A major report on European territorial cooperation, co-authored by EPRC, is being launched at the European Regional Science Association conference in Bratislava, Slovenia on 20 -24th August. The report is the product of a two-year research programme 'European Territorial Cooperation as a Factor of Growth, Jobs and Quality of Life' funded by ESPON.
Led by the University of Warsaw, the TERCO project involved a major contribution by EPRC, Dr Irene McMaster, Dr Arno van der Zwet, Ms Heidi Vironen and Prof. John Bachtler together with partners from Euroreg (Poland), IGEAT (Belgium), Karelian institute (Finland), DPRD (Greece) and UAM (Spain) . The research is based on findings from 549 online questionnaires and 269 face to face interviews.
Some of the key findings are that European territorial cooperation has had limited but positive impact on socio-economic factors. Its impact can be less well measured in jobs and economic factors and is greatest on measures of quality of life. The various types of territorial cooperation programmes (city twinnings, INTERREG A, B and C and transcontinental cooperation) in an area often have a complementary effect.
Furthermore, territorial cooperation has had the greatest impact in the domains of culture, education, tourism, environmental protection and infrastructural development. A strong commitment to bottom-up and locally driven governance structures is considered most effective for implementing territorial cooperation programmes.