Barcelona

About the Centre

EIPA’s Antenna in Barcelona was created in 1996 through an agreement between EIPA and the regional government of Catalonia. The Antenna provides training activities, research and consultancy on topics such as the role and functions of sub-state administrations in the European integration process, aspects of European local and regional economic development, as well as specific programmes relating to the EU’s reinvigorated Euro-Mediterranean Partnership.
In 2011, EIPA Barcelona operated with a staff of 12 people, and an important group of external experts. Together, they carried out a total of 79 activities in 2011– of which 32 were seminars – attracting 912 participants.

EIPA Barcelona has been the Programme Management Unit for five regional EuroMed programmes: EuroMed Market Programme (2002-2009), EuroMed Training of Public Administrations (2004-2009) and EuroMed Justice I (2005-2007) and EuroMed Justice II (2008-2010); it is currently the Programme Management Unit for EuroMed Justice III project (2011-2014). The overall objective of Justice III is to contribute to the development of a Euro-Mediterranean area of cooperation in justice.

Training activities

• Open seminars: Every year, EIPA Barcelona offers open seminars on the bases of the core topics, on its own initiative, for which participants register individually.
• Tailor-made courses: Moreover, EIPA Barcelona develops tailor-made courses for clients, notably regions and cities in Europe, with which a cooperation agreement has been established. It also develops new areas of activity beyond these established fields.

Research and consultancy works

The regions and cities in Europe have constantly been gaining an increasingly substantial role in the European integration process and are taking their territorial development and strategic steering within this context very seriously. In order to meet the specific needs of regions and cities in the European Union, EIPA provides – in Barcelona or elsewhere – tailor-made training and development activities, research and comparative analysis between territorial administrations, networking, and dissemination of best practices for cooperation. One example is the Report commissioned by the Dutch Ministry of Interior on “The potential of the Lisbon Treaty: A challenge for the Netherlands and its provinces & municipalities”.

In the period 2010-2012, EIPA Barcelona was awarded two major contracts by the Committee of the Regions (CoR): one for the creation of the Scoreboard on Multilevel Governance (MLG) for monitoring on a yearly basis the development of MLG at EU level; the other was to serve the CoR as external experts in the area of EU constitutional affairs. Within this contract, EIPA Barcelona has presented several studies commissioned by the CoR.

Areas of expertise

We offer activities in three areas:
• Multilevel governance and EU legislation: analysis of the tools and mechanisms for effective participation and involvement of the regional and local authorities in the policy-making cycle, adequate impact assessment, effective transposition of European rules, subsidiarity control, and implementation of laws with high territorial relevance.
• Public administration: support for enhancing the Europeanisation and political positioning of regions and cities within the European context, including institutional and administrative capacity building, evaluation of public policies, e-Administration and quality management in the regional and local public sector, as well as networking skills.
• Regional development in the EU: tools and practical experiences for using networks, regional policies, developing project strategies for EU programmes and funds in order to place your region in the European landscape and contribute to its competitiveness, growth and prosperity in line with the EU 2020 Strategy.

EuroMed and external projects

Since 2002, the EIPA Centre in Barcelona has been carrying out training programmes for the public administrations of the Mediterranean Partners in the framework of the Euro-Mediterranean Partnership. EIPA Barcelona has solid expertise in assisting Neighbour and Accession countries to create the capacity necessary for the management of European Union programmes. The Centre is regularly commissioned by different European institutions, networks of states, regions or cities in Europe to conduct research on those new developments in the European integration process which are of major interest for the sub-state level.

European Public Sector Award (EPSA)

The fact that the Manager and part of the EPSA team are based at EIPA Barcelona, of course has a considerable impact on the activities of the Centre. Apart from steering and coordinating the several deliveries within the scheme, a number of EPSA knowledge-transfer assignments have been initiated and led by the Antenna. For more information, visit EPSA website.

Contact us

EIPA Barcelona
Postal address: c/ Girona, 20, 08010 Barcelona (ES)
Visiting address: c/ Bailén, 3 1st floor, 08010 Barcelona
Tel.: (+34) 93 567 24 00
Fax: (+34) 93 567 23 99