Boris Meggiorin
As a project manager for international relations as the Culture service of the Government of Catalonia, in 2009 I helped the production of the first Compendium for cultural policy in Catalonia, an initiative of the Council of Europe in cooperation of the Ericarts institute. A tool usually dedicated to countries, Catalonia was the first regional government to produce its own Compendium overviewing the evolution of culture and creative industries in Barcelona and its surrounding areas.
In 2009, while working on the cross-border projects of the Euroregion Pyrenees -Mediterranean, I had the mandate to promote the results of projects that were already in their execution phase. That was the case of the transnational mountain hospital built thanks to an EU Interreg fund, at the border between France and Spain, in the Cerdanya valley.
https://interreg.eu/interreg-highlights/people/medicine-knows-no-borders/
In 2008, I was hired by the Ministry of Culture of the Government of Catalonia (Generalitat de Catalunya). My mission was built around the participation of the Catalan government to the cross-border cooperation framed as “Euro Region Pyrenees Mediterranean”. Two regions of France and two autonomous communities of Spain were structuring their interests and needs starting from concrete projects financed by the Interreg programme of the European Union. For example, the construction of the cross-border hospital of Cerdanya, and the transnational theatre production between Perpignan and Salt.
The cultural cooperation was on the forefront of the scheme, and my role was to support the creation of the first call for Euro Regional cooperation projects in the cultural and artistic sectors.
As a member of the Catalan delegation, I was part of the permanent Commission for Culture of the Euro Region, an initiative that was instrumental in the creation of the EGTC (European grouping of territorial cooperation) that allowed the partnership to become a legal entity.
http://www.euroregio.eu/fr/espace-culture/projets-culturels
In 2009, I developed a connection between the Euro Region Pyrenees Mediterranean and the Euro Region Baltic. This was made thanks to the enrolment in the Capacity Building Programme for local authorities of the South Baltic area, as an expert of access to EU funding.
At that point, the Euro Region Pyrenees-Mediterranean was already an established player for cross-border actions in the field of culture. On the other hand, the Euro Region Baltic was a relevant actor in the field of environmental sustainability.
The partnership promoted a set of joined events in France and Sweden, as well as a project application to the Interreg Europe programme.
OpenArch was a cooperation initiative to develop and enhance a network of Archaeological Open Air Museums throughout Europe with the aim of improving the public experience at such museums.
The project fostered creativity and innovation, especially in relation to the opportunities offered through better interaction between Archaeological Open Air Museums and their surrounding communities.
The project included a set of staff exchanges and a sequence of pilot actions in some selected locations, part of the international network of open air archeological museums.
My role was to support the preparation of the project proposal and its application to the call of the Culture Programme of the European Union in 2009 and 2010, and the definition of the budget and the financial follow-up.
LabTechnoCulturS (Culture and Technology Lab) was a project to apply the usage of information and communication technology to a set of selected spots of the industrial heritage in the Euroregion Pyrenees Mediterranean. My role was to coordinate the project at the Culture Departement of the Government of Catalonia as the leading partner of this cross-border consortium.
Total grant: 510 621,25 euros
Have you ever heard of the problems tourism can generate in city centers? Or a conversation about local souvenirs that may actually be produced elesewhere?
C.U.L.T.U.R.E. aimed to reflect at the role of “culture” in its most wide meaning, such as a common matrix for the selected cities forming the consortium, all awarded with the World Heritage label by Unesco.
The project was a Transnational Cooperation project co-funded by the European Regional Development Fund through the MED Programme.
A special attention is given to culture as driver for economic growth. The chosen approach was to integrate the knowledge, the practices and the financial tools used by the different level of local governance. Local public players shared the same issues, needs and objectives.
The Consortium was formed by regional and local authorities from Italy, Spain and Greece and Croatia.
My role was to support the financial and administrative follow-up of the Municipality of Tarragona (Spain), as well as the technical support to the project coordination.
Total grant: 1.078.335,86 euros.https://interreg-med.eu/
Does your city has some dismissed warehouses? A former industrial area that has been abandoned and squatted?
Refill aimed at creating prototypes of temporary uses in dismissed and abandoned urban areas.
It was an initiative cofinanced by the Urbact programme of the European Union.
While working as Head of International relations at SAMOA Nantes, my role was to support the development of the partnership, the conception of the project as well as the coordination of the local activities.
The western part of the Isle of Nantes was used as a field for pilot actions during the project.
The drafting of the application as well as the operational and financial management were part of my duties.
The Refill project also included the steering of a focus group of local stakeholders who followed up the testing phase and provided it with guidance and feedback. https://refillthecity.wordpress.com/