First variable: CBC Organization

The variable “CBC Organization” is part of Perkmann’s conceptualization and it measures how the CBC of a municipality is structured and consolidated. In other words, this variable tries to define the size, the expertise and the capacity building of the offices

and the respective employees involved in CBC activities. To identify the final value of this variable, the research operationalises the analysis in 9 different conditions: 1) Number of employees involved in CBC activities; 2) Number of municipal departments involved in CBC activities; 3) Existence of a single specific ad hoc office for CBC activities; 4) Congruent educational background of the employees working in CBC activities; 5) CBC professional training; 6) Recruitment; 7) Experience and turnover of employees working in CBC activities; 8) Specific-commission for winning a CBC

Table 4.1 - First Variable, data (Own elaboration)

According to these data the study underlines the various approaches undertaken by each municipality to organize and develop their internal CBC structures.

The first condition is that the number of employees directly involved in CBC is changing from 6 to 10 with the exception of Korca who manages to involve 30 people.

Considering the overall low level of intensity of CBC activities in the area, the threshold to get a positive indicator for the first condition is fixed to a minimum of 5/6 people. All the municipalities, therefore, have a positive result on this first specific condition. The second condition instead evaluates the number of departments involved in CBC projects, in terms of planning, design and implementation of CBC activities. Due to the specificity and multiple implications and effects of the CBC activities, different municipal departments are integrated in order to facilitate the implementation of CBC projects. Most of the municipalities have collaboration between the accounting office for the managing of funds and the local development department or the cultural department, depending on the CBC themes. The second condition is, therefore, valued as positive when there are two or three departments working together on CBC activities.

In case of only one department it would be necessary to have a specific office working only with CBC. For the case of Korca, with more than three departments involved, the work on CBC seems to be too dispersive and not well-organized. This analysis is also confirmed by the indecision of one of the people in charge of CBC in Korca who, during the interview, was not sure about the number of departments involved in CBC projects. The third and fourth conditions are linked together. They measure the education and the training of employees related to CBC. In particular, they focus on the degree/education of the employees and the training promoted by the Joint Technical Secretariats (JTS) before launching the Call for Proposals of the relevant CBC programmes. The conditions are evaluated positively in case 50% of the employees - declared as involved in CBC (see first condition) possess specific related education (European studies, Management, Economics, Local Development, Spatial Planning, etc.) or have attended more than once JTS seminars. The next condition, the single CBC office, refers to the existence of a specific CBC department. This is the case of Ruse and Struga, but with different results. As will be shown in the next paragraph, creating a single office working on CBC can be an asset, but it is not sufficient to have a successful CBC action. It becomes evident, in fact, comparing Ruse and Struga that the choice of the people, their experience and the investment in their training is crucial.

Conditions No. 6 and No. 7 are related to the recruitment and the stability of the

employees. Several experts from the JTS or the competent Ministers pointed out during the research that in different local authorities there is high mobility and turnover in the CBC working team which can hinder the effective implementation of the CBC activities. Other CBC experts work in private companies or NGOs, in particular in Albania but also in FYROM, emphasise this problem due to the political clientelism which is still not completely eradicated on the territory. According to these interviewed experts, clientelistic practices are widespread, specifically at the local level. In this respect, it is relevant to mention the “Albania 2012 Progress Report” written by the European Commission which pointed out the necessity of a public administration reform as key priority for the Country to increase the transparency and the fight with corruption (European commission 2012).

The research, hence, on the basis of conditions 6 and 7, evaluates the recruitment approach, the experience of the people working on CBC actions and, finally, their turnover. Condition No. 8 underlines whether there are internal mechanisms to stimulate the employees in developing more and more CBC projects, for example, in getting an extra-pay or bonus, but none among the municipalities has adopted this strategy.

Finally, the last condition investigates whether there is an extra CBC office such as a Euroregion or a specific agency capable of stimulating and supporting the CBC development within the territory. Among the 9 cases, it is relevant to mention the creation of a real Euroregion in Ruse (Euroregion Danubius) and of a development agency in Bitola called “Pelagonija Regional Development Agency”. Following this analysis, the corresponding values of the single conditions and the deduced results (depending on the majority or minority 0 or 1 codes) of the first variable “Organization”

are shown below.

Variable 1: CBC Organization

Korca Gjirokaster Vlore Bitola

Kriva

Palanka Struga Kjustendil Haskovo Ruse Employees

involved 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1

Departments

involved 0 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1

Specific educat. of

employees 1 1 0 1 1 0 1 1 1

CBC training 1 0 0 1 1 0 1 1 1

Korca Gjirokaster Vlore Bitola

Kriva

Palanka Struga Kjustendil Haskovo Ruse Single office

for CBC 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 1

Recruit. staff - - - - - - - -

-Exp/changing

staff 0 0 0 1 1 1 1 1 1

Specific commiss./

bonus 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

Extra agency for CBC

activity 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 1

0 0 0 1 1 0 1 1 1

Table 4.2 - First Variable, results (Own elaboration)