Demonstrating the benefits of European Territorial Cooperation
Territorial Cooperation has become more important than ever, as the European Commission's recent Green Paper on territorial cohesion outlined, yet many of its results and success stories remain uncovered and unknown, even within the European Territorial Cooperation community. This means that making a case for continued funding is more difficult than it should be, and many great opportunities for dissemination of best practice and efficient synergies are lost.
INTERACT Â addresses the problems with the introduction of KEEP - Knowledge and Expertise in European Programmes - a comprehensive database-backed web tool with interactive maps and tables and detailed information on over 13 000 projects - all those funded under INTERREG and European Territorial Cooperation. INTERACT supports and promotes good governance in European Territorial Cooperation. Its Secretariat which is based in Bratislava has four INTERACT points in Turku, Valencia, Viborg and Vienna.
The Bratislava conference will mark the launch of the consultation period to give programmes a chance to air their views. Representatives of the European Commission Directorate General for Regional Policy as well as the President of the Bratislava Self Governing Region will be speaking.
The event will build towards an agreement on how programmes, the Commission and INTERACT can work together to ensure that we have the best possible evidence of what the projects are achieving. The separate workshop sessions will give participants the chance to reflect on the successes and lessons learnt from INTERREG as well as to focus on the current and future programming periods.
Specifically, the event aims to bring together representatives from all European Territorial Cooperation Programmes and the European Commission in order to create a common understanding for the months ahead. It is also aimed at a range of programme staff working with monitoring, evaluation, project support and communication. It is important that participation have sufficient expertise to reflect and comment on existing monitoring and evaluation within the programme and how these might be harmonised with wider initiatives.
The event is free and open. The draft agenda can be found here. Expected participants will be around 150. Registration for the event closes on 15 March and can be performed online.
Event email: interact@interact-eu.net
