ASSET (Action to Strengthen Small European Towns)
Project Description

ACTIONS AND TIMING

16.  In the preparatory phase to 2008, meetings of the Organising Group of Partners have been held: in Brussels in September 2006; in Lisbon in March 2007; in Brussels in July 2007 and in Austria in September 2007.
 

17. In 2008 a bid to INTERREG IVC will be prepared with specific partners drawn from across Europe. Following that, there will be a wider launch of the project, aimed to attract further partners to the ASSET project as a whole who would join the Organising Group.
In preparation for that formal launch of the project the following action is being undertaken:

• Preparation of a crisp but detailed database about who is doing what to support small towns throughout Europe.
• Choice, from within that database, of further potential partners
• Approach to those potential partners
• Identification of potential sources of funds to match that provided by the partners

Through a questionnaire to contacts in a number of European countries, work is advanced in establishing a database of support agencies and regional contacts in the EU and beyond (e.g. the Accession states, Russia and Macedonia) to map and record existing networks, and to establish how to link and develop exchanges.
 

18.  We propose that, after the preparatory phase, the project might have a planned duration of at least three years (2011).   If (as we expect) the exchanges and networking generated by the project prove to have a longer-term value, then a structure will be formed to sustain that activity beyond the project period. As the exchanges, networking and other benefits develop then we intend to initiate a review process to ensure that the lessons learned are addressed, either in a continuation of the programme or its integration into another programme or programmes. Also at that stage a succession strategy will be devised.