On 24 and 25 January the ‘Champions’ of theREGIO Peer2Peer Communitiesattended the ‘Community of Communities’ workshop in Athens.

There are currently 10 REGIO Peer2Peer Communities, with nearly 1000 active participantsfrom all EU member States in the last year. The 28 Champions and most active Community practitioners, all working in ERDF and Cohesion Policy funds, met in Athens with Community coordinators (Clarissa Amichetti and Lorenzo Palego) and DG REGIO. We engaged in an intense debate on the state-of-the-art of the Communities. Champions gave feedback, suggestions and many new ideas for the future of this peer learning tool, thatt33 Sound Policyhas been managing in the last 3 years withSpatial ForesightandÖIR GmbH.

In Athens, multiple groupwork sessions and facilitated exercises (fishbowl, World cafè, a 'community fair’) allowed for a structured collective reflection on our methodological approach, and for a view on the future of each Community.

Champions renewed their commitment to continue and reinforce this service, also acting as ‘ambassadors’ of the Communities in their organisations.

More in detail, they highlighted that in-person workshops are more effective to share practices, explore specific topics and strengthen working relationships among practitioners: they are therefore key to complement the online work of each Community. In fact, a positive spill-over effect was generated by the two “joint Communities workshops” recently held :

- in Copenhagen in March 2023, joining theSelection of OperationsandDNSH Communities(93 programme authorities)

- in Florence in October 2023, joining theACBandNRRP-Cohesion Communities(76 programme authorities).

Such meetings allowed practitioners from many EU Member States, working in ERDF national and regional administrations, to share a number of practices on the topics, heighten Community spirit, get to know personally colleagues from other MS who face the same challenges, and collaborate on Community products.

An in-depth reflection was centred on the quantity-quality binomial: Champions stressed that the approach should continue in promoting ‘quality over quantity’. This should reflect on the necessity to continue working onconcrete outputsthat can support the daily work of Programme officers. In recent months, Communities produced through collaborative work detailed documents such as databases (e.g. on capacity building actions in ERDF programmes), checklists for Programme authorities (e.g. on selection of operations), technical notes for the Commission (e.g. on the incentive effect clause forState aid), and others.

The 'Policy brief' on Administrative Capacity Building Roadmaps recently created by theACB Communityis being shared with DG REGIO: here the Community assesses the work done in MS to deliver this new programme document (the ACB Roadmap) and provides suggestions on how to reinforce capacity building at MS and Commission level.

Champions emphasised the importance to enlarge the Communities, and at the same time strengthen their internal collaboration. The biggest Communities, now gathering over 90 people in each meeting, might be split creating ‘newcomers’ and ‘experts’ circles: this would enable ‘newcomers’ to become familiar with the Community theme, and ‘experts’ to advance and co-work on concrete sharable outputs.

Collaboration and co-creation of productswithin a Community implies sharing information, even sensible and sensitive ones. This is possible as Communities are perceived assafe and free spaceswhere everyone can express their own views, which can or cannot reflect the ones of their organisations, and where trust among practitioners facilitate sharing.

All in all, ideas and elements emerged during the Athens workshop can be summarised in‘development of a shared vision’: the REGIO Peer2Peer Communities approach is working because practitioners agree on goals and objectives, as well as challenges and how to overcome them. Building a shared pathway and creating common tools foster a co-ownership attitude. The Communities are at this pointa trust-based environment, where equity and equality in access and participation ensure the concrete implementation of the bottom-up approach.

The 10 REGIO Peer2Peer Communities have been rapidly growing in numbers and in their structured approach in the last couple of years. Quality is nonetheless more important than quantity, as mentioned, and the commitment and dedication of the Community champions proves that we are on high standards!