Metropolitan Colours of Europeanization. Institutionalization of Integrated Territorial Investment Structures in the Context of Past Cooperation in Metropolitan Regions

Abstract

The paper focuses on the institutional solutions adopted in various Polish metropolitan regions due to the requirement to create structures facilitating the operation of Integrated Territorial Investment (ITI) in the 2014-2020 EU financial perspective. This phenomenon is analysed in the light of the process of the launching and functioning of metropolitan cooperation and of the concept of Europeanization. Our considerations are based on the assumption that past attempts to institutionalize metropolitan cooperation influence the process of the creation and functioning of ITI cooperation. Our research has confirmed this proposition. We found various reactions to the top-down incentive in all of the investigated metropolitan regions. In general four main types of situation are identified depending on past metropolitan cooperation and its relation to the ITI institutions. On the national level an interesting "double top-down" pressure was discovered, as the EU guidelines have been made much stricter by the Polish government, turning an incentive for local actors into a must. Finally, Integrated Territorial Investment has enlivened metropolitan governance in Poland, which is interesting to follow in the future, especially as it has no connection to other national regulations proposed for metropolitan regions.

Rescaling of Metropolitan Governance and Spatial Planning in Europe: an Introduction to the Special Issue

“…The result is a diversity of implemented solutions. This is called the "metropolitan colours of Europeanization" (Krukowska/ Lackowska 2017). Thus, Europeanization processes, despite some homogeneous imperatives, have multi-faceted impacts on metropolitan institutions, depending on the different responses from the actor constellations in every city.…”

Metropolitan governance(or not!) in Poland and the United States

“…In order to get access to the new line of financing, they had to launch metropolitan associations, which would be responsible for implementation of the ITI. Municipalities in metropolitan regions were able to choose one of the above-mentioned forms of institutional status for ITI (see Krukowska, Lackowska 2016). The delimitation of those new associations is the outcome of negotiations between a central government proposal and local actors.…”

“…Even when choosing the legal form for the implementation of the ITI instrument, local actors were unwilling to go for the most rigid formal option (Krukowska, Lackowska 2016), showing reluctance towards formalization of metropolitan cooperation. In the general opinion, it is better not to get locked into firm legal institutional settings.…”

“…Between 1999 and 2013 various forms were launched in a few Polish metropolitan areas (e.g. Wroclaw, Katowice, Poznan, Szczecin, Gdansk, see: Lackowska and Zimmermann 2011;Krukowska and Lackowska 2016), and after the introduction of a new financial instrument of the European Union -Integrated Territorial Investments -yet more movement in metropolitan arrangements has appeared.…”

Disappointment or unexpected gain? A survey-based study of the motives and outcomes of inter-municipal cooperation in Poland

“…Several studies applied Social Network Analysis to investigate the internal structure of IMC entities (Furmankiewicz & Stefańska 2010;Furmankiewicz & Królikowska 2010). Another stream of national literature discusses the link between EU funds and IMC (Sarapata et al 2010;Lackowska & Swianiewicz 2013;Dąbrowska & Szmigiel-Rawska 2015;Krukowska & Lackowska 2017). An interesting endeavour to study IMC in its various legal forms was recently undertaken by Łukomska & Szmigiel-Rawska (2015), who analysed cooperation on the basis of budget data.…”