Aspectos éticos

The EU Cohesion Policy, together with the EU’s Competitiveness and Innovation Funds (Horizon 2020 and COSME) allow the development of powerful integrated energy, transport and ICT investments. Horizon 2020 and the Cohesion Policy are outlined below.

There is also the Competitiveness and Innovation Programme (CIP) to be considered, which supports innovation activities with a focus on SMEs. The Entrepreneurship and Innovation Programme (EIP), the ICT Policy Support Programme (ICT-PSP) and the Intelligent Energy Europe (IEE) facility are all further possible sources of support for ICT solutions in the Smart City context. From 2014, the new Programme for the Competitiveness of enterprises and SMEs (COSME) 2014-2020 will take the place of the EIP.

The Smart Cities Stakeholder Platform’s Finance Working Group has compiled a detailed guidance document which breaks down the various possible sources of EU funding for Smart City projects. See Annex 4: EU Funding Sources for Smart City Projects for the overview and further references.

Horizon 2020

Horizon 2020⁷⁷ is the new 80 billion euro EU research funding programme (2014-2020), replacing the “Framework Programme” (FP). It will be a core part of Europe 2020, Innovation Union & European Research Area and is expected to play a crucial part in leading Europe towards the “Europe 2020” strategy goal of smart, sustainable and inclusive growth. Horizon 2020 focuses on scientific excellence, industrial leadership and societal challenges.

The centralised programme will be directed at EU level and the planning is short-term (every 1-2 years). There is no pre-defined geographical distribution of funding and projects have a

77 For details see http://ec.europa.eu/research/horizon2020/index_en.cfm.

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transnational perspective. The programme will have a total budget of 77 billion Euros. It complements other funding mechanisms, such as the Cohesion programme. The Horizon 2020 funds will be used to support a set of the Smart Cities and Communities SIP.

An increased emphasis will be on promoting on innovation, and on a stronger industry involvement via the industrial deployment of key enabling technologies, and through PPPs - institutional and contractual. PPPs are stressed as they are perceived to ease solving problems together with industry, support the goal of European industrial leadership and facilitate prioritisation of Research & Innovation in line with Europe 2020 objectives and industry needs. PPPs can help leverage research and innovation elements and make industry more strongly commit industry to joint objectives.⁷⁸

PPPs are specifically addressed in Article 19 of Horizon 2020 as a tool to implement R&I activities of strategic importance. The PPPs can be implemented either as “Article 187 PPPs”

(TFEU) or as “Contractual agreement PPPs”.⁷⁹

PPPs shall be identified in an open and transparent way based on all of the following criteria:

 The added value of action at Union level;

 The scale of impact on industrial competitiveness, sustainable growth and socio-economic issues;

 The long-term commitment from all partners based on a shared vision and clearly defined objectives;

 The scale of the resources involved and the ability to leverage additional investments in research and innovation;

 A clear definition of roles for each of the partners and agreed key performance indicators over the period chosen.

EU Cohesion Policy

EU Cohesion Policy⁸⁰ has the purpose to stimulate regional socio-economic development in Europe. Cohesion Policy programmes are designed in shared management with national/regional authorities with a long-term perspective (3-7 years). The projects mainly involve actors from one Member State or region.

In October 2011, the European Commission adopted a draft legislative package that will frame the 2014-2020 Cohesion Policy period. The plans for the 2014-2020 Cohesion Policy period have EUR 376 bn allocated for spending in economic, social, and regional cohesion policy. In March 2012, the European Commission presented the "Common Strategic Framework" to help Member States and regions in setting strategic direction for the next financial planning period with a focus on the “Europe 2020” strategy for smart, sustainable and inclusive growth. The Commission proposed additional incentives to further the use of financial instruments for territorial infrastructure, such as provided through the European Investment Bank’s JESSICA programme (see below). These incentives include reduced co-financing rates, extension of the instruments to cover also the Cohesion Fund, the significant

78 See Valles, Public-Private Partnerships in FP7 and in Horizon 2020

79 For more details on the distinction see http://ec.europa.eu/research/industrial_technologies/

80 For details see http://ec.europa.eu/regional_policy/what/future/index_en.cfm.

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share of resources earmarked to energy efficiency and renewable energy and the introduction of a mandatory urban priority theme (minimum 5% of the European Regional Development Fund, “ERDF”).

The cohesion policy will provide support of different investment priorities. Among the most relevant for Smart City development are provided below:

 Shift towards low-carbon economy in all sectors: Promoting low-carbon strategies for urban areas (Objective 4)

 Protecting the environment: Improving the urban environment (Objective 6)

 Promoting sustainable transport: promoting sustainable urban mobility (Objective 7)

 Promoting social inclusion: Support for physical and economic regeneration of deprived urban communities (Objective 9)

The urban development related aspects of the proposal for a cohesion policy under the Europe 2020 strategy seek to reinforce territorial cohesion by enhancing the integrated approach to urban development support, improving the involvement of cities and reintroducing an “experimental strand” to city support.⁸¹The new structural funds strengthen the role of cities within the context of cohesion policy. The ERDF supports sustainable urban development through integrated strategies that tackle the economic, environmental, climate and social challenges of the functional urban areas. A minimum of 5% of the ERDF resources allocated to each Member State will be invested in integrated actions for sustainable urban development potentially implemented through the Integrated Territorial Investment (ITI) tool.⁸²

The main facilities within the Cohesion Policy Framework with respect to Smart City development are: Integrated territorial investments (ITI); Urban Innovative Actions, and Urban Development Platform.

81 See Haapakka, The urban dimension in the legislative proposals for cohesion policy 2014-2020.

82 The maximum of co-financing rates will be: 75-85% in less developed and outermost regions; 60% in transition regions; 50%

in more developed regions. See Smart Cities Stakeholder Platform Finance Working Group Guidance Document: Using EU Funding Mechanisms for Smart Cities.

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Integrated territorial investments (ITI): The ITI⁸³ aims to support integrated actions which can benefit urban areas as it offers the possibility to combine funding linked to different thematic objectives, including the combination of funding from the ERDF, ESF and Cohesion Fund (CF). The aim is to better support an integrated territorial or urban development strategy, with a specific target area at the appropriate territorial scale (e.g. at the level of neighbourhoods, cities, city-regions, metropolitan areas, rural areas, functional areas).

Urban Innovative Actions: The “Urban innovative actions”⁸⁴ instrument can play an important role to support smart city initiatives. Circa 370 million Euros have been allocated until 2020 to promote innovative and experimental approaches and solutions in the field of sustainable urban development, such as smart city related projects. Specific activities such as forward-looking and cutting-edge studies, pilot projects and demonstration projects of EU interest that are innovative and transferable can be supported through this facility. It is managed directly by the European Commission and awarded through Europe wide calls for proposals.

Urban Development Platform: The Urban Development Platform (UDP)⁸⁵ is to promote the practical implementation of the urban dimension. It fosters the exchange of experience and capacity building through conferences, working groups for specific issues, best practice documentation, etc. Target groups are cities managing and implementing ITI and cities implementing urban innovative actions.

The Cohesion policy and the Horizon Programme share the same programming period of 7 years (2014-20) and can be synchronised for more synergies and wider funding access.

They serve the Europe 2020 strategy for smart, sustainable and inclusive growth. The key instrument to maximising the synergies with Horizon 2020 and Cohesion Policy is the development of research and innovation strategies for smart specialisation. All cities and regions need to prepare a ‘smart specialisation strategy’ as a condition for approval of the Research & Innovation elements of the national Partnership Contracts and Operational Programmes of Cohesion Policy 2014-2020.