TACR METROSPOL

The Brno metropolitan area was involved as one of the application guarantors in the TACR METROSPOL project from spring 2020. It was a project of the Faculty of Economics and Administration of Masaryk University and was called Institutionalization of Metropolitan Cooperation as a Factor to Increase the Motivation of Municipalities to Cooperate in Metropolitan Areas. The project succeeded in the competition of the Technology Agency of the Czech Republic in the programme for the support of applied social science and humanities research, experimental development and innovation ÉTA. The Technology Agency of the Czech Republic selected the METROSPOL project for support out of 526 submitted proposals. The selection of the project confirms its relevance, innovation and uniqueness not only in the Czech Republic. The duration of the project was approximately 2 years, with the final completion in October 2022.

Research team: Faculty of Economics and Administration, Masaryk University 

Main researcher: doc. RNDr. Josef Kunc, Ph.D. 

Application Guarantor 1: Department of ITI Management and Metropolitan Cooperation, the City of Brno

Application Guarantor 2: Regional Policy Department of the Ministry for Regional Development of the Czech Republic  

Fundamental thesis 

Although metropolitan areas and agglomerations occupy only 26% of the total area of the Czech Republic, they account for more than 70% of the total GDP of the Czech Republic. These areas are characterised by a high degree of urbanisation and concentration of population, economic activity, science and research, as well as intensive socio-economic links. The focus of social development is thus shifting more to the functional (natural) territories of metropolitan areas, where the development poles of the national economy are located.  

The Czech Republic is characterised by one of the most fragmented local government structures in Europe, which has a negative impact on the quality of public services, financial problems of small municipalities and economic development of localities. The challenges and problems that this situation poses can be addressed within the framework of cooperation in the metropolitan area as a natural functional region. However, metropolitan areas do not yet play a significant role in the Czech public administration system. In the Czech environment, metropolitan cooperation has not yet been formally institutionalised in any way, although its importance is emphasised in many developed European countries. Research also points to the need to strengthen the importance of metropolitan areas and agglomerations in the Czech Republic as key locations for the implementation of selected European and national policies, as well as the lack of an adequate legal framework for metropolitan cooperation and governance. Along with the growing importance of metropolitan issues, there is a growing need to find appropriate structures of cooperation, both formal and informal.  The absence of institutionalised metropolitan cooperation to coordinate activities in the metropolitan area is in close contrast to developments in many other EU countries.

Why institutionalise metropolitan cooperation?  

• Metropolitan areas are centres of socio-economic development, development poles of the national and European economy;
• For public administration, these areas represent complex functional regions that do not yet play an important role in the Czech public administration system;
• There is no legal framework for managing the development of metropolitan areas based on the active participation and responsibility of individual actors – the importance of metropolitan areas needs to be strengthened;
• There is no separate, autonomous and independent metropolitan entity for metropolitan themes;
• This is a common practice abroad – metropolitan scale;
• It ensures the coordination of joint activities in the territory;
• Currently, the Czech Republic has created (also thanks to the ITI instrument) the most suitable environment for the long-term promotion of the concept of metropolitan areas and their institutionalisation in regional policy;
• As the share of European funds decreases, the willingness of municipalities to cooperate voluntarily may decrease, so it is necessary to look for longer-term models of cooperation.

Aim of the project 

The project responds to the existing legislative vacuum at the metropolitan level in the Czech Republic and focuses on the Czech specifics of metropolitan cooperation at the level of functional regions. Metropolitan planning is a new element in the spatial planning framework – there is no metropolitan authority or entity with legal subjectivity in the Czech Republic, which would be in charge of this issue.

The aim of the project was to analyze and evaluate the motivations of municipalities for metropolitan cooperation and its institutionalization. The main output of the project is a methodology for initiating the institutionalization of metropolitan cooperation in the Brno Metropolitan Area. The conclusions of the project will help the Czech Republic to get closer to the examples of good practice of metropolitan development and planning in Western Europe. A project of similar scope and focus has not been implemented in the Central European area so far. 

The project is significant in terms of the issue of metropolitan cooperation in the Czech Republic, which has important results for the economy and society, strategic and spatial planning and the development of regions and cities. The results of the project can be used in these fields. Experts from the Brno Metropolitan Area shared information on the rich experience of cooperation between municipalities in the Brno Metropolitan Area, which is also the study area. As an application guarantor of the project, the City of Brno has the opportunity to use the project outputs in practice and to participate in cooperation with experts on the topic from the Faculty of Economics and Administration of Masaryk University.

Main research questions of the project:  

• What is the motivation of municipalities to cooperate within the metropolitan functional area?
• What is the added value of the institutionalization of metropolitan cooperation in the Czech Republic?
• How can metropolitan cooperation be institutionalized in the Czech Republic?

