The main objective is to harmonise the implementation of the European Missions on the Danube region level. We observe significant disparities in the level of understanding, setup, and implementation of the European Missions among European regions. Therefore, within the proposed project, we aim to minimalize these disparities and help set up an effective Missions governing model on the Danube region level.
In the HARMONMISSIONS project, we want to aim at two concrete areas of the EU Missions:
1. Adaptation to Climate Change
4.100 Climate-Neutral and Smart Cities by 2030
In addition to concrete solutions to the problems in these areas, the EU Missions also aim to establish new forms of governance, cooperation and citizen involvement. The primary objective of the HARMONMISSIONS project is to facilitate these forms of cooperation as set out in the EU Missions. The interest of the project is to create channels for cooperation between partners in the areas of Missions 1 and 4. The need for cooperation lies in the fact that climate change cannot be tied to a specific country. On the contrary, it transcends national borders and therefore there is a need to cooperate to tackle climate change. The aim of the project is therefore to create a platform that facilitates cooperation between partners and raises awareness of the missions among the professional and lay public.
The concrete specification of the project on two selected climate mission areas also aims to create a platform within a narrowly specified framework, whose best practices and established organisational structure could be used in the region for cooperation in other EU Mission areas. In this way, the sustainability of the results and outputs of the project will be ensured for other EU Mission projects. The aim is to promote active stakeholder participation in the EU Mission projects, facilitate project involvement and increase project success. The project also seeks to create networks of contacts that will enable partnerships to be established in specific EU projects related to the EU Missions.
EU Missions’ ambitious goals are related/connected to wider EU policies, strategies, and initiatives. By focusing on the creation of an organisational structure in Mission 1, the project subscribes to the EU Adaptation Strategy and the European Green Deal. These strategies aim to contribute to climate change adaptation through international cooperation. International cooperation will be the main ambition of the project.
Mission 4 emphasizes the involvement of local, regional, and national governments, citizens, as well as investors and entrepreneurs to achieve the goals set out in this mission. Their cooperation is essential for the sustainability of the mission's results. As cooperation is also essential for success in this mission, the HARMONMISSIONS project aims to create an organisational structure composed of all these actors. Within it, knowledge sharing and collaboration will be able to take place, to create synergies between existing initiatives and to target the current needs of cities and other partners.
Based on the focus on creating an organizational structure for the platform in the areas of climate missions, we have defined the following target groups: government, researchers and innovators, education institutions, small and large businesses, investors, and civil society. We see the involvement of the expert community in the platform as an essential means to increase country and partner engagement in mission-related challenges. Successful projects will be able to directly address current needs. We see the involvement of the general public as beneficial in terms of raising awareness in the field and consequently exerting bottom-up pressure. It will also increase the formation of civil society.
Moreover, their timeline extends to 2030 when concrete results are expected. In the meantime, the EU policies will continue developing and Missions will (may need to) be adapted and enriched by new strategies and objectives. An EU policy observatory (EMO platform) will be developed that will gather information on relevant EU policies, produce a user-friendly description and make them available to National Contact Points (NCPs) and the public on the project’s website.
Furthermore, other EU programmes and strategies, such as the Cohesion Funds and the Recovery and Resilience funds, EUSDR contribute to similar goals and policies. Collaboration with national and regional networks supporting such EU programmes will be built to organise joint events/raise awareness of the common challenges.
Within the project we aim to set up an EU policies observatory tool (EMO platform) that will be designed to collect information about the most relevant EU policies impacting the EU Missions how they evolve/change during the lifetime of the project, and what impact these changes have on the Missions. This tool will help DR countries to set up proper national measures.
