Together with representatives of the metropolitan areas of Stuttgart, Ostrava, Berlin, Turin, Warsaw, Milan, colleagues from Charles and Silesian Universities and the Metropolitan Research Institute in Budapest, we have succeeded in a large international competition with the project MECOG-CE in the Interreg Central Europe programme. This is the first time that the City of Brno will be the lead partner of a project of such importance. It also holds this primacy within the Czech Republic.
The project will focus on strengthening metropolitan cooperation and governance in Central Europe. The project aims to identify the best tools, procedures and examples of good practices for strengthening metropolitan cooperation and governance in Central Europe and apply them in metropolitan areastowards strengthening integrated metropolitan strategic and territorial development. The project is designed so that knowledge/tools/methods and examples of good practice can be applied to other partner cities of Central Europe that deal with metropolitan cooperation and governance development. It is therefore primarily about sharing experiences and finding best practice tools between the western part of Central Europe and its eastern part.
The partners of the project’s main leader, the city of Brno, include the cities of Warsaw, Ostrava and the metropolitan areas of Stuttgart, Turin and Berlin, while the metropolitan area of Milan and the Upper Silesian Metropolitan Areaare associated partners. Research institutions will also be part of the project. We will cooperate with Charles University, the Silesian University in Katowice and the Metropolitan Research Institute (MRI) in Budapest. Other associated partners will also be part of the project: the Union of Polish Metropolises, the Ministry of Regional Development and partners representing European metropolitan networks and structures (Eurocities, Metrex).
The method of work will consist of intensive cooperation between the partner cities, research experts and representatives of international networks. The cooperation will be based on international meetings aimed at sharing good practices. During the joint meetings, the current status quo of metropolitan cooperation and governance in the partner cities will first be summarised by the partners and then the best tools/examples of good practice will be identified that can be shared and applied to other cities in their operation. At the same time, new tools will be identified that can be used to deepen metropolitan cooperation and governance (inspiration from other parts of Europe). On the basis of the selected tools and examples of good practice, the partners will create “study clusters“, whose main objective will be to deepen the sharing of experience in the implementation, management and transferability of these tools. The main objective of the partners’ cooperation is the development of a Strategy for strengthening metropolitan cooperation and governance in Central Europe and the creation of action plans for each partner city. The cooperation also includes pilot actions to test selected tools and methods in practice. The project will also include the production of position papers towards the European level, reflecting the position of metropolitan areas and cities and their challenges (in the context of strategic European documents). At the same time, a general transferable methodology for strengthening metropolitan cooperation and governance will be developed and shared with other cities in Central Europe.
We want to take full advantage of this opportunity to become the leading partner of a project of such scope and significance for the first time in the Czech Republic. Keep your fingers crossed for us. The project started on 1stApril 2023 and will last 36 months.
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