Greening Regional Development Projects

1. First International Conference on Environmental Management, Engineering, Planning and Economics (CEMEPE)Skiathos, 25 June 2007 Dr. Zoltán Karácsonyi – Tünde Szabó – Judit Karácsonyi University of Debrecen Centre for Environmental Management and Policy 4032 Debrecen, Egyetem tér 1. Tel: +36 52 512 921 Fax: +36 52 512 928 E-mail: karcsonyiz@envm.unideb.hu www.envm.unideb.hu Greening Regional Development Projects

2. Introduction University of Debrecen • Multifaculty university • History of more than 450 years • 12 faculties • 5 independent institutes • 3 affiliated institutions • 7 different campuses • Student population of over 26.000 Centre for Environmental Management and Policy • Established in 1997 • Educational, research, expertise and advisory activities • Environmental Management, Environmental Policy and Regional Development at local, regional, national and international level • Research activities both at national and international (EU 4th and 5th Framework Programme) level

3. GRDP Greening Regional Development ProgrammesInterreg IIIC project 2004-2007 • GRDP: to improve the delivery of regional programmes and the environmental theme enshrined in the 1260 Regulations (E.C 2000) • More effective regional programme that delivers sustainable outputs to local people • Improving the delivery of regional policy instruments as prescribed by the European Union and filling a significant gap in Regional collaboration • Greater collaboration between regions and Member States • Development of a European methodology for operating an environmental horizontal theme in regional development programmes, based on real experience • Objective is to harness experience from Objective 1 & 2 programmes to work towards developing a common European methodology for integrating environmental sustainability as a horizontal theme (environmental mainstreaming) within current and future regional development programmes across Europe and beyond.

4. GRDP Partners - Cornwall County Council, Truro, United Kingdom - Devon County Council, Exeter, United Kingdom- Environment Agency for England and Wales - South West of England Region, Exeter, United Kingdom (Lead Partner)- Environmental Management, Nurseries and Afforestations of Navarra, PLC, Pamplona, Spain- Federal Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, Environment and Water Management, Vienna, Austria- Italian Environmental Authority, Rome, Italy- Langhe Monferrato Roeroe Consortium, Mango, Italy- Local Urban Ecology Agency of Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain- Ministry of Tourism, Environment and Territorial Politics - La Rioja, Logrono, Spain- Malta Environment and Planning Authority, Floriana, Malta- Municipality of Wroclaw, Wroclaw, Poland- ORO - Orientation, research, occupation, Catania, Italy- South Aegean Regional Development Fund, Ermoupolis, Greece- The Regional Environmental Center for Central and Eastern Europe, Szentendre, Hungary- University of Debrecen, Centre for Environmental Management and Policy, Debrecen, Hungary- Western Greece Region, Patras, Greece

5. Overview • Start-up situation: perception of environmental integration into programmes and projects • a burden • an extra cost • something to be done only when required by law or strict funding criteria • Idea: benefits by building environmental sustainability into investments targeted at improving economic growth and creating jobs - critical question: how to green projects in practice • Integration of the environment into all programmes and projects, so that projects are more innovative and improve the delivery of programme objectives overall

6. Targeted actors • Programming bodies • Environmental authorities • Project evaluators/selectors • Project applicants • Other stakeholders

7. Why greening? • Policy – fundamental principle • Impact – more effective programmes • Economic and financial – greater efficiency • Quality – improved quality of results • Risk – reduced overall risk • Perception – more acceptable programmes

8. Compliance with policies • Lisbon strategy • Article 6 of the Treaty of the European Union • Renewed EU Sustainable Development Strategy

9. Differences between the compliance with environmental legislation and validation of sustainability Legislation: • Protection of environmental elements • Their eligibility to affect the spatial and temporal processes of production and consumption is at a small scale Sustainable development: • Main goal is to establish a self-regulating society and economy that ensure the operation of the environment without problems and support the maintenance of worthy life quality through avoiding the overuse of the environment

10. Introduction of the toolkit of the GRDP project • Environment as an economic driver • Partnership as a tool for sustainability • Creating networks to promote environmental integration • Strategic Environmental Assessment • Greening agriculture and rural development programmes • Developing sustainable communities • Greening projects for growth and jobs

11. Environment as an economic driver • Conserving environmental assets whilst delivering economic gain • Environmental sector business development • Attracting and retaining skills, business and investment • Environmental Management skills for business • Resource efficiency for competitiveness • Use of environment in branding and niche marketing