Partial outputs of the project:  

• A questionnaire survey among mayors of the Brno Metropolitan Area on the possibilities of long-term cooperation in BMO. 90% of mayors in the Brno Metropolitan Area want to participate in metropolitan cooperation and 94% of municipalities want to address selected strategic planning topics together at the metropolitan level. More information can be found here (only in Czech). More general information about questionnaire surveys in English can be found here.
• Survey among experts to identify tools for deepening metropolitan cooperation and their relevance. The following were mentioned as relevant: metropolitan strategic plan, data, analyses and surveys at metropolitan level, metropolitan spatial plan/spatial vision, metropolitan development fund, metropolitan institution/entity, metropolitan association of municipalities, metropolitan municipality with extended area of competence, metropolitan territorial self-government.  
• Analysis of examples of good practice from abroad. There are established methodological practices and development agencies in Western European countries as well as in Eastern Europe. This was an analysis of the metropolitan areas of Barcelona, Lyon, Stuttgart or Poznan. Institutionalisation in each metropolitan area differs in terms of purpose, status, competences, legal form, funding, etc.
• 2 workshops with experts. Agreement to deepen cooperation through the metropolitan institution:
  • A summary of the first workshop can be found under this link (only in Czech). 
  • Summary of the second workshop here (only in Czech).  
• Defining metropolitan themes and possible functions of a metropolitan institution and its activities. These are mainly analytical and strategic activities and project and coordination activities. 
• Elaboration of a variant of the possible legal form of this institution. It is a state-funded institution, association, voluntary association of municipalities, institute, joint-stock company. The preferred option and the most suitable intermediate form of institutionalisation of metropolitan cooperation based on the given requirements is the establishment of an institution on the basis of a registered institute. The founders would be the respective statutory city, the respective region and the voluntary associations of municipalities.  
• In the long term, the establishment of a new legislative form of legal entity, the so-called Metropolitan Association, is the most appropriate.  
• Options for possible funding, type of membership and transfer of responsibilities and competences were proposed.
• 3 scientific articles were published:

Size matters: Development and cooperation of municipalities in the Brno metropolitan area (Czech Republic). KUNC Josef,  TONEV Petr, NOVOTNÁ Markéta, ŠAŠINKA Petr, DVOŘÁK Zdeněk, RASZKOVÁ Soňa, KRAJÍČKOVÁ Aneta. Geografia Cassoviensis, year: 2021, volume: 15, issue: 2.

Možnosti metropolitní meziobecní spolupráce a její institucionalizace: příklad Brněnské metropolitní oblasti. KUNC Josef, ŠAŠINKA Petr, TONEV Petr, DVOŘÁK Zdeněk, RASZKOVÁ Soňa, NOVOTNÁ Markéta, CHALOUPKOVÁ Markéta, KUBEŠ František. Urbanismus a územní rozvoj, year: 2020, volume: XXIII, issue: 6. (only in Czech).

Along the path to metropolitan cooperation via metropolitan unit establishment: Case of Brno Metropolitan Area, Czech Republic. KUNC Josef, NOVOTNÁ Markéta, TONEV Petr,  ŠAŠINKA Petr, RASZKOVÁ Soňa, DVOŘÁK Zdeněk, JETMAR Marek. Geografia Cassoviensis, year: 2023, volume: 17, issue: 1.

• Preparation of specialized maps and storymaps:
  • Conditions and motivations for municipalities to cooperate in metropolitan areas. A case study of the Brno Metropolitan Area (BMA) (only in Czech).
  • Cooperation in the Brno Metropolitan Area. 
• Partial, detailed interviews with mayors of municipalities of the Brno Metropolitan Area and chairmen of voluntary associations of municipalities dealing with reflection on individual aspects of the metropolitan institution.  
• Communication strategy on metropolitan issues towards the national level.

Methodology of Institutionalization of Metropolitan Areas in the Czech Republic 

The final output of the project is a methodology for the institutionalisation of metropolitan cooperation. The aim of the presented methodology is to present a comprehensible and replicable approach to the establishment of a new institute of metropolitan association in the territory of a given functional urban area in the Czech Republic, both in the long term (with the need for legislative change) and in the short term (without the need for legislative change). This is a relatively big novelty in the context of the Czech Republic, we are talking in this respect about setting up the functioning of a not yet addressed/neglected level of cooperation. The project thus aims at the application level and significant social relevance. The proposal of a possible metropolitan association within the project methodology can also be an impulse for a more efficient and economical future performance of public administration and will generally lead to an increase in the quality of life of the population. The final methodology can be found under this link (only in Czech).