TY - JOUR T1 - Future research on European Union Cohesion Policy: a Master Class during the OPEN DAYS 2014 JF - Regional Studies, Regional Science Y1 - 2015 A1 - Wolfgang Petzold A1 - Marius Guderjan A1 - Alba Smeriglio A1 - Myrto Tourtouri A1 - Neculai- Cristian Surubaru A1 - Koen Salemink A1 - Piotr Idczak A1 - Christian Kjær Monsson A1 - Hunor Bajtalan A1 - Chiara Garau A1 - Mariana Soultanova A1 - Alessia Usai A1 - Eduardo Medeiros A1 - Tomasz Szulc A1 - Marco Trienes A1 - Annika Jaansoo A1 - Emily Lange A1 - Gökhan Yalcin A1 - Gordon Modro A1 - Jean-Marc Venineaux AB -

Between 6 and 8 October 2014, the 12th European Week of Regions and Cities – OPEN DAYS – hosted an early career Master Class for the second time, aiming to improve understanding of European Union (EU) Cohesion Policy and its research potential. Organized by the European Commission’s DG for Regional and Urban Policy (DGREGIO), the Committee of the Regions (CoR) and the Regional Studies Association (RSA), the Master Class brought together 29 doctoral students and early career researchers from 15 EU member states and three non-EU countries.

The evaluation of the Master Class by participants and lecturers revealed a high level of satisfaction with the networking opportunities provided. The World Café session coordinated by John Bachtler from the Strathclyde University received the highest appreciation. As a result of the latter, participants of the Master Class summarized their views on different aspects in the five subsequent articles. Marius Guderjan, Alba Smeriglio and Myrto Tourtouri look into the policy and research challenges for EU Cohesion Policy for the years to come. Neculai-Cristian Surubaru, Koen Salemink, Piotr Idczak and Christian Kjær Monsson discuss the components of administrative capacity, the elements that affect it and instruments that may help improve it. Also with regard to administrative capacity-building for the management of the EU Structural and Investment Funds, Hunor Bajtalan, Chiara Garau, Mariana Soultanova and Alessia Usai propose a stronger research focus on possibilities to reduce political intervention in public administrations and on the role civil society organizations can play in this respect. Finally, two articles focus on research challenges concerning the ‘European Territorial Cooperation’ objective of EU Cohesion Policy, also known as ‘Interreg’. Eduardo Medeiros, Tomasz Szulc and Marco Trienes suggest concentrating on the development of typologies of border regions, the need for a longer-term cross-border planning process, and the use of territorial impact assessment instruments, while Annika Jaansoo, Emily Lange, Gökhan Yalcin, Gordon Modro and Jean-Marc Venineaux develop a list of issues reflecting on ‘capacity and governance’

VL - 2 UR - http://rsa.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/21681376.2015.1013151 IS - 1 ER - TY - BOOK T1 - Local Participation in Visegrad Countries: How Are Politicians Rooted in the Civil Society? Y1 - 2014 A1 - Potluka, Oto A1 - Piotr Idczak A1 - Ida Musiałkowska A1 - Kalman, Judit A1 - Spacek, Martin A1 - Kostal, Ctibor A1 - Ovadek, Michal A1 - Tholtova, Barbora KW - Bratislava KW - Budapest KW - civil society KW - civil society organisations KW - European Union KW - leaders KW - local elections KW - local participation KW - Poznan KW - Prague KW - regions KW - Visegrad Countries AB -

This year, the Visegrad countries celebrate together twenty ve years since the socio, economic and political changes lead in collapse of totalitarian regimes. But the political transition brought also problems and new challenges not know previously. The rst free elections were held in the Visegrad countries that time and their inhabitants could choose their political representatives. Many of them came originally from the civil society and revolution movements. However, the political decision-making became disconnected from the civil society over time. We study the present rootedness of local political representatives in the civil society measured by their membership and leadership in civil society organisations in all four Visegrad countries. We are as well interested in engagement of activists from the civil society in an institutionalised political life, i.e. political parties and political movements. The purpose of this book is to discuss development of local democracy, local development initiatives and local social capital in growing urban areas in post-transition countries in which the civil society was almost absent or very weak twenty ve years ago. This publication comes up with overviews of the situation in four cities, one in each of the Visegrad countries. First the Polish case of Poznan is discussed. Then three capital cities follow: Czech Prague, Slovakian Bratislava and Hungarian Budapest.

