[FR] Local development, partnership and bottom-up approach

The launch of the first ‘integration gateways’ under Objective 11 programmes in Merseyside (UK) dates back to 1994, as does the design of the URBAN2 Community Initiative Programme. The doubling of the number of LEADER II local action groups and the identification of local development and employment initiatives in 17 areas corresponding to new sources of employment also date from the same year.

Over the past 10 years, terms such as ‘partnership’, ‘bottom-up approach’, ‘local development’ and ‘multi-sectoral integration’ have had mixed fortunes: initially misunderstood, they have become political slogans. Hailed as a panacea, they have sometimes been vilified as ineffective and wasteful of time and resources. Misused, overused or assimilated, they no longer inspire the same enthusiasm as they did at the beginning. Promoted, even imposed, by the European Commission as part of its cohesion policy, they can be found in national regulations and in the practices of local public and private actors. Their forms have diversified according to location and sector, to the point where they no longer have much in common. In short, what remains today of local development, which was presented as a new way of conducting public policy?

To conduct a comprehensive critical review of the past ten years, Notre Europe and Ecotec invited some twenty experts from Austria, Belgium, Denmark, France, Ireland and the United Kingdom to a seminar at the EPC’s offices in Brussels. These experts were chosen for their role as witnesses and actors in a movement that gained momentum in a context of economic crisis and high unemployment, but also of intense exchanges of experience and reflection facilitated by European cooperation programmes.

The discussion was divided into four parts:

• an introduction outlining the main components of the current context, which showed the extent of policy makers’ expectations for local development;
• an overview of current practices and policy debates in the various Member States, as well as a retrospective analysis of the past decade;
• a critical assessment of the results achieved and the reasons for this outcome;
• a reflection on the future of the approach and, more specifically, on the opportunities offered by the European agenda.