Atlantic area programme 2014-2020 Approved Cooperation Programme October 2015

(99)4.2 Integrated actions for sustainable urban development

(100)4.3 Integrated Territorial Investment (ITI)

(101)4.4 Contribution of planned interventions to Sea basin strategies

The Maritime Strategy for the Atlantic Ocean Area proposes “a coherent and balanced approach that is consistent with the EU 2020 agenda and its flagship initiative that promotes territorial cohesion and that takes into account the international dimension”. This strategy will be a reference in the context of the European policy and initiatives until 2020 and its implementation will be strictly linked to existing programmes (among which the Atlantic Area has a crucial role), through which the proposed actions are to be financed and implemented, ensuring that the Strategy per se will not create any additional impact on the EU budget.

The Action Plan explicitly mentions the Atlantic Programme as a way to foster joint projects and actions: “European Territorial Cooperation (for example through the Atlantic Area Programme), which will be funded through the ERDF, provides a mechanism for neighbouring regions and cities from different EU MS to work together and learn from each other through projects that explore options to cooperate on common challenges”. In this context, the Atlantic programme’s MA, the five MS as well as other key partners, which have participated in the cooperation programme drafting process agreed on the relevance and appropriateness of the Atlantic Maritime Strategy. As a result, the Atlantic Action Plan has been taken into account in the assessment of the needs and challenges, definition of SO and elaboration of types of actions to be supported. The Atlantic Action Plan has also served as a guide for the selection and priorisation of the sectors and specific territories where the Programme will be focussed on.

First, a clear coherence can be observed between the needs and challenges identified in the Maritime Strategy and the cooperation programme. On one hand, the Atlantic Action Plan identifies five priority challenges, which constitute the umbrella under which the actions have been defined and targeted. They are the challenges of delivering growth, reducing the carbon footprint, using the sea's natural resources sustainably, responding effectively to threats and emergencies and implementing an "ecosystem" management approach in Atlantic waters. On the other hand, the needs and challenges which the present cooperation programme seeks to address are related to the necessity of accelerating intelligent growth in the Atlantic Area, the promotion of a resource-efficient economy, the need to increase the preparedness and provide a better response to risks derived from climate change and human activities, a better management of the environment and the Atlantic Area’s natural resources and the exploitation of the natural and cultural assets by local communities.

Furthermore, and in line with the above, the path of the cooperation programme drafting has been defined by taking into account the four overarching priorities and the series of SO set up by the Atlantic Action Plan. The description below demonstrates the contribution of the Atlantic Area Cooperation Programme’s SO to the Atlantic Action Plan.

The Priority Axis 1 of the Atlantic Area cooperation programme is clearly coherent and will contribute to the PA1 of the Action Plan as both of them aim at promoting innovation by enhancing capacities, encouraging networking and cooperation between the institutional, research and private actors and promoting knowledge transfer.

The contribution of the Atlantic Area cooperation programme to the second Priority Axis of the Action Plan, will come through operations financed under Priority Axis 3.1, providing territorial management and risk prevention tools for climate change adaptation and risk prevention, specific objective 4.1 to enhance the protection of biodiversity and ecosystem services and Priority Axis 2 seeking to contribute to a better resource efficiency in the Atlantic Area.

Actions to improve accessibility and connectivity have not been prioritised under the Atlantic Area cooperation programme since the ongoing evaluation of the Atlantic Area Transnational cooperation programme 2007-2013 showed a very scarce demand of projects under former Priority 3 related to accessibility and transport.

Finally, operations under Specific Objective 4.2 will seek to enhance the natural and cultural heritage leading to an enhanced attractiveness of the Area allowing the region to attract new visitors and develop new local jobs, economic activity, therefore contributing to the fourth Priority of the Action Plan, which aims at creating a socially inclusive and sustainable model of regional development.

In order to ensure the complementarity and the contribution of the Atlantic Area Cooperation Programme to the Atlantic Area Maritime strategy a series of mechanisms will be implemented:

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  The guiding principles for the selection of operations foresee that, when applicable projects should show their coherence with and contribution to the Atlantic Area Maritime Strategy. both the projects’ intermediate and final reports will have a specific section where, if relevant, projects would need to explain how the activities and results achieved contribute to the Atlantic Area Maritime Strategy’s Action Plan,
  
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  similarly, and build on the contributions reported by projects, the Programme Annual Implementation Report will describe how the Programme as a whole contributes to the Atlantic Area Maritime Strategy. A list of projects contributing to the strategy with the relevant information will also be provided.
  
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  Complementarity with geographically and thematically overlapping programmes in the Atlantic area, such North–West Europe, SUDOE, North Sea, Northern Periphery and Artic transnational programmes and the relevant cross-border programmes, national programmes/regional programmes, will be sought to ensure the exchange of experience and best practices.
  
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  Close links between the CP and DG MARE, REGIO and other relevant DGs, national representatives and stakeholders of the Atlantic Strategy, national focal points of the Atlantic Strategy will be established, to ensure a quality information flow, mutual consultations and cooperation on the organisation of events.