The first year of the MECOG-CE project is successfully completed!

For over a year now, our department has been leading the MECOG-CE project – Strengthening Metropolitan Cooperation and Governance in Central Europe under the Interreg Central Europe programme. Thanks to the project, we and 14 other partners across Europe are pushing forward mutual cooperation in the field of the metropolitan development. This is the first time that Brno is the lead partner of a major international project and will be involved in it for the next two years.

Since April 2023, when the project was officially launched in Brno, we have managed to achieve several important outcomes that represent not only a shift in the project itself, but also in the meaning of metropolitan issues in Central Europe and the exchange of knowledge between partners. We will summarise the work of the project consortium in turn:

• We have created Common Metropolitan Vision – it is a policy document advocating the metropolitan agenda at European and national level, while summarising the needs and strengths of metropolitan areas. We will now jointly present the vision at different levels to strengthen metropolitan issues; 
• We have identified challenges and oppportunities specific for Central European metropolitan areas – the document summarises not only the current challenges for Central European metropolitan areas, but also the opportunities for the enhancement of metropolitan dimension. Furthermore, it investigates the presence of this dimension in European and international policies. 
• We have analysed the metropolitan governance systems of metropolitan areas involved in the project and their best practices and tools – this unique document presents an analysis of the partner metropolitan areas in terms of their metropolitan structures and the functioning of metropolitan cooperation in the territory. The information given is also set in the national context in more detail. The next part of the document presents and compares the identified tools and examples of good practice that have proved successful in the metropolitan areas. In total, we have collected 47 examples of good practice. You can also take a look at the individual metropolitan structures and selected tools in this storymap.
• We have analysed the best practices outside Central Europe region – the document presents 29 good practice tools that have been successfully applied in metropolitan areas that are not part of the project. These include the Amsterdam, Barcelona and Birmingham metropolitan areas. 

The document Status quo of metropolitan dimension in Central Europe and its future development presents all the findings together to give a good picture of all the outcomes achieved.

The first year of the project was therefore mainly about analytical work, with partners sharing their knowledge and experience. The project consortium identified and described 76 tools aimed at strengthening metropolitan cooperation and governance. These are a wide range of tools in different thematic domains focusing on process or project innovation. A summary of the most interesting tools of the metropolitan areas involved in the project can be found here:

During the first year of the project, countless project meetings took place, both online and in person. The results of the most interesting ones, which took place in Brno, Warsaw and Stuttgart, can be found by clicking on the links provided. 

In the second year of the project, we will focus with our partners on a detailed in-depth learning about the selected tools that emerged from the partner meetings and analyses. Within the framework of the study clusters, partners will learn details of good practice examples and then test them in their metropolitan areas via pilot action. The Brno Metropolitan Area will focus on testing the Food Districts tool applied in the Metropolitan City of Turin to improve local agri-food chains contributing to the sustainable development of the area. Based on the results of the research and testing, we will then propose improvements to the tool together with other partners. We will also work in clusters dealing with the functioning of the Warsaw Metropolitan Association and the Municipal Neighbourhood Forum of the Berlin-Brandenburg Metropolitan Area.

We are therefore looking forward to another exciting and important year for the MECOG-CE project and you can continue to follow its progress on our website or project website. The project also has its own profile on LinkedIn.  

The project is co-funded by the European Union funds, specifically the European Regional Development Fund, through the Interreg CENTRAL EUROPE transnational and interregional cooperation programme. More information about this project including publicity can be found here.