Metropolitan Governance and I CT Applications: spatial planning and entrepreneurship policies in the Greater Area of Thessaloniki* Anastasia Tasopoulou , Urban and Regional Planner, Spatial Development Research Unit, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Thessaloniki, Greece Christina Kakderi , Economist, Spatial Development Research Unit, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Thessaloniki, Greece E-Governance constitutes a crucial component of territorial governance and, in particular, of metropolitan governance developed in Europe during the last ten years. This new aspect of governance refers to the use of ICT applications for the transformation of the ways in which administration, citizens and businesses interact and organize their activities. The paper approaches e-Governance at the Thessaloniki metropolitan area by investigating both the existence and the utilization of technological applications available to the public and/or private agencies in the policy fields of spatial planning and entrepreneurship. The core hypothesis of this approach is that e-Governance can increase the synergy between policies at the metropolitan level. Especially in the Thessaloniki metropolitan area, the need for the spatial integration of policies is accentuated by the absence of metropolitan administration on the one hand, and the fragmentation of jurisdictions on the other. By examining a) the agencies involved in these two policy fields as well as the related jurisdictions, b) the processes of planning, the programmes and the implementation activities and c) existing e-Governance applications in the above agencies, the article comes to conclusions related to the contribution of e-governance to the spatial integration of policies at the metropolitan level. Apart from the description and the evaluation of the existing e-Governance applications in the two fields of interest - on the basis of information available at the websites of the involved agencies - the findings take also into account the views of representatives of these agencies - on the basis of interviews. These views concern a range of issues such as problems and benefits that arise or are expected to arise from ICT applications, their contribution to sustainable urban development, horizontal and vertical cooperation etc. Existing applications are categorized according to the EU four-stage framework model and are evaluated in relation to whether they substantially constitute two-way-interaction mechanisms that promote electronic consultation and thus, induce substantial change of state-citizen relationships, or remain simple information tools. In this respect it is also examined whether the policies affected by the application of ICTs are capable of improving metropolitan governance in a diverse range of activities such as the effectiveness of data gathering and elaboration, the services provided to citizens and businesses, the transparency of government and the coordination among the involved agencies themselves. * The paper is based on the results deriving from the participation of the authors in the “Territorial integration of policies for sustainable development and electronic governance. Experience and prospects in the Thessaloniki metropolitan area” research project (5/2005-7/2007), conducted by the Spatial Development Research Unit, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (coordination Prof. Grigoris Kafkalas) and funded by the Ministry of Education EPEAEK II, PYTHAGORAS II programme. The opinions’ expressed are entirely those of the authors.