2 ESPON 2006 137 4.2.1 ESPON 2006: the initial policy expectations 138 4.2.2 ESPON 2006 contribution to a cohesion policy knowledge base:observing territorial development trends in Europe. 138 4.2.3 Contribution of ESPON 2006 to Community policies 140 4.2.4 Factors of co-operation effectiveness under ESPON 2006 140 4.2.5 Transfer of ESPON 2006 knowledge on territorial development to other Community programmes 142 4.3 INTERACT 143 4.3.1 INTERACT networking: initial policy expectations, priorities and objectives 143 4.3.2 Effectiveness of INTERACT 145 4.3.3 Impact of INTERACT 147 4.3.4 Factors of co-operation effectiveness under INTERACT 149 4.4 Community added value of Strand C, ESPON 2006 and INTERACT 150 5 POLICY-LEVEL CONCLUSIONS ON THE INTERREG III COMMUNITY INITIATIVE 152 5.1 Conclusions on the initial INTERREG III policy agenda 152 5.2 Conclusions on the overall impact of INTERREG III 154 5.2.1 Re-visiting the reported achievements of INTERREG III 154 5.2.2 The impact of INTERREG III on territorial development 155 5.2.3 The contribution of Strands A & B 155 5.2.4 The contribution of Strand C, ESPON and INTERACT 159 5.2.5 The impact of INTERREG III on co-operation 160 6 POLICY RECOMMENDATIONS FOR OBJECTIVE 3: EUROPEAN TERRITORIAL CO-OPERATION 164 6.1 Main changes in 2007-2013 164 6.2 Recommendations for the remainder of the period 2007-2013 166 7 POLICY IMPLICATIONS FOR EUROPEAN TERRITORIAL CO- OPERATION AFTER 2013 169 7.1 Territorial co-operation and the current debate on the future of EU-Cohesion Policy 169 7.2 Reflections for the policy debate on future territorial co-operation 170 R20100077.doc 4 May 2010 INTERREG Ex-Post Evaluation: Final Report ANNEX 1: MAIN FINDINGS FROM THE REVIEW OF ACADEMIC & POLICY-ORIENTED LITERATURE ON EU-FUNDED TERRITORIAL CO-OPERATION 177 ANNEX 2: THE “SYNTHETIC INDICATOR” MEASURING THE DEPTH & INTENSITY OF TERRITORIAL CO-OPERATION ACHIEVED BY INTERREG III PROGRAMMES 181 ANNEX 3: THE TYPOLOGY OF INTERREG IIIA PROGRAMMES 185 ANNEX 4: THE TYPOLOGY OF INTERREG IIIB PROGRAMMES 188 ANNEX 5: FRAMEWORK CONDITIONS IN STRAND-A PROGRAMME AREAS AT THE OUTSET OF INTERREG III 190 ANNEX 6: OVERALL FEATURES OF THE DECISION-MAKING SYSTEMS ESTABLISHED BY STRAND-A PROGRAMMES 193 ANNEX 7: OVERALL FEATURES OF THE MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS ESTABLISHED BY STRAND-A PROGRAMMES 195 ANNEX 8: FRAMEWORK CONDITIONS IN STRAND-B PROGRAMME AREAS AT THE OUTSET OF INTERREG III 197 ANNEX 9: OVERALL FEATURES OF THE MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS ESTABLISHED BY STRAND-B PROGRAMMES 199 ANNEX 10: INTERREG IIIC PROGRAMMES: INDICATORS RELATING TO THE OBJECTIVE “EXPANDING THE EFFECTS OF STRUCTURAL FUNDS” 201 ANNEX 11: AGGREGATED OUTPUTS ACHIEVED DURING THE INTERREG III PROGRAMME PERIOD 202 ANNEX 12: AGGREGATED RESULTS ACHIEVED DURING THE INTERREG III PROGRAMME PERIOD 204 BIBLIOGRAPHY 205 R20100077.doc 5 May 2010 INTERREG Ex-Post Evaluation: Final Report List of tables Overview 1.1: The evolution of EU-funded territorial co-operation 24 Table 1.1: “Meta-typology” for European territorial co-operation - the situation at the outset of INTERREG III 26 Table 2.1: Main impact achieved by selected case study programmes 55 Table 3.1: Average achievement ratios of individual Strand-B programmes 83 Table 3.2: Main impact achieved by selected case study programmes 97 Table 3.3: Comparing previous co-operation tradition of the North West Europe and Baltic Sea programmes 103 Table 4.1: Number / % of indicators that met their target value (average achievement ratio between 90-110 %), under-, or over-performed 116 Table 4.2: Indicator “number of new projects/activities/approaches resulting from the interregional exchange of experience” 121 Table 4.3: Strand C ERDF budget and de-committed funding (€m.) 129 Table 4.4: Distribution of Strand C project partners 133 Table 4.5: INTERREG IIIC project good practices 135 Table 4.6: INTERACT Objectives 145 R20100077.doc 6 May 2010 INTERREG Ex-Post Evaluation: Final Report List of Figures and Maps Figure 2.1: Division of Strand-A expenditure amongst the priority topics 39 Figure 2.2: Average achievement ratios for the individual Strand-A priority topics 39 Figure 2.3: Average achievement ratios of individual Strand-A programmes 41 Figure 2.4: The influence of previous co-operation tradition on the overall co-operation performance of Strand-A programmes 61 Figure 3.1: Division of Strand-B expenditure amongst the priority topics 82 Figure 3.2: Average achievement ratios for the individual Strand-B priority Topics 82 Figure 3.3: The influence of previous co-operation tradition on the overall co-operation performance of Strand-B programmes 102 Figure 4.1: Topics for interregional cooperation: number of projects 117 Figure 4.2: Percentage of projects in the cooperation fields 117 Figure 4.3: Identification of INTERREG III programme challenges 119 Figure 4.4: The influence of previous co-operation tradition on the overall cooperation performance of Strand C programmes 127 Figure 4.5: Programmes’ perception of the effectiveness of their publicity and promotion strategy 130 Figure 4.6: Number of INTERREG IIIC projects per type of operations 133 Figure 4.7: INTERACT priorities and their target groups 144 Figure 4.8: Quality / usefulness of INTERACT products 148 Figure 4.9: Use of INTERACT products 148 Map 2.1: Depth & intensity of co-operation achieved by Strand-A Programmes 60 Map 2.2: Typology of Strand-A programmes 76 Map 3.1: Depth & intensity of co-operation achieved by Strand-B programmes 101 Map 3.2: Typology of Strand-B programmes 112 Map 4.1: Geographic distribution of INTERREG IIIC project partners 132 R20100077.doc 7 May 2010 INTERREG Ex-Post Evaluation: Final Report Acronyms AEBR Association of European Border Regions AESOP Association of European Schools Of Planning CADSES Central, Adriatic, Danube and Southeast European Space (INTERREG IIC) CARDS Community aid for reconstruction, development and stability CBC Cross-Border Co-operation CEC Commission of the European Communities (European Commission) CEMAT Conférence Européenne des Ministres responsables de l’Aménagement du Territoire CI Community Initiative CIP Community Initiative Programme CoR Committee of the Regions CSD Committee on Spatial Development DG Directorate-General EC European Commission ECA European