| Description |
Metropolitan cooperation represents a hierarchically higher level of collaboration among municipalities in functional urban areas. These areas are characterized by a high degree of urbanization, population concentration, economic activities, science, and research, as well as intensive socio-economic connections between the center and its surroundings. After many years of directive interventions, stagnation, and distrust in inter-municipal cooperation, the Czech Republic is experiencing a spontaneous process of metropolitanization. This process significantly reshapes spatial relationships between settlements in the region, impacting the demand for public services at various territorial levels and introducing new stimuli into their activities. However, there is still a lack of management for the development of metropolitan areas in the Czech Republic, meaning there is no institution responsible for the development of this functional territory. The establishment of a newly created institution focused on managing the development of functional urban regions will require legislative changes. Based on the results of discussions and a general consensus with experts from practice, the public, and the academic sphere, further gradual work has been carried out on legislative adjustments aimed at proposing a methodology for establishing a metropolitan association that will coordinate metropolitan inter-municipal cooperation. Factors influencing the success of metropolitan cooperation can be summarized in several basic points: long-term traditions of collaboration, significant bottom-up initiatives, anchoring in legislation, and a positive approach from central authorities. These aspects are not yet fully realized in the Czech Republic. The results of analyses, examples of good practices, foreign experiences, as well as research, discussions, and interviews with domestic stakeholders have undeniably sparked a broad debate and interest at all hierarchical levels of public administration (municipalities, districts, regions, ministries – Ministry of Regional Development of the Czech Republic and Ministry of the Interior of the Czech Republic) in the previously neglected issue of metropolitan cooperation and its potential institutionalization. Processes have been initiated that will lead to the establishment of a metropolitan association in the model Brno Metropolitan Area in the near future (pilot version) and, by 2027+, to a conceptual change in the management of the development of metropolitan areas based on a universal solution close to a modern and advanced European environment.
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