Scenario > Energy Efficiency Plan in the Adriatic Sea
This is a future scenario* to show how the charter can create a shift in how Multi-level governance (MLG) is applied in Europe. It has been developed during the “Engagement Interviews”, (Brussels – 03-04/2012).
* The following story is a fiction imagined during the co-creation process and does not engage the public authorities or stakeholders eventually mentioned.
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SCENARIO
Roberta De Luca, Advisor to Energy Minister (Italy)
The lack of large areas in the surroundings of big populated regions around Europe slows down the growth of the number of wind park installations. This point is even more crucial in nations like Italy, where the sensitiveness towards the preservation of natural beauties makes populations suspicious against new on-shore parks. The Multi-level Governance (MLG) Charter has been triggered to negotiate and collaborate with other European Countries to explore knowledge and methods to implement such a plan. In which off-shore wind projects, technologies have grown up and steadily been developed, local governments, rather than private investors, have both showed strong interest and sensitiveness in acquiring shared knowledge aimed to properly estimate the amount of resources available. This shows a shift in local governments taking action on large projects that affect their city or region, but also impact on the wider EU Scheme to reduce greenhouse energy. The project aims to define a set of strategies and methods common to the countries overlooking the Adriatic Sea valuable for the development of offshore wind farms. The quest for a common action amongst the Adriatic countries would lead to a fast growth of the number of installations. Research and design process will progress through several steps, some of which will be carried out in parallel. MLG is being used to create strong outcomes for the region and the EU in energy efficient and development of renewable technology.The MLG web platform has been a necessary tool to provide information resource on what issues are most commonly used in relation to the relevant MLG issues sustainable development and environment negotiations and collaborations.
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Scenario > Europe 2020 Strategy
This is a future scenario* to show how the charter can create a shift in how Multi-level governance (MLG) is applied in Europe. It has been developed during the “Engagement Interviews”, (Brussels – 03-04/2012).
* The following story is a fiction imagined during the co-creation process and does not engage the public authorities or stakeholders eventually mentioned.
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SCENARIO
Brendon McCormack, Senior Policy Advisor (Ireland)
The Multi-level Governance (MLG) Charter assists local, regional and national levels to adhere to national reform programs to implement various objectives set by Europe 2020 in local and regional areas. Europe 2020 for instance is combating the issue of early school leaving at the European Level (which is translated from international targets). In Ireland the local levels of government are responding by creating local action plans to combat the major issues relating to early school leaving. Coordinators and facilitators who are familiar with the issue and MLG are working in cooperation with expert bodies and national agencies to ensure duplication does not occur. The national, regional and local policies are all cooperating to achieve a process for managing this issue in the most effective and efficient way. Families from the local areas are also engaged in this process and give feedback to the process, even at a national level. These families have been engaged in the issue through this MLG program, thanks to the Early School Leaving Educational Bus.
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Scenario > Universal Access to Built Environment
This is a future scenario* to show how the charter can create a shift in how Multi-level governance (MLG) is applied in Europe. It has been developed during the “Engagement Interviews”, (Brussels – 03-04/2012).
* The following story is a fiction imagined during the co-creation process and does not engage the public authorities or stakeholders eventually mentioned.
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SCENARIO
Kristjan Vasiliev, Director Community Services, City of Tallinn (Estonia)
Since March 2013 and the City of Tallinn became one of the members of the European collective signatories of the MLG charter. Local partners now have a new form of leverage to claim their rights. The network of local associations working towards a “Design for all city”, after coming across the MLG charter started to work with groups of citizens. Gathering persons with disabilities and reduced mobility, families with young babies using prams everyday and elderly people to bring about inclusive design in the built environment and they all share everyday. The association has been using the MLG Charter Toolkits to make the animation of work session in which citizens have been able to express their design ideas and views on how the public space needs to cater to the diverse array of needs from people in the city. The local council at Tallinn takes on their feedback is able to begin to source funding from the national level to implement this plan and make actions happen on the ground. Once again, through the application of the main principle of the MLG, a shift is happening, creating a culture of people owning the political decisions made in their place.
