NWE UPDATESeptember 2005 - issue n° 8

NEWSLETTERI N T E R R E G I I I B NORTH WEST EUROPE

READ ABOUT : LATEST NEWS FROM THE JTS.............. P1

PROJECTS AT FULL STEAM.... P 2-3

EVENTS & WEBSITES….................P 4

PROGRAMME NEWSAnnouncing project site visitsMost projects are in the middle of their implementation phase; some will reach soon their closing phase. The Secretariat thinks it is the perfect timing for an in-depth meeting with projects.

The aim of such visits is to learn from your experience, to assist the projects in solving specifi c problems they may have (e.g. compliance with spending target), to see the deliverables of the projects and to verify the management system put in place.

Our ambition is to visit all projects at least once during their lifetime. The Finance and Project Development Offi cers will get in contact with you in due time.

The Multi-Programme Task Force on Cooperation Indicators was approved at PMC8. This initiative, led by NWE and INTERACT, aims to look beyond standard indicators that gauge project outputs and impacts but do not measure the human, and often intangible, aspects of cooperation such as social capital. The study, funded by INTERACT, will produce a set of indicators to measure cooperation. The outcomes should be relevant to all 13 IIIB zones and 4 IIIC zones, several of which took part in the task force meeting in February at DG Regio. A call for tenders was launched in May. The selection committee met in July at the INTERACT Secretariat and chose ECOSFERA, an Italian fi rm. The fi nal study will be presented to the European Commission in late January 2006.

To help project partners improve their payment claims, the Secretariat and the NWE Contact Points organised three audit seminars for project Lead Partners in May 2005 for English, French and Dutch speakers. A fourth seminar will take place in Stuttgart on September 14th for German speakers. A summary of the outcomes of the seminars can be found on www.nweurope.org under “implement your project / workshops”.

Indicators?The level of transnationality, environmental impact, government involvement… all of these fi elds of evaluation which contribute to the assessment of a project are called indicators. They are collected and assessed to provide qualitative and quantitative statistics on the objectives set out by the Programme. A process of standardising indicators throughout IIIB and IIIC Programmes is underway.

Establish new indicators to better measure the value of cooperation

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NWE audit seminars

ManagementPhilippe Doucet left the INTERREG IIIB North West Europe Programme in August. Together, the Managing Authority and the Member States are working to fi nd a suitable replacement. Meanwhile, your other contacts within the JTS are available as usual. Please call +33 3 20 78 55 00 or email nwe@nweurope.org for general enquiries.

Manchester

The German led ERIH project launched the ERIH brand on 11th and 12th September in the picturesque setting of the Ironbridge Gorge, where Telford (the host partner) was celebrating world heritage day with both locals and visitors.

Ironbridge is a world heritage site in Shropshire known at least by name to civil engineers all over the United Kingdom as the birthplace of the British iron industry. The small town of Coalbrookdale is the home of this landmark

of the industrial revolution, which was originally built in 1779 to advertise the ironworks which drove the local economy. Around the same period, smoking chimneystacks started to appear all over North West Europe, in The Netherlands, Belgium, Germany… many of which are today partners or anchorpoints of the ERIH project.

In one of the Ironbirdge museums, 30 Display stands showed the wealth and variety of the ERIH network across North West Europe. The speakers spoke for ERIH on aspects of Industrial

Heritage from their own perspective, from local to European, with the national view expressed by Sir Neil Cossons, Chairman of English Heritage.

The ERIH brand will provide a marketing backbone for all of the partners and anchor points, in view of highlighting the strong social and European links between them. We hope to see the ERIH philosophy spread all over Europe, and the logo at the entrance of all anchor points very soon!

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PROJECT NEWSEuropean Flood Risk Management comes together in MainzRisks (including floods) have been clearly earmarked on the EC’s list of priorities for future transnational cooperation. But what have cooperation projects in the field of flood risk achieved so far? Between October 17th-19th over 20 INTERREG IIIB projects involved in Flood risk management will take centre stage in the grandiose setting of Schloss Waldthausen on the outskirts of the city Mainz (photo) to exchange on their concrete results and identify specific issues for the next programming period. This 3 day international conference is jointly organised by the NWE Programme and the SDF project (Sustainable Development of Flood Plains). Some 180 participants are expected to attend this three-day conference which will include a field visit to one of SDF’s recently completed pilot investments at Polder Ingelheim.

