German Subnetwork

1
German Subnetwork

• Conditions Progress Outlook
• EUKN National Focal Point Day
• Brussels
• 26 October 2006

2
Content

• Focal Point
• General conditions
• Subnetwork partners
• Internal relations
• Further work steps
• Future orientation
• Conclusions

3
Focal Point

• Federal Office for Building and Regional Planning
  BBR
• Main duty of the BBR consulting the Federal
  Ministry of Transport, Building and Urban Affairs
• Focal Point set-up in June 2005
• Core business of German Focal Point
• Subnetwork coordination
• EUKN cooperation

4
Focal Point resources

• Focal Point function is integrated part of
  ongoing business of BBR section "Urban
  Development".
• For coordination and services there is an overall
  personal capacity of about half a year.
• This capacity does not include any formulation of
  knowledge documents.
• Knowledge contributions for EUKN have to be
  created separately and in addition to usual
  business of diverse colleagues and institutions.

5
General condition I policentrality

• In total, there are some 13,000 cities and
  municipalities.
• 69 cities have more than 100,000 inhabitants.
• The cities and municipalities are represented at
  national and international level by
• German Association of Cities and Towns
  Deutscher Städtetag
• German Association of Towns and Municipalities
  Deutscher Städte- und Gemeindebund
• German County Association Deutscher
  Landkreistag
• Germany's urban system is highly decentralized.

6
Condition II federative constitution

• Federal level Bund legislation power
• Federal State level 16 Länder defining
  conditions of financial support
• Local level local authorities self-determined
  urban planning
• Basic Law of the Federal Republic of Germany
  entitles local authorities to settle all matters
  of the local community based on existing laws
  within their own responsibility.

7
Condition IIImanifold scientific community

• Urban research is in charge of numerous different
  institutions
• Universities
• Federal and Federal State research institutes
• Private research institutes
• Research institutes act autonomously or on behalf
  of different autonomous authorities.

8
Condition IV different urban players

• Practice of urban planning and development is a
  joint venture of
• Communes
• Planning agencies
• Executing organisations
• Citizens
• and others
• Urban practice means interaction of numerous
  parties, represented by different associations.

9
First conclusion

• German Focal Point may offer opportunities to
  urban professionals for participating in EUKN,
  for transfer of experience and information.
• German Focal Point neither has any authority to
  direct actors or bodies of urban development nor
  to enforce cooperation.
• Participation and contribution of third parties
  are a matter of voluntariness.

10
Subnetwork partners

• DIFU
• IRS
• ILS
• Schader Foundation

11
Internal relations

• Network cooperation and internal communication
  depend on suitable working forms
• EUKN internet platform
• Bilateral telecommunication
• Sporadic circulars
• Face-to-face contacts
• Workshops
• Partner meetings
• German EUKN subnetwork works like a voluntary
  association.

12
Further work steps

• Providing further knowledge documents, primarily
  from
• current urban practice and
• context of urban development and policy
• Promotion of EUKN by
• professional articles
• conference cooperation
• brochure distribution
• linking from other homepages
• User feedback by
• user survey
• partner workshop

13
Future orientation

• EUKN community is an association of autonomous
  voluntary players with limited resources.
• EUKN may attract due to quality and benifits of
  information.
• Quality before quantity
• Professional profile before thematic broadness
• Clearness and simplicity before complexness
• Consolidation before expansion
• Deepening existing partnership before attracting
  third parties
• Attracting further EU member states before global
  collaboration

14
Conclusions

• EUKN should concentrate on its original task
  internet-based transfer of experience and
  information.
• EUKN may offer opportunities for transfer and
  cooperation.
• EUKN cannot guarantee the urban dimension to be
  mainstreamed.
• EUKN should attract as many EU member states as
  possible.
• EUKN should keep to a minimum of efforts/costs.
• EUKN should strive for self-supporting
  structures.
• It is quality not quantity that counts!

15
Appendix Iprogress of German Subnetwork

• Set-up of Focal Point
• Kick-off of subnetwork
• Attracting subnetwork partners
• Ongoing knowledge contributions
• EUKN publicity and promotion
• Internal reorganisation of Focal Point
• User feedback
• List with 120 prime contact addresses
• Covering of all six EUKN themes
• German version of taxonomy
• Context and basic information
• German version of thesaurus

• June 2005
• July 2005
• since July 2005
• since August 2005
• since December 2005
• January 2006
• since February 2006
• March 2006
• since April 2006
• since Mai 2006
• since July 2006
• since August 2006

16
Appendix II public relations

• Press releases
• Professional articles
• Internet information
• Brochure
• E-mailing
• Linking from other homepages
• Conference partnership
• Target to release a snowball effect.