12. Partnership as a tool for sustainability • involving all stakeholders throughout the programme cycle • Essential tool during the whole phase • Better understanding of environmental integration in practice and better delivery of sustainable development • legal and political basis • Article 11 of Regulation (EC) No 1083/2006, laying down general provisions on the European Regional Development Fund, the European Social Fund and the Cohesion Fund • Community Strategic Guidelines, 2007-2013 • Art. 6 of Regulation (EC) No 1698/2005, on support • for rural development by the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development • Aarhus Convention • Benefits • More sustainable and effective programme • Better delivery of better projects • more targeted programme responding to local needs • forging links between different types of funding programmes • stronger democratic decision-making process • Transparency, openness and prevention of misuse and corruption • better absorption of funds

13. Creating networks to promote environmental integration • Networks strengthen the synergy between the environment and economic growth • Different types • National networks • International networks • Informal networks at different levels • Increased efficiency through co-operation and coordination • Environmental expertise, tools, guidance • Sharing experience, learning from others

14. Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) • Directive 2001/42/EC on the assessment of the effects of certain plans and programmes on the environment • excellent tool in addressing environmental considerations at the earliest stage of decision-making, alongside economic and social factors • Benefits • Stronger regional plan/programme • Time and money saving in plan and programme development and implementation • Improvement of public trust and confidence in regional development programmes

15. Greening agriculture and rural development programmes Mechanisms to green rural development programmes • General key provisions • Setting cross-compliance as a condition for direct payments • Decoupling • Modulation • option of retaining • SEA, EIA • EU Forestry strategy • Axis 3 of the new Rural Development Regulation – improving quality of life and diversification of the rural economy • Agri-Environment Measures • Other measures in Rural Development Programmes • set-aside • support for young farmers • compensatory payments for Less Favoured Areas

16. Greening future agriculture and rural development programmes • Incorporating objective criteria for fund distribution • Supporting a fairer and more evenly-balanced distribution of funds • Ensuring coherence and balance among the subsidies • Providing sufficient agri-environmental aid and support for disadvantaged areas • Sharing successful experiences • Increasing the percentage of mandatory modulation • Effective ways of involving independent experts on the environment • Environmental audits by external evaluators • In areas designated under Natura 2000, management plans should be developed as a priority • Good Agricultural and Environmental Conditions (GAECs) should be revised • Cross-compliance needs to be better understood by farmers • Evaluation of projects’ efficiency is only possible if projects have indicators • EU support for forestry should focus on developing balanced ecosystems

17. Developing sustainable communities • Environmental regeneration as a driver of sustainable local economy: restoring and improving urban areas • The benefits of these programmes: • encouraging new forms of economic activity when manufacturing has declined • re-connecting deprived neighbourhoods or social groups to the wider city • promoting the re-use of decayed inner urban areas, thus limiting suburban sprawl • improving alternative forms of transport to reduce congestion and pollution • restoring areas of historical or aesthetic significance • Integrated urban management • Adopting long-term and strategic action plans that link together different sectors, administrative levels and obligations

18. Main advantages of greening projects • Increasing the competitiveness of the region • Strong selling points when applying for funding • Saving money – achieving more with less resource and energy • Creating social and economic opportunities

19. Greening projects for growth and jobs • How to green projects? • Greening the programme content • Greening the programme operational system • Greening the project cycle • Support for project developers and managers

20. Call announcement Implementation and monitoring Preparation and design Appraisal and scoring Greening the project cycle (1) • call for project proposals or programme announcement • project preparation and design • project appraisal and scoring • project implementation and monitoring

21. Greening the project cycle (2) Improvement of calls for project proposals or programme announcement • Underline the programme's environmental aspects and requirements, including environmental aims and their relevance to all projects; • Outline project selection criteria, including environmental criteria, and how these relate to the appraisal process (eligibility, priority and/or performance criteria) and the points allocated to the environment within the scoring system; • Include a statement reinforcing national and/or EC environmental legislative requirements (including EIA where appropriate), and enabling project applicants to use the environmental regulation as an effective project management tool; • Include information on requirements for environmental integration that are applicable to the project types to be funded under the specific programme/priority/measure; • Provide information about sources of advice and guidance on environmental integration (the earlier the applicant seeks environmental expertise the better); • Refer to opportunities for project applicants to obtain other funds where the proposal has adopted environmental measures

