Empowering European towns: the crucial role of capacity-building

Small and medium-sized towns are...

pivotal to the EU’s polycentric urban structure, serving as vital hubs of activity and connection between rural and urban areas. They play a key role in achieving the objectives of the EU Cohesion Policy. However, these towns often face significant challenges due to their limited capacities in handling EU instruments for local development. This is why it is crucial to empower SMSTs to ensure that EU opportunities are accessible and effective in all territories of the Union.

Leveraging European Funding

Small and medium-sized towns (SMSTs), defined as those with populations between 5,000 and 50,000 inhabitants, comprise approximately 24.2% of the European population (Servillo et al.). They represent a large portion of European urban areas. In recent years, the EU has increasingly acknowledged such importance by deploying a number of strategic policies such as:

The Urban Agenda for the EU
The Territorial Agenda 2020
Instruments such as the Community-Led-Local-Development

All are aimed at providing tools for a sustainable local development.

Within the current EU Cohesion Policy, Objective 5 'Europe closer to Citizens by fostering the sustainable and integrated development of all types of territories' provides SMSTs with a crucial opportunity to access European funding, as it focuses on sustainable and integrated development across all territories, creating a framework to meet the diverse needs of both urban and non-urban areas. By leveraging this opportunity, SMSTs can implement place-based policy approaches using relatively new instruments, such as Integrated Territorial Investments, to tackle local challenges in an integrated manner.

The importance of capacity-building

Despite available European funds, SMSTs often find it challenging to access and utilise them effectively. Towns often lack the necessary capacities: skills, time, and local funds. The lack of capacities poses a substantial barrier. Unlike their larger counterparts, SMSTs often struggle with limited financial resources and administrative capabilities.

This dual challenge hinders their ability to manage sustainable urban development projects and navigate the complex processes required to secure EU funding. Austerity measures have exacerbated these difficulties, reducing financial and human resources, leading to significant staff cuts, and increasing reliance on outsourcing. This trend undermines the adaptability of local governments to tackle complex tasks.

To address these challenges, several strategies can be employed:

Training staff members on EU policies and funding opportunities can significantly enhance the capacity of SMSTs to access EU financial schemes.
The role of intermediaries, such as regional development agencies or inter-communalities, is crucial. These entities can facilitate access to funding opportunities by providing the necessary expertise and support to SMSTs. They can learn how to navigate the intricate application processes and increase the likelihood of successful funding acquisition.
SMSTs can benefit from EU capacity-building initiatives which can empower them to respond effectively to their most pressing local challenges (see the table below with an overview of EU capacity-building initiates to support SMSTs).

Bulgaria: municipalities learn to master ITIs

Building on the increased capacities gained through its participation in the Interreg Europe project IMPROVE during the 2014-2020 programming period, the Municipality of Gabrovo in Bulgaria, along with representatives from the municipalities of Sevlievo, Dryanovo, Tryavna, and key stakeholders, convened in January 2024 to discuss cooperation on Integrated Territorial Investment (ITI) concepts.

Two projects, “Gabrovo - a center of innovation, education, and entrepreneurship” and “Regional tourist product ‘Ancient heritage and modernity’ of the municipalities of Tryavna, Dryanovo, and Gabrovo,” were highlighted.

In order to pilot the ITIs, Interreg Europe URBANCOOP project partner from the Municipality of Gabrovo established a Council for Sustainable Urban Development, including different municipalities and stakeholders under the leadership of the Mayor of Gabrovo. The Council will monitor and evaluate the results of ITI and urban development projects, mapping the problems and critical factors for planning and development in the territory.

Examples of this kind are numerous, and exist in all EU countries. Just to name a few, Interreg Europe good practices in Fundão, Portugal, or Ventspils, Latvia, illustrate that with the right leadership and capacities, SMSTs can rapidly reinvent themselves. Knowledge is power, capacity building is the way.

Capacity building programmes and initiatives

Explore the different services and initiatives offered to support capacity building.

Interreg Europe Policy Learning Platform

Capacity-building support	Description	Eligibility conditions
Capacity-building support Policy helpdesk	Description A policy helpdesk aims to answer any type of regional policy-making questions or challenges you might have.	Eligibility conditions Managing authorities, public bodies in charge of local or regional development policies, and/or local and regional actors supporting local or regional development policies (intermediaries, agencies)
Capacity-building support Matchmaking	Description A matchmaking session is a two-hour in-depth discussion with a selected group of peers about your regional policy challenge, moderated by our Platform experts.	Eligibility conditions Managing authorities and/or public bodies in charge of local or regional development policies
Capacity-building support Peer review	Description A peer review is a two-day meeting in which you look at your regional policy challenge together with a group of carefully selected peers with relevant experience and our Platform experts. Relevant local stakeholders can also be involved. The objective is to give you advice, recommendations and an action plan to resolve your challenge.	Eligibility conditions Managing authorities and/or public bodies in charge of local or regional development policies

European Urban Initiative

Capacity-building support	Description	Eligibility conditions
Capacity-building support EUI peer review	Description EUI Peer Review is a capacity building activity offered by EUI to support European cities to improve the design and implementation of their Sustainable Urban Development (SUD) strategies, through a process of benchmarking and peer learning.	Eligibility conditions Cities under review are European cities receiving ERDF support for the design and implementation of their SUD strategy under article 11 of the ERDF Regulation (EU) 2021/1058.
Capacity-building support City-to-City Exchanges	Description A city-to-city exchange brings together an urban authority (‘the applicant’) facing a specific implementation challenge related to Sustainable Urban Development and another urban authority from a different EU Member State with expertise which could help tackle this challenge (‘the peer’) for a short-term, quickly implemented visit.	Eligibility conditions This service is dedicated to urban authorities from EU Member States.
Capacity-building support Portico	Description Portico is the European urban knowledge platform that connects urban actors with the knowledge, people, and initiatives they need to implement sustainable urban development.	Eligibility conditions All, no conditions

Joint Research Centre (JRC)

Capacity-building support	Description	Eligibility conditions
Capacity-building support Toolboxes	Description See the Handbook of Territorial and Local Development Strategies, STRAT-Board, Self-Assessment Tool for Sustainable Urban Development strategies, Self-Assessment Tool for Territorial and Local Development Strategies (SAT4TER).	Eligibility conditions All, no conditions.
Capacity-building support Territorial peer reviews in non-urban areas	Description Territorial peer reviews in non-urban areas aim for strategy owners to learn from other local authorities from across the EU, experts and EU Commission representatives, exchanging challenges that they came across in their planning and operational journey.	Eligibility conditions The workshops are designed to support local authorities who design and implement strategies promoted by Cohesion Policy under the Policy Objective 5, specific objectives 2 (ITI, CLLD or other type of territorial tools in non-urban areas) during the 2021-2027 programming period.

URBACT

Capacity-building support	Description	Eligibility conditions
Capacity-building support Capacity-building and toolbox	Description URBACT Toolbox, Moodle, URBACT Summer Universities…	Eligibility conditions All, no conditions.

About the author

By Arnault Morrison, Thematic Expert for a Smarter Europe.

Arnault has a PhD in Economic Geography from Utrecht University and the Mediterranean University of Reggio Calabria. He is expert in regional innovation governance and innovation policies. He is responsible for validating good practices and contributes to the production of articles and policy briefs for the knowledge hub. He also answers requests for policy advice via the expert support helpdesk.