report publicconsultations poland-belarus-ukraine 2014-2020

report publicconsultations poland-belarus-ukraine 2014-2020

REPORT
ON THE
PUBLIC CONSULTATIONS
OF DRAFT ENI CBC PROGRAMME
POLAND - BELARUS - UKRAINE 2014-2020
CARRIED OUT 6 MAY - 10 JUNE 2015
WARSAW, 23 JUNE 2015
TABLE OF CONTENTS
1. General information on the consultations process........................................................................................... 3
A.
LEGAL BASIS.................................................................................................................................................. 3
B.
THE PRINCIPLES OF CONSULTATIONS.................................................................................................................. 3
C.
THE OBJECTIVES AND SCOPE OF THE CONSULTATIONS ........................................................................................... 4
2. Process and results of consultations ................................................................................................................. 4
A.
CHANNELS OF PUBLISHING INFORMATION ON CONSULTATIONS .............................................................................. 4
B.
FORMS OF CONSULTATIONS ............................................................................................................................. 6
C.
RESULTS OF CONSULTATIONS ........................................................................................................................... 6
Annexes ................................................................................................................................................................. 8
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1. General information on the consultations process
A. LEGAL BASIS
In accordance with Art. 4 paragraph 3 (b) of the Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) No 897/2014
of 18 August 2014, laying down specific provisions for the implementation of cross-border cooperation
programmes financed under Regulation (EU) No 232/2014 of the European Parliament and the Council
establishing a European Neighbourhood Instrument (IR) the strategy of the programme document should
include a justification basing, inter alia, on information resulting from wider consultations with stakeholders
on consistency with other programmes financed by the Union in their respective countries and regions,
and the analysis of consistency with national and regional strategies and policies.
Moreover, taking into account Art. 6.1. of the Law on the Principles of Development Policy dated
6 December 2006 (Polish Journal of Laws of 2009, no. 84, pos. 712, with amendments), according to which
projects of development strategies are subject to consultations with local self-government units, social
and economic partners, and the Joint Commission of Local Government and Self-Government, the draft
Cross-border Cooperation Programme Poland-Belarus-Ukraine 2014-2020 (PBU Programme 2014-2020) was
directed to public consultations. It should be noted that the provisions of the Law on the Principles of
Development Policy are not binding for the programmes of the European Neighbourhood Instrument (ENI).
However, its provisions on development strategy and European Territorial Cooperation programmes have
been taken as an indication, in order to determine the course of action in the public consultation process so
as to ensure participation of key partners in the preparation of the PBU Programme 2014-2020.
B. THE PRINCIPLES OF CONSULTATIONS
To ensure the principle of partnership in the process of public consultations on draft PBU Programme 20142020 the following assumptions were made:
 minimum 35-day duration of the public consultations - 6.05-10.06.2015;
 provide public information about the course of the public consultations;
 submit comments via the electronic form (website of Ministry of Infrastructure and Development of
Poland (MID)), website of the Programme and via .doc version form in Polish, Ukrainian and Russian;
 comments during meetings organized in all three participating countries;
 consultation of draft PBU Programme 2014-2020 with respective ministries.
During the consultation process of the draft Programme PBU 2014-2020 the following principles were
applied:
 complexity - consultations had international (Polish-Belarusian-Ukrainian), national and regional
nature;
 documentation - the various stages and opinions / comments were documented;
 continuity - consultations were ongoing, carried out systematically and intended to formulate socially
legitimized draft of the Programme;
 responsiveness - participants of the consultations had the right to expect a response; information
about the time and form of the response was given in the communication about consultations
published on websites managed by the MID and on the website of the Programme. Participants
received answers to their questions, suggestions and positions;
 transparency – the basic principle during consultations; documents on the draft Programme and the
opinions expressed by the participants of public consultations were made available to the public;
 accessibility - anyone interested in the topic (not only institutional partners) were able to take part in
the public consultations and express their views;
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
coordination - the Department of Certification and Designation of the Ministry of Infrastructure
and Development representing the Managing Authority (MA) of the Programme was responsible for
public consultations.
C. THE OBJECTIVES AND SCOPE OF THE CONSULTATIONS
The aim of the public consultations of the draft Programme was to collect the remarks and opinions
on the objectives of the Programme and the support proposed within its framework. These remarks were
taken into account in the preparation of the final Joint Operational Programme (JOP) submitted
to the European Commission. All stakeholders and interested parties were invited to take part in the
consultations, most particularly the representatives of the regional and local authorities, socio-economic
partners and non-governmental organizations.
