On July 13th partners implementing the pilot action to the Territorial Agenda 2030 entitled “Understanding how sector policies shape spatial (im)balances” met at the Ministry of Funds and Regional Policy in Warsaw (Poland). This event summarised their experience to date of the pilot action deploying Territorial Impact Assessment (TIA) in selected territories, concerning particular public policies.
The agenda of the meeting included a presentation and discussion about dilemmas faced during the implementation of the pilot action, such as different needs of territories and policies andwhy it is not optimal to use the one-for-all TIA method, how to promote TIA, or whether, how and why to engage stakeholders during implementation of TIA.
Representatives of Poland, Germany, the Czech Republic and Slovenia presented the current state of affairs of their pilot projects in which different methodologies have been employed. The advantages and disadvantages of these methodologies have been discussed, as well as ongoing policy practice in implementing TIA, or similar tools.
In the final part of the meeting proposal of the new method – SPA(TIA) – has been presented as a comprehensive, but at the same time simple tool, to analyse potential territorial impacts of policies or strategies. This proposal will be further discussed among participating countries and their experts and will be one of the main outcomes of the pilot action.
In general, the pilot action aims to better understand uneven territorial impacts of sectoral policies and to push policy-makers to employ TIA more frequently to reflect the specific needs of particular regions, ensure evidence-based policies and eventually contribute to territorial cohesion.
Discussion about the advantages of TIA and the main dilemmas connected to its implementation will be also held during a conference organised in Olomouc region as a part of the Czech presidency in the Council of the EU on November 10th.