22. Greening the project cycle (3) Advice to project proposers: • Develop early understanding, attitudes and commitment • Recognise the benefits of greening • Refer to the programme’s environmental aims • Perform an environmental feasibility assessment or an EIA • Incorporate green criteria and success factors • Make use of the guidance provided • Include references to environmental standards and regulatory requirements Improvement of project preparation and design improvement • Designating personnel responsible for supporting applicants in environmental integration at the project level • Emphasising the benefits of environmental sustainability it can be viewed as an opportunity rather than as a constraint to projects • Organising open seminars, training and workshops to directly support potential applicants • Separating the function of the authority in providing assistance to potential applicants and in conducting scoring and appraisal, ranking and selection of projects • Sampling application forms that demonstrate good practice for large and small projects • Making a link in the application package/form to the programme's guidance on environmental integration, including guidance for specific types of projects • Consultation with the environmental authorities, programme environmental advisors or other expert organisations should be strongly encouraged at the application stage

23. Greening the project cycle (4) Project appraisal and scoring • Appraisal criteria • Gateway/entry level • Measure level (where appropriate or relevant) • Project level • Scoring • useful to have a structured, objective and independent environmental assessment of the project • scores allocated to environmental impacts or benefits needs to be significant enough to ensure that it influences the likelihood of receiving funding • scores given to environmental criteria vary among the countries • Appraisal mechanism • Programmes: different appraisal mechanisms and processes • Include scoring by either the programming body or an ‘appraisal panel’ as well as specialised project approval committees • ensure that those engaged in appraisal understand the programme’s environmental aims and objectives and the environmental scoring criteria • through awareness-raising and training for appraisal panels or individual appraisers, and the production of appraisal guidelines specific to the project type.

24. Greening the project cycle (5) Improvement of project appraisal and scoring • Including environmental criteria • Developing a scoring system, based on weights attached to specific elements of the criteria, to allow the fund to rank project proposals • Ensuring that the score assigned to environmental aspects is significant enough to support better environmental integration within projects. The percentage of the score, which corresponds to environmental targets, is a critical incentive to applicants to develop ‘greener’ projects. The transparency of the criteria is very important to enable projects evaluators to measure the environmental elements of a project. • Reflecting the positive and proactive attitudes of applicants (e.g. precautionary and pollution prevention principle) in the scoring system. • Establishing a system that supports the independent environmental assessment of projects. The environmental aspects have to be checked by qualified personnel in the same way that financial aspects are checked by auditors, so these experts should have excellent credentials. • Providing focused training on various aspects of environmental integration for independent environmental experts, as well as for appraisal panels and selection committees. • Having an environmental champion on appraisal panels and selection committees.

25. Greening the project cycle (6) Improvement of project implementation and monitoring • Providing advice and guidance to project applicants during the project implementation stage • Establishing a rigorous monitoring and control procedure to check how the environmental aspects are integrated in practice • Integrating an environmental monitoring system within the regular project monitoring system to avoid additional burdens on project applicants • Incorporating site visits to a selection of projects into a monitoring system • Introducing the need for compliance, if relevant, with specific environmental standards • Making the monitoring system appropriate to the project’s size and likely environmental impact

26. Capacity and skills • mostly, capacity-building is needed to create the expertise necessary to achieve environmental integration • for programming bodies, capacity, skills and know-how are needed to • integrate the environment into plans and programmes • give appropriate advice on environmental issues to applicants • appraise and select projects from an environmental perspective • monitor project implementation and its environmental impacts • evaluate results • for environmental authorities, capacity, skills and know-how are needed to improve their capacity to engage with programming bodies on economic, social development and planning issues in order to better assist with - or even carry out – the above tasks • projects evaluators/selectors need to develop capacity to include environmental considerations (added benefits and avoided costs or impacts) during the assessment process • applicants need the capacity and skills to develop, prepare and deliver good projects • tools: • Building capacity within institutions • Regular, ongoing training • Mentoring • Written guidance and tools • Co-ordination and networking at international or EU level • Financing capacity building

27. Greening projects through help for project developers and managers • Developing early understanding • Improving project design • Maintaining positive attitudes • Monitoring project implementation and environmental performance • Sharing experiences and best practices • Environmental policy and green procurement

28. Strong relations with: • Renewed EU Sustainable Development Strategy • National Sustainable Development strategies • Regional Sustainable Development strategies

29. Recent developments in Hungary • SEA of National Strategic Reference Framework of Hungary 2007-2013 • SEA of Regional operational Programmes • SEA of Action Plans (2007-2009)

30. THANK YOU FOR YOUR KIND ATTENTION!