Following the decisions of the Joint Programming Committee (JPC), consisting of national and regional
representatives of three countries participating in the Programme, the draft JOP was prepared by the
MA/Joint Technical Secretariat (JTS)1. According to this document, the overall aim of the Programme is the
support for cross-border development processes in the borderland of Poland, Belarus and Ukraine, in line
with the objectives of ENI laid down in Regulation (EU) No 232/2014 of the European Parliament and the
Council of 11 March establishing a European Neighbourhood Instrument . The Programme Strategy responds
to the national and regional strategies of socio-economic development and reflects the results of the socioeconomic analysis carried out on the Programme area in order to analyze and describe the potential,
challenges and problems of the cross-border cooperation development on the area. The Programme will
adhere to three ENI CBC strategic objectives for CBC activities set out in the Programming document 20142020.
The base for public consultations formed the 1st part of the JOP consisting of three main chapters:
 Introduction;
 Description of the Programme area and
 Programme strategy.
The JOP was prepared in accordance with the requirements set up in the IR.
2. Process and results of consultations
The consultations were carried out in all three countries participating in the Programme.
A. CHANNELS OF PUBLISHING INFORMATION ON CONSULTATIONS
The following forms were used to reach the widest possible public with the information on consultations:
1. The main channel of publishing information on the consultations was the Internet. The JPC decided
that information about the public consultation along with the draft JOP (working translations into
national languages were also published) will be provided through advertisement on the websites
of national and regional authorities of the Programme area.
MA/JTS published information about the consultation through advertisements or articles on the
following websites:
o website of the MA: www.mir.gov.pl;
o the Public Information Bulletin of the MA: www.bip.mir.gov.pl;
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JTS of the Programme edition 2007-2013, that for the Programme edition 2014-2020 will play the role of the
Intermediate Body.
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o
o
European Funds / European Territorial Cooperation: www.ewt.gov.pl;
Cross-border Cooperation Programme Poland-Belarus-Ukraine 2007-2013 www.pl-byua.eu;
The print screens of the on-line information on the public consultations from the Programme and MA
websites may be found in Annex 1.
2. Information on the process of public consultations of the draft Programme PBU 2014-2020 through
the press announcements in all three countries:
o Poland: four newspapers with the highest popularity among the readers of each the Programme
area region2
o Podlasie Voivodeship - "Gazeta Współczesna";
o Mazowieckie Voivodeship - "Gazeta Wyborcza";
o Lublin Voivodeship - "Gazeta Wyborcza";
o Podkarpackie Voivodeship - "Nowiny";
o Belarus:
o Brest region - Brest regional newspaper "Zarya";
o Hrodna region - Hrodna regional newspaper "Grodzenskaya Prauda";
o Gomel region - Gomel regional newspaper "Gomelskaya Prauda";
o Minsk region - Minsk regional newspaper "Minskaya Prauda";
o Ukraine:
o Volyn region - "Viche";
o Lviv region - "Vysokyy Zamok";
o Zakarpattya region - "Novyny Zakarpattya";
o Rivne region - "Visti Rivnenschyny";
o Ternopil region - "Nova Ternopilska Gazeta";
o Ivano-Frankivsk region - "Kurier Galicyjski".
The scans of the newspapers advertisements may be found in Annex 2.
3. The JTS sent via e-mail the information about commencement of the consultation process directly to:
o thematically relevant ministries in all participating countries;
o units / associations / representatives of local authorities:
o PL – voivodeships, associations of local self-government authorities (Association of Polish
Cities, Association of Polish Counties, Association of Rural Municipalities, respective
Euroregions, Association of Rural Municipalities of Podlaskie Voivodeship, Association
of Lublin Region Municipalities, the Association of Polish Towns, the Joint Commission of
Local Government and Self-Government);
o BY – Regional Executive Committees;
o UA – regional self-government authorities, i.e. Regional Councils of all Programme regions,
association of local self-government authorities (relevant branches of the Ukrainian
Association of Local Self-Government Units “Association of Ukrainian Cities”);
o social and economic partners.
4. In each of three countries Public Consultation Conferences were organized to consult both, the draft
Programme PBU 2014-2020 and the draft Report on the Strategic Environmental Assessment.
