Scope

Europe’s seas have become important in terms of policy making on both European and national level. The exploitation of seas and coastal areas for economic purposes is becoming increasingly important, but there are also growing concerns on environmental issues.

To date, there is no elaborated territorial impact assessment methodology/model that has proven to be well-suited for assessing the ex-post impacts of CBC programmes. The service provider will develop a step-by-step methodology, describing how to determine the ex-post impact of cross-border cooperation (CBC) programmes on the territorial development of the border regions. A test of the methodology will also be performed in five stakeholder territories by providing evidence on how the elaborated methodology works in practice.

The Alpine area is composed of territories with different demographic, social and economic trends and a rich cultural, linguistic and biological diversity. This diversity goes along with a variety of governance systems and traditions. The region has a strong identity and a longstanding tradition in cooperation. This unique territory has important potentials for dynamic development, but is facing major challenges at various levels including the pan-Alpine, regional and local levels as well as in cross-border areas.

Based on the Swiss experience in defining the so-called “action areas”, this service contract is aiming at exploring the added value and potentials of new forms of cooperation areas. In particular it should analyse for which tasks and territorial/political context “action areas” do make sense in terms of territorial cooperation.