METRO - The role and future perspectives of Cohesion Policy in the planning of Metropolitan Areas and Cities. Annex III: Metropolitan City of Turin case study

The Metropolitan City of Turin, which is one of the case studies of the ESPON METRO project, is a wide area, second level local authority which replaced the former Province of Turin from January 1st, 2015. The metropolitan institution brings together 312 municipalities, covering a very large and heterogeneous territory, from dense urban areas to small towns and villages, much larger than the functional urban area of Turin. It is the largest metropolitan city in Italy, fourth in population size (2.2Mln inhabitants) and seventh in population density (330 inh/km2). Metropolitan Cities are administrative units formally established in Italy by the reform of local authorities (National Law 56/2014), replacing the respective Province authorities. The Italian Metropolitan cities still perform all the functions of the previous Province authorities, and have additional functions, such as strategic, spatial and mobility planning, organization of coordinated systems for the management of public services, mobility and transport, promotion and coordination of digitalization and economic and social development. Despite the high level of institutionalization and competences of the Metropolitan City of Turin, which is formally acknowledged as an entity also enjoying a supranational relevance when it comes to access EU funds, the institution does not have relevant role and competences in the elaboration of key policy and programming documents of the EU cohesion policy and in their management and implementation, while the Region and the national level are the main actors. In this case study report, the potential and actual role of the Metropolitan City of Turin in the implementation of the cohesion policy, and the impact of the cohesion policy on metropolitan development and governance are analysed. After a territorial and socio-economic contextualization of the area, the metropolitan governance and cooperation activities are presented. Then, the cohesion policy institutional architecture and policy instruments are presented, and the role of the metropolitan actors in the planning and implementation of the cohesion policy is examined, as well as its coordination with metropolitan governance. The cohesion policy impact on metropolitan development and governance is then presented, analyzing the coherence and synergies of its instruments and goals with metropolitan ones, the funding magnitude and the related impact. Issues related to the response to the COVID-19 emergency are presented in each of the three core sections of the report. Finally, the last section of the report summarizes the main challenges and recommendations.