Further supplementary memorandum by METREX
Lord Woolmer asked me yesterday whether METREX
was advocating an additional level of government for European
metropolitan regions and areas. I may not have made the METREX
position explicit.
GOVERNANCE AND
GOVERNMENT
We do advocate a level of governance at the
metropolitan level but not necessarily a level of government.
The distinction is between governance as the capability for decision-making
and government, which can add competencies (powers) and resources.
I can perhaps illustrate this through the situation
in Scotland. Here the government consists of the Scottish Parliament
and 32 local Councils. However, there are also five city regions
or metropolitan areas across which strategic decision-making is
required. Across the Glasgow metropolitan area the eight Councils
concerned have set up a level of governance, through a joint committee,
without adding to the levels of government.
Across Europe metropolitan areas are making
appropriate administrative arrangements to manage change and these
range from such informal governance to elected government, as
in Germany. The choice often depends on the perception of the
scale and intensity of change that has to be managed and the effectiveness
of decision-making and implementation that is required.
In addition, many European metropolitan regions
and areas are cooperating for collective strength and competitiveness
and this is particularly important outside the prosperous core
if the Lisbon agenda is to be realised. The European jargon is
coopetition.
This is the approach advocated in the METREX
Framework.
However, such coopetition is not possible without
metropolitan governance of some kind through which it can be progressed.
In this sense the Benchmark approach facilitates the realisation
of the Framework.
ERDF IMPLICATIONS
METREX advocates the production of a European
perspective or framework to clarify how the related objectives
of social, economic and territorial cohesion can be achieved and
the allocation of financial resources accordingly. European metropolitan
regions and areas would then be key partners in the realisation
of such an overview.
In reality cooperation at the metropolitan level
and between metropolitan areas is happening across Europe, driven
by the practical need for competitiveness. The allocation of ERDF
resources should reflect this reality (for example, the Northern
Way initiative in England) and support it as one way of progressing
the realisation of the Lisbon Agenda.
9 January 2008
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