To better understand the state of play of the concerned territories, the EURE partners are working on 8 regional reports. A pool of experts, identified by the project’s partners, will support them in building these reports. Since the meeting in Brest, partners and experts are working hard in collecting data in order to build a clear overview of each territory involved in the project.
José Palma Andres, is the regional expert for Galicia. He was invited by EURE’s lead partner, Eixo Atlantico to join the project and coordinate the pool of experts. In this article, he better clarifies the objectives and the structure of the regional reports.
1. What will the Regional Reports include?
To better understand what is going on in the concerned territories, partners are working on State of Play Regional Reports. These Reports should include the following aspects:
A. Brief characterization of the Project territory:
- The brief historical and social background of the area;
- Geography of the territory, which consists of a map identifying not only the urban centres of more than 20.000 inhabitants but also those with a lower inhabitant density. Furthermore, this section will describe the territory structure and the relationship between urban and rural centres/municipalities;
- Geographical and demographic data;
- Economy data.
B. A brief characterization of the policy instrument addressed and other existing policy / strategic instruments:
- Description and main general characteristics of the Instrument;
- Regional actions and good practices on urban resource-efficiency, in particular about the following thematic areas:
• Sustainable land use;
• Water;
• Waste;
• Urban renewal;
• Energy transition;
• Sustainable Urban mobility.
- Regional actions and good practices on environmental management performance, in particular about the following thematic areas:
• Air and Noise quality;
• Climate adaptation;
• Social inclusion;
• Governance for sustainable urban development and Participation.
- Regional actions and good practices on green growth and eco-innovation in particular about the following thematic areas:
• Re-greenery the city;
• Protect and increase biodiversity and ecosystem services;
• Nature-based solutions;
• Eco-innovation;
• New green economy examples.
- Analysis of how the policy instrument addresses the objectives of the EU Action Plan for the Circular Economy. In this last chapter, an attempt will be made to understand where the territories involved in the project are in terms of information and actions on waste relative to:
• Production;
• Consumption;
• Waste management;
• Market for secondary raw materials;
• Sectorial Action (Plastics, Food waste, Critical raw materials, Construction and demolition, Biomass and bio-based materials);
• Innovation and investments;
• Monitoring.
2. WHO IS WORKING ON THE REPORTS?
Each Partner has designated an expert for the Pool of Experts whose role is to elaborate the draft report, in close collaboration with the Partner and all authorities and civil society organisations concerned so that information can be reliable.
These draft reports, being of the responsibility of the EURE partners, are discussed with the Regional stakeholder Groups concerned and then validated.
3. WHAT WILL BE THE MAIN OUTPUTS OF THE REGIONAL REPORTS?
These reports are in drafting phase since the end of January 2020. The reports will add information and value to the project, in particular on:
• how territory actors perceive the intervention of EU and national and local Policy instruments on urban policy;
• how EU urban policy is being implemented;
• the main difficulties encountered and eventual recommendations for improvement of the instruments in the future.
JOSÉ PALMA ANDRÉS
Economist, he studied in Lisbon and at the London School of Economics in London (Postgraduate).
He joined the European Commission in 1987 as Head of Division, and was Director of the European Commission's Directorate-General for Regional Policy from 2002 to the end of 2014.
As Director, with responsibility for ERDF intervention over the years in most EU countries and all European Territorial Cooperation programs, he was also responsible for the preparation and implementation of the European Strategies for the 4 Macro-Regions of the Baltic Sea, Danube, Alps Region and Adriatic and Ionian Region.
He is a specialist in the European Regional Development Fund.
Before joining the European Commission, he was Director General at the Portuguese Ministry of Planning and Regional Development responsible for Municipal Administration, having started his career as a technician and then Vice-President of the Coordination Commission of the Lisbon Region, having spent 18 months at the Management of a large Portuguese agro-industrial company.
He is currently a consultant on territorial cooperation, in particular cross-border and interregional in Europe.
