Experiences
Management
'Transnational cooperation requires flexibility because there's no point denying cultural differences. With mutual respect, the level of expertise and skill that can be shared can be extraordinary. And that's highly motivating.'
Context
No programme can hope to achieve its targets without proper management. The IRMA programme was managed by a Monitoring Committee, which delegated some of its tasks to a Steering Committee. For example, the Steering Committee played an important role in selecting and approving the projects. The national secretariats ensured that procedural agreements were complied with. In many cases they also scanned the relationships between the projects and took early notice of problems. The Joint Secretariat monitored transnational coordination between the projects and overall programme implementation. Everyday project management was in the hands of the project managers.
Rotating chairmanship
The chairmanship of the Monitoring Committee rotated on a six-month schedule. The underlying idea was that all the Member States involved would feel responsible for the success of IRMA. In reality, the term in office was often too brief for the chairperson to grasp all the various management issues involved. As a result, the focus shifted to procedures, and there were fewer discussions of the transnational and integration task than there might have been. In future programmes, it would be advisable to extend the chairmanship for a longer period of time. The chairmanship of the Steering Committee was also rotating, but as this body met more frequently, its chairpersons automatically became more involved. Although it was the intention to have the Monitoring Committee and the Steering Committee operate as separate units, they did not do so; the reason is that many of the individuals involved in one body were also involved in the other.
Water as an issue
Before the IRMA programme commenced, Europe had done little to develop a policy on water management. IRMA was an INTERREG programme, focusing on transnational spatial development and water quantity. The catchment areas of the Meuse and Rhine cover five Member States. It often turned out to be a difficult, if not impossible, task to meet the requirement of having at least two Member States participating in every project. The difficulty lay in the specific nature of most of the projects. For example, a project undertaken near Mannheim in Germany may well have an impact on the catchment area of the Rhine, but it is carried out exclusively within the boundaries of one Member State. The project will, however, have positive downstream effects. This notion began to play a more prominent role once the projects got under way. In the new INTERREG programmes, this 'catchment area approach' is being pursued and amplified.
Inspired public administrators
More than anything else, managing a programme such as IRMA requires a perspective on spatial water management at catchment (or sub-catchment) area level. A perspective of this kind will preferably have an official status as a framework for project implementation. In order to achieve the objectives derived from such a perspective, the programme needs the right people, adequate resources and solid procedures. It takes inspired public administrators at the highest levels who are knowledgeable about the object of the programme and the intended transition.
Guidelines for new programmes
- Clarify whether or not transnationality is a feasible aim.
- Get national and regional public administrators involved.
- Create opportunities for national and regional public administrators to use the projects to raise their own profiles.
- Check that the 'water issue' is embedded in official spatial policy frameworks.
- Determine whether the parties share and support the same perspective on the future.
- Organise management by focusing on an integrated approach.
- Go over the schedule to check the time allotted for procedures.
Experiences