Cooperation across administrative boundaries is currently one of the most important requirements for effective management in public administration. However, the practical implementation of this principle is often a difficult challenge, since such cooperation requires the ability to work together across administrative borders.

The recent Local Development Forum was an opportunity to learn about good examples of inter-municipal cooperation in Norway and Poland. Experts and practitioners spoke, inter alia, about how to build mutual trust, obtain mutual benefits, expand the scope and use various forms of cooperation. Experiences presented included overall territorial cooperation, as well as sectoral cooperation in waste management and tourism administration.

'Inter-municipal cooperation has been developed in many European countries, as we can all see more and more clearly that administrative borders are irrelevant in the implementation of most tasks related to serving our residents. It is just that administrative borders sometimes hinder good administration in the sense that the legal solutions which facilitate and enable this cooperation sometimes fail to keep up with the needs ,' said Andrzej Porawski, Director of the APC Office, during the seminar. 'In Poland, we are supported by the Ministry of Funds and Regional Policy in legal changes concerning cooperation between local governments, but other ministries do not necessarily keep up with it. Only recently, the Ministry of Administration and Interior Affairs took note and promised to support the solutions we are currently preparing together with the Ministry of Funds'.

During the meeting, experiences from 10 years of promoting and supporting cooperation between Polish local governments by the Association of Polish Cities were presented. One such experience was the Advisory Support Centre project, which was implemented from 2020 to 2023. A total of 77 partnerships associating more than 700 districts and municipalities participate in its second edition. Almost 50% of them are strategic intervention areas. The partnerships’ area is home to 7.5 million people - that's 20% of Poland's population.

Participants at the meeting had the opportunity to find out how inter-municipal cooperation in the Drammen region in Norway is organised and what results it brings. Norwegian guests at the seminar also talked about how municipal waste is managed in Norway.

As far as Polish cities and their cooperation is concerned, experiences on the subject were shared by the Mayor of Dzierżoniów, Dariusz Kucharski, who spoke about joint activities as the key to effective partnership in the Dzierżoniów Agglomeration. In turn, Piotr Basiński talked about the experience of the Poznań Local Tourist Organisation, which brings together Poznań and neighbouring municipalities to develop local tourism.

The current cycle of the LDF is being carried out within the framework of a project to continue bilateral cooperation between Polish, Norwegian and Icelandic local governments as an example of developing lasting relations after local development projects and expanding cooperation in preparation for the next perspective. The project ‘Bilateral Initiative 2024-2025’ is implemented with funding from the Bilateral Cooperation Fund, the European Economic Area Financial Mechanism and the Norwegian Financial Mechanism 2014-2021.