PB - IREAS CY - Praga UR - http://www.ireas.cz/images/projekty/lea/lea_publikace.pdf ER - TY - Generic T1 - LEGAL ASPECTS OF THE IMPLEMENTATION OF EU FUNDS 2007-2013 IN POLAND – PRACTICE AND CHALLENGES T2 - Regionalisation and Inter-regional Co-operation. 21th NISPAcee Annual Conference Y1 - 2013 A1 - Ida Musiałkowska A1 - Robert Talaga KW - 2007-2013 KW - adoption of operational programmes KW - coordination KW - EU funds KW - EU law KW - operational programmes KW - Poland AB -

Poland, since the pre-accession period, has been dealing with the European Union financial and technical assistance. However, current financial perspective of the EU gave Poland opportunity to be involved in the whole programming period and participate in each phase of the Cohesion Policy cycle. The responsibility of the implementation of this policy is shared between the European Commission and the Member States of the EU. Therefore, one of the key elements of the use of EU funds is the regulatory environment and legal acts adoption that enable proper use of the EU budgetary allocations. Besides, the strong impact of the European Union has been visible on the processes of governance and law creation on both central and regional levels of administration. It has resulted in appearance of multilevel governance and creation of  multilayered legal system in terms of the use of EU funds. One of the main aims of the article is to present Polish experiences with the implementation and creation of legal acts referring to the area of Cohesion Policy in the years 2007-2013 (including strengths and weaknesses). From comparison made to previous period 2004-2006 changes in the process of adoption and implementation of legal acts are noticeable. Moreover, some shifts towards stronger coordination in the phase of programming of the policy are visible. Challenges and remedies to weaknesses with reference to legal and management aspects of Cohesion Policy would be also discussed in concluding section of the paper. The methodology of the paper bases on the analysis of types of legal acts, legal and administrative procedures comprising EU regulations, Polish legal acts, Ministry of Regional Development regulations and guidelines, regional/local law, confronted with the consequences for system of EU funding and for potential beneficiaries. The results of the analysis can help to formulate recommendations for improvement in the forthcoming years 2014-2020 that can be useful not only in the Polish case. This particular experience can serve as in-depth case study for countries preparing themselves to join the EU and also provide some lessons for inter-regional co-operation in the area of regional development and consequences of multilayered law creation. 

JF - Regionalisation and Inter-regional Co-operation. 21th NISPAcee Annual Conference PB - NISPAcee CY - Belgrade, Serbia SN - 978-80-89013-68-5 UR - https://www.academia.edu/3578342/Legal_aspects_of_the_implementation_of_EU_funds_2007-2013_in_Poland_-_practice_and_challenges ER - TY - JOUR T1 - Kontrola wydatkowania środków z funduszy strukturalnych jako element zarządzania procesem rozwoju regionalnego w Polsce JF - Studia Komitetu Przestrzennego Zagospodarowania Kraju (KPZK) PAN Y1 - 2011 A1 - Ida Musiałkowska A1 - Robert Talaga KW - administrative courts KW - akty prawne KW - control KW - EU KW - EU funds KW - fundusze unijne KW - kontrola KW - legal acts KW - PCM KW - Poland KW - Polska KW - sądy administracyjne KW - UE AB -

The EU Cohesion Policy has had a great impact on many processes and changes in policy-making in Poland. In the area of regional development and development policy new instruments and creation of the systems of management and control had to be introduced in the Member States (MS) which is a derivative of the EU regulations. The MS however have autonomy in shaping the systems. Those two elements contribute to increasing complexity, multi-level governance and needs strong coordination of many elements. In the article the authors decided to analyse different types of external control of the use of EU Structural Funds and relate this to the phases of the project cycle management. The authors modify definition of external control and include also  control of the system by the stakeholders of the Cohesion Policy (social control) with the focus on administrative proceedings application. Therefore, multidimensional overview on proper functioning of the systems of the SF management and control in Poland is introduced by the authors. This approach is innovative and at the same time the article gives an opportunity to gather dispersed information on control present in the literature. The methodology  is based on legal acts analysis.

VL - 140/2011 SN - 978-83-89693-19-1 UR - http://skpzk.czasopisma.pan.pl/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=245:no-140-2011&catid=84:wydania&Itemid=210 IS - Perspektywy rozwoju regionalnego Polski w okresie programowania po 2013 r. Cz. II ER -