Imagine: an inspired entrepreneur plans to set up a new business in the midst of a valuable landscape. He aims to combine innovative economic activity with high-quality public realm. By carefully embedding his concept into the spatial and social context he will keep the area vital and contribute to future prosperity. An innovator pur sang, you would say. Alas, present local government would not allow it. “Companies belong on the company park; that’s how it’s done”, he's told.

This is a real life example of day to day practise. Instead of supporting innovative ideas, we stick to the rules we once set out. Regulation in all fields of public life has become more and more prescriptive. Technology, within all sectors undoubtedly has achieved great results. The problem is that it neglects its aim to facilitate people. Regulations have alienated from people, their culture and their traditions and affect our efficiency and our competitiveness. EU as well as its member states expressed their concerns about an excessive and ‘nannying’ approach to health and safety issues, which are the fields most regulations refer to. Hence, they are striving to carry forward a series of reform measures aimed at tackling the 'red tape'. Barroso’s Commission has drastically slowed the pace of new legislative activity.

Through tougher impact assessment guidelines, EU legislative proposals will be screened for potential significant negative impacts on competitiveness. In eurospeak this is referred to as the ‘simplification’ process. Of course, changes in ownership through privatisation are not enough and deregulation as it is practised today is an insufficient principle for market and society reform. The real aim of reforming regulation should be to create competitive markets that reward value to society, re-allocate resources, and adapt to changing opportunities and risks. Focus today is not the size of the public bodies, but their role, their effectiveness and their helpfulness, which is to say, their quality. Conclusion: We do not need small government, but smart governance. Institutional reforms must strengthen both market and society.

The C6 project builds upon the results of the INTERREG IIIB project Shared Space. Pioneering schemes demonstrated that it is possible and achievable to combine traffic movement with high-quality public realm throughout our land- and townscapes. It proved that safety and proper behaviour can be effectively modified through social and cultural messages, rather than through legislation and standards imposed by the state. Responsibility was returned to the users of public space, by working out new designs, building new working teams and entering a process of mutual learning. This is easier said than done. When realised properly, such new regulation involves various sectors, but also various actors, whose commitment and responsibilities need to be redefined. This is what the C6 partnership will explore.

The C6 partnership will find new strategies towards balancing rules and ethics to facilitate healthy social and economic organisms. We believe new alliances of public and private stakeholders can provide a better quality of life through a new sense of civility. All sectors of policy and business feel the need to be accountable and in compliance with various regulations. However, we believe that simply being accountable and in compliance doesn’t guarantee quality and effectiveness, which should be our focus.

In our view, civility is the underlying principle to rediscover the 'spirit of the law' and to behave accordingly. We understand that this is an attitude rather than a fixed set of principles. The way in which public bodies, NGOs, citizens, scholars and entrepreneurs get involved in this process is decisive for the success or failure of any innovation. By working out and implementing the conditions, contents and qualities of new civility, the C6 partnership will create an agenda for joint action and investments. Efforts to formulate such process are not new, but to our knowledge there has not been a proven and transferable strategy.

Detailed objectives

1. Achieve a sense of shared commitment Adapting institutions to new roles and functions that serve social and market demands is vital to public support for growth. Everyone has the right and the responsibility to improve his or her surroundings, which will succeed only, if we co-operate in a well-planned way, addressing the factors that affect all of our lives. This demands responsibility building, institution building and capacity building, a process of value adding thinking, the training of trainers, activities with multiplier effects, and networking. As members of society, we all are resources and agents of change, provided we are able to learn with, from, and about each other and to build on each other's knowledge and strengths. We can only do so, when we learn to make a difference between legislation, regulations and directives, which all need to be understood and dealt with in a reasonable way.

2. Realise a programme of shared policy Integrating multiple policy goals (spatial, social and economic policies) will result in policy coherence within a complex world, breaking down silos and promote horizontal thinking. We cannot achieve that by working in a vacuum. Hence, an arena of shared interests, purposes and values is needed, which the C6 partnership found in public space. It provides room for diverse societal values and interests: to interact, to debate, to associate, and to influence the direct surroundings, the wider society and political processes. Public space is used by an array of diverse actors, and it is related to diverse policy fields. The increasing demand for more crosscutting, flexible and responsive management for the development and management of cities and settlements calls for new and very different organisational structures and relationships. It also calls for new relationships between different organisations that have a role direct or indirect, in urban development and management. Again, we are challenged to review the framework of legislation, regulations and directives: obey the law whilst learning to interpret rules and directives in a reasonable manner.