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Scenario > Climate Change Solutions Eco-Chain Started by Children
This is a future scenario* to show how the charter can create a shift in how Multi-level governance (MLG) is applied in Europe. It has been developed during the “Engagement Interviews”, (Brussels – 03-04/2012).
* The following story is a fiction imagined during the co-creation process and does not engage the public authorities or stakeholders eventually mentioned.
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SCENARIO
Egelin Rebane, Director of Services, Tallinn Region (Estonia)
Climate Change is a universal task which is to be addressed by a whole chain of people in the governance system. Initiated at school from an early age, children in homes are taking action to reduce and sort waste. Starting from them, we can consider that this is having a systemic effect in the whole chain of governance in the EU, and possibly the world. Children in local schools in Tallinn have been introduced to the MLG charter through the interactive charters website explaining in simple schemes and using easy examples, the main principles of MLG. Starting from that, they initiated some projects with their teachers with the objective of making things changing locally and to spread their experience globally. They are using this to catalyse systemic change for reducing energy and waste in households throughout the EU. One of the principles understood by the children was that they could contact themselves their local mayor in Tallinn, who in turn catalysed their suggestions to reduce energy and waste in the city. Tallinn conceived the idea of a ‘European Green Capital’ which runs the program ‘Green Cities – fit for life’, so is a leader in this space to be encouraging other cities to become climate friendly. In turn, the city mayor which received the label/brand “For a good MLG in Europe” by signing the charter have based some new local actions on the main principles to reach Targets set by the national government and European Union strategies on Climate Change. These strategies are stemming from initiatives at the UN level such as the Kyoto Protocol. Tallinn is in fact one of the first signatories of the “Covenant of Mayors” in Europe.
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Scenario > Double Shift
This is a future scenario* to show how the charter can create a shift in how Multi-level governance (MLG) is applied in Europe. It has been developed during the “Engagement Interviews”, (Brussels – 03-04/2012).
* The following story is a fiction imagined during the co-creation process and does not engage the public authorities or stakeholders eventually mentioned.
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SCENARIO
Tobias Larsson, head of regional affairs (Denmark)
“The regions in Europe are cooperating with decision-making levels of government. In general the EU Commission and Member States are paying more attention to conversation, parliament and negotiation due to the new Multi-level Governance Charter, which has come into being in 2012. The MLG Charter informs the MLG training program, which is providing dynamic workshops to key members of the governmental system. These people are the ‘change agents’ to create the culture of MLG in the EU. There are representatives from local and regional governments working with national levels and EU Commissions. Decisions have shifted from central state level from Brussels. Then another shift has occurred where member states are working closer with local and regional levels.”
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Scenario > Technology Transfer through Triple Helix – Project of European Social Fund
This is a future scenario* to show how the charter can create a shift in how Multi-level governance (MLG) is applied in Europe. It has been developed during the “Engagement Interviews”, (Brussels – 03-04/2012).
* The following story is a fiction imagined during the co-creation process and does not engage the public authorities or stakeholders eventually mentioned.
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SCENARIO
Elena Constantinou, Director of Services, Cyprus Region (Cyprus)
“The Multi-level Governance Charter which has been signed by the Cyprus Region, is encouraging the implementation of the Triple Helix. The aim is to build technology transfer through the model of Triple Helix. The idea is not only to create the communications between levels of government, but also bring this multi-layered communication and collaboration between academia, government and business. Research and innovation can be brought effectively to the market through strong partnerships. The collaboration between different levels of industry, research and government creates more clarity as to what the market, or customer needs. The way MLG principles are reflected is through the development and operation of enterprise liaison offices in universities, operating in the republic of Cyprus. These offices are funded nationally through the European Structural Fund. Three levels of government are participating in this project. The communication and collaboration between different sectors as well as different levels of government shows how innovation can be created. MLG is in fact influencing the way businesses do business and universities do academia with one another!”
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Scenario > Urban Platform for EU Capital of Culture
This is a future scenario* to show how the charter can create a shift in how Multi-level governance (MLG) is applied in Europe. It has been developed during the “Engagement Interviews”, (Brussels – 03-04/2012).