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Basing on the statistics from the web-portal www.wirtualne.media.pl http://www.wirtualnemedia.pl/artykul/gazetawyborcza-nowym-liderem-czytelnictwa-dziennikow-w-dwoch-wojewodztwach, as of 25.03.2015.
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The print screens from the Programme website with information on the conferences may be found
in Annex 3.
B. FORMS OF CONSULTATIONS
The consultations were carried out with the use of the following forms:
1. Internet websites of Programme and MA.
Main base for the consultation was the electronic form published on the Programme website (http://pl-byua.eu/__consultations/). The other possibility to submit the remarks on the JOP was the electronic form
published on the MA website. Both of these forms were filled in and submitted on-line. The print screens
with both forms may be found in Annex 4.
2. Public consultations conferences
The very important forums for consultations and direct contact between MA/JTS, respective NAs
and stakeholders, potential applicants/beneficiaries were the three public conferences:
1. Belarus: Minsk (21 May 2015, hotel President, number of participants - 87);
2. Ukraine: Lviv (2 June 2015, hotel Lviv, number of participants - 110 );
3. Poland: Lublin (3 June 2015, hotel Victoria, number of participants - 70).
The conferences were conducted by representatives of the MA, NAs and JTS. They were open for everyone
interested in the cross-border cooperation on the borderland of Poland, Belarus and Ukraine.
During each of the public conferences, the MA/JTS presented information on the:
- implementation and so far results of the 2007-2013 edition of the Programme;
- programming process, preparation, legal framework and the main assumptions of the 2014-2020
Programme’s edition;
- draft JOP consulted.
The agendas and presentations from the public consultations conferences are annexed to the report
(respectively Annex 5 and Annex 6). Following the MA/JTS presentations of the Programme, the open
sessions devoted to the participants remarks and opinions were carried out.
C. RESULTS OF CONSULTATIONS
As a result of consultations broad public opinion, stakeholders, potential applicants/beneficiaries were
informed about the proposed assumptions of the Programme in the 2014-2020 EU financial perspective.
Many representatives of these actors expressed their opinions/remarks to the draft JOP consulted. In total
41 of such opinions/remarks were submitted on-line and during three conferences.
Out of them, 30 remarks/opinions relating to the JOP were sent with the use of electronic forms. The most
frequent remarks related the following issues:
- output/results indicators selected for the Programme;
- the selection of thematic objectives of the Programme;
- the definition of priorities of the Programme;
- the indicative action within particular priorities.
In most of them their authors suggested to expand the list of the indicators chosen, enlarge the description
of particular priorities and list of indicative actions.
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267 people attended public consultation conferences. Participants represented various types
of organizations:
- national authorities;
- local and regional authorities;
- Euroregions;
- higher education institutions;
- medical institutions;
- non-governmental organizations;
- inhabitants of the Programme regions;
- other social and economic partners.
Participants of the meetings expressed their opinions and enquired inter alia about the following issues:
- The Programme thematic objectives and indicators;
- The indicative actions within particular Programme priorities;
- The forms of the application;
- Language of the Programme;
- Large Infrastructure Projects financing;
- Micro-projects financing;
- Programme’s support for building project partnerships;
- Financing of infrastructure;
- Launching of the call for proposals;
- Eligibility of certain types of institutions.
All comments/remarks to the JOP were considered in the preparation of the final JOP to be submitted for the
EC approval. Some of them were directly included into the document, some partly and finally, some, for
various reasons, were rejected and did not influence the final wordings of the JOP. The detailed list of all
submitted remarks/opinions to the draft JOP with references and decisions on their acceptance made by the
JPC is annexed to the Report (Annex 7).
During conferences and using on-line forms the interested parties enquired also about issues not related
to the consulted document. All these enquires/opinions with answers may be found in Annex 8 to the Report.
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Annexes
-
Annex 1: Announcements on the public consultations of the Programme (print screens from
the Programme and MA websites).
Annex 2: Scans of the press announcements on the public consultations.
Annex 3: Information on the conferences (the print screens from the Programme website).
Annex 4: On-line forms for submitting comments (the print screens from the Programme and MA
websites).
Annex 5: Agendas of the three public consultations conferences.
Annex 6: Presentations from the public consultations conferences (English versions).
Annex 7: Table with the remarks/opinions on the draft JOP consulted submitted via on-line forms
and during public conferences.
Annex 8: Table with other, not related to the draft JOP, questions, remarks/opinions submitted
via on-line forms and during public conferences.
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