About the activity

This policy advice activity was implemented from October to December 2017 in cooperation with the European Committee on Democracy and Governance (CDDG) and with the support of the Institute of Local Administration and supported by the Institute of Local Administration.

It implied the organisation of the « Seminar on Governance of Metropolitan Areas » stemming from the invitation expressed by the Greek Minister of Interior Panagiotis Skourletis (in May 2017) to host the Conference on governance of metropolitan areas of the European Committee on Democracy and Governance (CDDG) in Greece.

 Methodology

The 2-day seminar took place in October 2017 in Thessaloniki and addressed four major areas:

1) Legislation for capital and metropolitan cities, including the distribution and exercise of competences in capital cities and metropolitan areas;

2) Democratic participation, including mechanisms and structures to strengthen citizen involvement and civil participation.

3) Functional structure and allocation of responsibilities to metropolitan governance.

4) Good governance, including implementation of the European 12 Principles in metropolitan areas.

This activity brought together representatives of international organisations (Council of Europe, European Union, OECD, and METREX) as well as experts, senior officials and local representatives from Belgium, France, Germany, Greece, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Moldova, Poland, Slovenia, Spain and UK.

Following the peer to peer discussions held in Thessaloniki, the Centre of Expertise provided the Ministry of Interior with a comprehensive policy advice report on “Democratic Metropolitan Governance” that draws from both European and Greek experience, in view of a possible metropolitan governance reform in Greece.

 Acknowledgements

The Centre of Expertise expresses its gratitude to all the metropolitan area and national offices who contributed to the meaningful exchange of experience and to the compilation of the case studies presented in this report.