* The following story is a fiction imagined during the co-creation process and does not engage the public authorities or stakeholders eventually mentioned.
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SCENARIO
Margarita Kristy, Civil Servant at the Region of Sofia (Bulgaria)
In 2019 a city in Europe will be hosting the EU Capital of Culture. In Bulgaria the capital, Sofia is bidding for the title to use the Urban Platform Policy developed by the EU to source funds. The Urban Platform will be allocating 51% spend to urban development. This is a long-term strategy for public funding at all levels of government in the EU. It ties in with the EU Commission 2020 Strategy and provides opportunities for cities like Sofia to access funding and support. Being a member of the network of the signatories for the MLG Charter enables this process, as Sofia is using Multi-level Governance to negotiate with regional and national levels to negotiate funding for this bid. They are connecting their objectives for a Cultural Capital City and tying these objectives in with the Urban Platform Funding. The negotiations taking place are diverse. There is open dialogue between the city, state and national government, more time is being saved and there is also less duplication of resources. Decisions are in fact taking less time because there is a strong dialogue between different members. These members have been trained in MLG curriculum. The process they are taking is also seen as learning and their share their progress on the MLG website.
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Scenario > Training program for Multi-level Governance
This is a future scenario* to show how the charter can create a shift in how Multi-level governance (MLG) is applied in Europe. It has been developed during the “Engagement Interviews”, (Brussels – 03-04/2012).
* The following story is a fiction imagined during the co-creation process and does not engage the public authorities or stakeholders eventually mentioned.
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SCENARIO
Julie Schneider, Senior Policy Advisor, EU Regional Think Tank (Brussels)
“In order to achieve the right political culture and capacity for the charter, as well as capacity of the people to embrace Multi-level Governance culture, educational training is essential for this process. The partnership between Committee of the Regions and EU capacity building associations. For this reason the education programs developed and designed by bodies like these, is going to assist with the institutionalization of MLG culture throughout the EU. Each region will integrate skilled people into their governance system to negotiate, create partnerships and instill the culture of sharing and collaboration between different levels of government. The MLG Charter is in the beginning of the process of instilling a culture of collaboration, so the education program helps to enhance the MLG agenda in the governance system of Europe.”
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Scenario > Cohesion policy and training
This is a future scenario* to show how the charter can create a shift in how Multi-level governance (MLG) is applied in Europe. It has been developed during the “Engagement Interviews”, (Brussels – 03-04/2012).
* The following story is a fiction imagined during the co-creation process and does not engage the public authorities or stakeholders eventually mentioned.
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SCENARIO
Kate Summers, Senior Policy Advisor, EU Regional Think Tank (Brussels)
“In my opinion the MLG Charter assists with the implementation of the Cohesion Policy in the EU. The main objective of Cohesion Policy is to diminish the gap between different regions, more precisely between less-favoured regions and affluent ones. It is an instrument of financial solidarity and a catalyst for economic integration. This cohesion policy requires communication and dialogue between all of the different regions. The Cohesion Policy is being translated into tangible actions thanks to the MLG training. The training curriculum has been informed by the MLG Charter which has provided guidelines on the priority areas to provide training in. For instance in negotiation, communication between different levels, creating a culture of trust, saving resources and avoiding duplication. The MLG Charter assists the Cohesion Policy to be implemented effectively because of the training programs, tools, communications and education to achieve the integration and cooperation between cities, regions, Nations and the EU.”
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Scenario > Multi-level Governance Charter as a way to give visibility to local organizations
This is a future scenario* to show how the charter can create a shift in how Multi-level governance (MLG) is applied in Europe. It has been developed during the “Emulation Workshop” organized at the CoR (Brussels – 3/02/2012).
* The following story is a fiction imagined during the co-creation process and does not engage the public authorities or stakeholders eventually mentioned.
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SCENARIO
Danielle Martin, 47 years old, representative of a small agricultural association (France)
“Thanks to the Committee of the Regions’ Multi-level governance Charter, I could gain visibility towards the European Commission for my small association and its objectives. More than 12000 signatories of the Charter – mainly local and regional authorities but also member states – allow me to defend the interests of local farmers more convincingly.”