Cooperation with Norwegian Municipalities – what are the options?Gunnbjørg Naavik, Special Adviser, KS – Sofia – 4 March 2008

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• KS as a national members’ association for local and regional government– 430 municipalities, 19 counties and approx. 500 public

enterprises- Head Office in Oslo. Representation in all Counties.

Objective to- Strengthen local democracy- Facilitate and communicate members’ needs, and

influence national framework conditions- Develop further the established arrangements for

consultations between local authorities and national Government

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KS as an interest and employer organisation

– Spokesman vis-à-vis central government – Central collective bargaining organisation– Advisory and consultative body

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Competence of Norwegian local and regional government

• Administration of resources• Implementation of laws and regulations• Provision of services to the inhabitants • Regional planning and development

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Norwegian municipal and regional international cooperation

• International local and regional cooperation since early 1990’s

• People-to-people co-operation• Project cooperation under different

Government Action Plans for Eastern and Central Europe and the EU candidate countries (1992 – 2004)

• 50 – 60 Norwegian municipalities have been or are involved in municipal international cooperation projects

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Liveable Municipalities

• A five year program (2006-2010) for capacity building on sustainable development in local authorities in Norway

• Agreement between the Norwegian Association of Local and Regional Authorities - KS, and the Norwegian Ministry of Environment – MoE.

• The overall aim to create more vibrant and sustainable communities through networking amongst small clusters of municipalities

• KS has long experience with the method of municipalities working together in small networks

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Liveable Municipalities

Six priority areas :

• Energy and climate issues• Spatial planning and land use policies• Environmental business and trade (sustainable

production and consumption)• Cultural heritage • Outdoor recreation, health and quality of life• Cooperation with local and regional authorities in

other countries

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Liveable Municipalities

The networks’ tasks are connected to the local authorities ordinary steering process :

• Identify status and areas for improvement on local sustainable development, by use of indicators and ”bench learning”

• Involve people to shape the vision for their community, and build strong partnerships across public, private, business, voluntary and community sector

• Integrate sustainability in ordinary planning, steering and activities to make sustainability a core business, and to secure a lasting effect when the programme period is over

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Liveable Municipalities

• An average number of five municipalities in each network

• Stress participation from politicians, chief executives and their staff

• Networks meet on a regular basis to share experiences and to discuss improvement on a certain issue

• Facilitated by 10 advisers working at the regional branch offices of KS

• Overall goal to involve 200 of the 431 municipalities in Norway in the programme

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Liveable Municipalities

• By end of 2007 34 networks were established including 152 municipalities

• 20 networks (103 municipalities) on climate and energy and 19 networks (77 municipalities) on space planning

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Liveable Municipalities

Need to make parallel improvements at national level.

Main objectives :

• Make national indications on development in the municipalities based on assessment tools

• Feed the results into processes to move national policies in a direction that improves local authorities abilities to create a more sustainable development

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Green Energy Municipalities

- Agreement between three Ministries ; Oil and Energy, Environment, and Local Government and Regional Development

- Programme period 2007-2010- 21 municipalities and 1 regional authority participate- Objective : to encourage municipalities to make

efforts within energy efficiency, renewable energy such as bioenergy, and to reduce their emmissions of climate gases

- Same work method as Liveable Municipalities

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Some concerns from KS’ point of view :1. Local and regional governments have valuable

knowledge and competence that should be of considerable importance to the national government

2. Local and regional authorities should be actively included in the national priorities in order to benefit from the Financial Mechanisms in the best possible way

3. Norwegian local and regional authorities are ready to become partners with authorities and enterprises in Bulgaria and to help exploring the EEA and Norwegian Financial Mechanisms

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http://www.ks.no

http://www.livskraftigekommuner.no