ERIH LAUNCHES ITS BRAND

the Ironbridge

Schloss Waldthausen

Morris Dancers

Glen Lawes & Dr Robert Datzer

old ironworks

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REVIT - MAKING URBAN REGENERATION POLICIES MORE EFFECTIVE

The partners have identified 3 “Common Co-operation Issues” (CCIs) :

CCI 1: Formal and informal brownfield regeneration instruments and methods that stimulate participation and community involvement.

CCI 2: New financing techniques, public private partnership models and re-use marketing concepts in the context of brownfield regeneration.

CCI 3: Multi-functional development, preservation and intelligent re-use of industrial heritage potentials and elimination of environmental damages as well as protection of natural assets. The effectiveness of these different approaches and tools will be tested in each partner area before publishing final recommendations.

In every country and in almost every city of North-West Europe, there are brownfield areas which need to be revitalised in order to preserve or improve the quality of urban living conditions. Regeneration policies create many benefits by enhancing urban development, creating new employment, stimulating the local economy and preserving greenfield sites. The six partner cities involved in the REVIT project face similar problems with their brownfield sites. Through the REVIT project they each want to make their regeneration policies more efficient and more sustainable.

February 2006 : conference in Nantes REVIT will hold an international event in Nantes on 2-3rd February 2006 to bring together public and private sector players in this field. The event has two objectives: to shed light on the economic,operational and legal conditions and to provide a forum where participants can discuss innovative practices and share experiences.Furthermore the transnational working teams will present a web-based register of all target brownfield sites in all REVIT partner areas.

August 2007 : final conference in StuggartThe partnership plans to publish its overall results at a final conference in Stuggart in August 2007 together with the CABERNET project : this will include best practice toolkits for community involvement, public private partnership, sustainable development and industrial heritage. For more details about the upcoming event and REVIT, please visit our project web site at www.revit-nweurope.org

PROJECT NEWSSchloss Waldthausen

This article was written by the project’s lead partner... you could tell us more about your project too! Contact bryony@nweurope.org about upcoming opportunities.

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INTERREG IIIBNWE-ENO Joint Technical Secretariat“Les Caryatides”, 5ème étage, 24 Boulevard Carnot F-59000 Lillee-mail: nwe@nweurope.org

Editor: Bryony Ulyett, communication officerINTERREG IIIB NWE-ENO is a Community Initiative Programme funded by the European Regional Development Fund

The NWE-ENO Newsletter is a publication of the NWE-ENO Joint Technical Secretariat

Photos courtesy of : Bryony Ulyett, Robin Fisher, ERIH project, SDF Project, REVIT Project

Graphic design by Johanna Larue

ISSN pendingwww.span-eu.org

New Project Websites:

Project Events:ERIH 2: launch of the European Route of Industrial HeritageIronbridge UK, 11th & 12th Sept 2005 www.erih.net

PLANARCH 2: Final SeminarBrussels BE, 21st to 23rd Nov 2005 www.planarch.org

LIRA 2: Hospital Cooperation – International eventStrasbourg FR, 22nd to 23rd Sept 2005

DART: the Impact of Regional Airports on Local and Regional Economies conference Hahn DE, 9 Sept 2005 www.interreg-dart.com

SPAN: International Conference Dublin IR, Oct 2005

REVIT: marketing event on revitalised brownfield sites Nantes FR, 2nd & 3rd Feb 2006

SAFER: conferenceHeidelberg DE, 28th & 29th Sept 2005

coming up:Eu Events:DG Regio Open daysBrussels BE, 11th to 13th October 2005 http://europa.eu.int/comm/regional_policy/opendays

INTERACT Seminar: Step towards Territorial Cooperation Programmes 200713 Brussels BE, 28th to 29th September 2005 www.interact-eu.net