AAP2020 ADRIATIC ACTION PLAN 2020

The organization

The Adriatic Sea region is the ideal political, economic and cultural junction between East ad West, North and South of the world.

The Forum of Adriatic and Ionian Cities & Towns was born in 1999 with the "Charter of Ancona", which provides criteria to establish and develop a commitment of Local Administrations for the sustainable development of the Adriatic region.

The Forum is an instrument of decentralized and cross border cooperation, conceived after the experiences of solidarity that followed the recent Balkan conflicts.

The Forum encourages and supports the administrative interaction between cities on the two sides of the Adriatic region, promoting the dissemination of best practices in governance and environmental protection, moving towards a common scenario in which sustainability is an administrative innovation tool and a market factor.

A scenario that assumes the Adriatic Sea as an "inner sea" and not as a border or a separation line.

The problem

In the Adriatic region the public administration at the local level is characterized by conflicting trends.

On one side, there is wide recognition of the basic role played by environmental resources in development.

On the other side, sustainability policies are implemented only at random, without coordination, limited in time and space, frequently confined to "defense" and "conservation" of resources, regardless of management tools.

The Adriatic cities, and the whole Adriatic region, need an evolution in local government, supported by the raising knowledge of a "local community culture" with European standards of life and administration.

This evolution must foster the integration of sustainability policies in the administrative procedures of public bodies at any level.

The sustainability evaluation and the following actions cannot survive only as "best examples", but should be considered an essential element of management of local communities.

To implement sustainability the public administrations cannot rely only on a financial approach.

They need to integrate the environmental and social dimensions in their decision-making processes.

The actions

The methodological framework of the operation provides parallel actions in the public and private sectors.

Each sector makes use of specific tools for the definition and the implementation of local sustainable policies.

The two levels of activity will be integrated by means of a process of sustainable governance (both at local and global-Adriatic level), following the standardized methodologies of Local Agenda 21.

The final results will be summarized in a program (Adriatic Action Plan 2020), which includes common strategies and actions to be implemented before the year 2020.

Most of the activities included in the operation are oriented to strengthen the contacts between the local governments
(and the citizens) of all sides of Adriatic Sea region, implementing procedural, communication and marketing tools, as:

- New common procedures for analysis and evaluation of local systems and orientation of local sustainability policies.

- An integrated web platform, with territorial and administrative data banks and utilities, to manage every kind of communication request, more or less evolved.

- A network for cooperation between economic and social operators (enterprises, no-profit organizations, etc.).

These products, procedures and structures lead to the definition of a common space and language, improving administrative and commercial relationships between Adriatic partners and environmental and quality-of-life standards, towards an Adriatic sustainable way of life.

Innovation and partecipation

The LSD (Local Sustainable Development) set includes:
- Environmental and social Reporting.
- Environmental Management Systems (Emas-Iso).
- Integrated Sustainability Accounting.

Each city, starting from the tools already implemented, completes in progress its own set, using the same methodologies.

The two levels of action (public and private) will be integrated in a process of sustainable governance, supported by stakeholders from all partner cities.

The final session of the Adriatic Forum will be hosted on a ferryboat, sailing on the Adriatic and docking for legmeetings in each partner city, to encourage the participation and the possible contribution of local stakeholders.

Final results will be formalized in a program (AAP, Adriatic Action Plan), directly transferred to all partner cities for its integration in each local program or strategy.