The partnership principle should be the real foundation of the new cohesion policy

Partnership as a new social contract - bringing back trust to society

Partnership is about vulnerable groups being seen and heard

Partnership is about meaningful participation

Partnership is practical and is mainly about engaging citizens in a more direct way. Bypass bureaucracy to reach citizens and get them interested

Shared management and multi-level governance are the added value of cohesion policy both underpinned by partnership

There is no way forward without engaging the stakeholders both in programming and implementation

Partnership amplifies the scope of the intervention and the impact, it is about working together

It should be a requirement at national level

Partnership is about ownership - planning and results are shared

Meaningful participation processes make room for vulnerable people participating in a direct way

Partnership needs to be enriched throughout the policy and programming cycle

Without partnership trust of the citizens is lost

Raising sensibility to local problems through expertise

No decision made without working with process owners in the community

There no individual/ single owners of the programmes nor of the problems

The more you take it at a national level the more you grow distant from local issues

We need partnership for Europe to survive

Partnership helps people uphold common values as Europeans

Partnership should be less about procedures and more about work on the ground

Partnership in concrete terms: it is about hospitals, about quality jobs in a deindustrializing Europe, about facts that change lives of Europeans

Resilience of communities through an agreement/ a partnership (goes beyond the mechanics/ tools of partnership)

Need to keep the bottom-up approach and the local dimension of cohesion policy

Partnership is about quality and about not missing the intended target audience/ beneficiaries of a policy

Engaging communities is what makes policies meaningful

We need to keep building cultures of partnerships at the different levels

Think through what partnership is not - a message that could be easier to convey to decision-makers

Inter-dependencies: we can't make the best unless we work with the others

Sharing and learning from best practices and learning to communicate is part of the partnership principle

1) Value of Partnership Principle

• Ask EU level to defend PP

• Partnership is pre condition for effective programming and implementation, mutual understanding and acceptance of decisions

• value of PP for place-based multi-level gov approach

• need of PP for ownership / citizens onboarding

2) What to preserve

• existing rules but clearer (no additional regulatory burden needed but clarify the legal uncertainty about code of conduct delegated act from 2014-2014 period) need for clear rules

• PP is necessary from programming, implementation to evaluation

• partnership to be based on existing multi-level / multi-stakeholder gov > already from the beginning of definition of Cohesion Policy general objectives. Priorities need to be rooted in territories with actors involved at local, regional, national level

• not leaving anyone behind, equity between partners [think about smaller less capacitated stakeholders]

3) What should evolve

• rules should be clear from the onset, enshrined in next CPR so next programing can start with clear rules

• balanced approach between obligation and incentives

• Partnership Principle beyond Cohesion Policy ?

• improve real participation of 3rd sector/CSO in process of programming funds > Code of conduct already include soft principles. Beyond monitoring committees, continuous participation.

• Dedicate resources to capacity building for participatory processes

• Standardized approach across different funds

• enabling conditions are not sufficient

• link between partnership, EU Semester, result orientation, strengthen reforms dimension link with Partnership/ partnership should reflect this evolution with a larger spectrum, play more important role in EU Semester

• need for more networking and trainings

• evolution of Partnership to fit new challenges/realities

• improvement in selection of partners (be mindful of involvement of less capacitated stakeholders)

• partnership in other direct management fund [eg Horizon]; harmonies partnership rules across different EU funds > CPR for all funds

Challenges:

• Risk of less partnership in post-2027 CP, no single approach among EU MS

• Simplified rules (RRF fashion) create a risk of not delivering (also in the field of partnership)

• Unclear what we as ECoPP recommend: CP kept as it is or renewed?

• People/partners/applicants not very active in designing calls - "partnership gap"

Opportunities:

• SCF - new opportunity to create good partnership patterns/solutions

• "Single plan MFF" - we can make PP binding in other policies beyond CP - and even expand PP beyond EU Funds

Recommendations:

• Need to harmonise rules and find the right level for partnership for instruments/funds, for the PP to be more effective

• Simplification through uniformed rules - strengthened PP across all funding streams

• Wider scope of partnership - 3D partnerships (horizontal, vertical and - new - goal oriented)

• Better designed investments to incentivize public participation

• Strengthening capacities in new CP post-2027

• Lobby for strong CP and simplification

• ECoPP informed about involvement possibilities

Ideas for ECoPP for 2025

• Cooperate with the Parliament, esp. MEPs at REGI committee

• Cooperate with networks (e.g. EuroCities and other)

• Position for the MFF legislative package consultation/Impact assessment

• Exploring links between PP and capacity building

• importance of the focused and dedicated monitoring committees and more involvement of them

• Cohesion Policy - Partnership = Failure

• Cohesion Policy + Partnership = Success

• Inform partners in advance

• Partnership needs time. It's worth the time.

• Responsible and independent actor for the quality of partnership in all countries

• The value of the partnership should be communicated in the Code of Conduct

• create more opportunities for collaboration by connecting beneficiaries across various programmes

• shifting from temporary project based partnership to sustainable partnership-models

• Collect the best practices and target audience meaningfully. 

• Partnership mature through working groups in co-creations

• Put partnership in the legislation.

• real investment in community building