3. Build a structure of shared investment Within a region and a local area there are always many stakeholders and policy departments with each their own programmes and budgets. If we succeed to establish networking mechanisms between entrepreneurs and stakeholders among themselves, and with the authorities providing the policy context for their actions, we will enable them to organise themselves towards concentrated regional planning, funding and investing. Strategic focus within this objective is to discover and to mainstream stakeholders’ programmes, and to integrate stakeholders’ regional actions and their budgets. It is our aim to develop a structure for such network funding, to find an appropriate legal and administration protocol, and to work out how to ensure that all groups of shareholders can contribute by the means that are suitable for them.

In compliance with the NSR Programme Rationale for Priority 1, our central result will be to work out strategy, which allows ongoing rethinking regulations and delegating responsibilities (as to contents and finance), to where they belong. C6 will result in a model of shared management and new alliances between organisations, agencies, networks and individuals. This will be achieved on transnational, national as well as on regional level.

Our target groups are: public authorities, business clusters, research institutes, universities, public support agencies in urban and rural areas, citizens' organisations

Output details: --1 new transnational durable C6 – alliance established in order to keep up reviewing and improving the New Civility approach; thus encouraging transnational partnerships within and between clusters; --10 transnational C6 techniques adopted for co-operative investments within and between clusters and target groups --7 new demonstration schemes on improved regulation frameworks on national level --7 new regional alliances on investment funds --7 regional new approaches to innovation policy elaborated, assessed and implemented --7 regional intermediary bodies established focused on building the capacity of public and private bodies and knowledge institutes to keep engaged in innovation, and to improve the access to finance of SMEs engaged in innovation -- Not yet set amount of complementary financing secured (additional to approved project budget.

The Netherlands: Province of Fryslân Municipality of Smallingerland, departments of spatial development, social care and welfare, culture and heritage, environment, communication Noordelijke Hogeschool Leeuwarden, Institute of Advanced Professional Education Hogeschool Van Hall Larenstein, Institute of Advanced Professional Education Cartesius Institute, National Innovation Research and Knoweldge Institute Entrepreneurs association HNI Drachten Heritage institution Smelne's Erfskip Theatre Lawei, Museum Smallingerland, Library Drachten, Creativity Centre Meldei, Music Centre Iduna Residents' organisations of the neighbourhoods of Vogelzang, Torenstraat, Drift and Berglaan/Gauke Boelensstraat Werkgroep Toegankelijk Smallingerland, organisation of handicapped people VVN, organisation for traffic and safety VISIO, organisation voor blind and partially sighted VISIO Arriva, public transport organisation Regional police Regional architecture advisory organisation Hûs&Hiem Businesses

Belgium: Flemish administration for spatial planning Flemish administration for Roads and Traffic Municipality of Aalst NMBS, National company for public rail transport ‘De Lijn’, Regional company for public transport by bus GECORO, Local commission for planning OPR, interdepartmental discussion forum Aalst Association of local businesses University of Hasselt Advanced Education Institute Businesses / private partners

Germany: Ministry of [detail] Affairs of Lower Saxony Regional authority / Landkreis of Oldenburg Regional authority / Landkreis of Osnabrück Municipality of Bohmte University of Oldenburg Advanced Education Institute Businesses / private partners

Denmark: Odense City departments, (Mayor’s Department, Department of Elderly and Disabled and Department for Children and Youth) Private investor Lillebælt Gruppen Private investor Aberdeen Property Investors City Association Danish Cycle Association Odense Disabled Committee Fyn Bus (public transport company) SMEs Odense Water Ltd. Fire-fighting service University of South Denmark

Technische Universität Harburg, Department of spatial planning Finance Institution Sparkasse Harburg – Buxtehude Federal Traffic and Road Planning Administration of Lower Saxony

Public and private partners as well as knowledge institutes searched in United Kingdom, Sweden and Norway