• Home
  • About
    • Governance & Structure
    • The AER Executive Board
    • The AER Secretariat
    • Statute & Strategies
      • AER Statute
      • AER Procedures
    • AER stands with Ukraine
    • The History of AER
  • Members
    • Who are AER’s members?
    • Member Directory
    • Join AER!
  • Mutual Learning
    • About Mutual Learning
    • The Knowledge Transfer Forum
    • Working Groups
      • Ongoing Working Groups
      • Past Working Groups
  • Advocacy
    • About Our Advocacy Work
    • The Bureau
    • The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development
    • AER Political Priorities 2020-2025
    • Intercultural Regions Network
  • Projects
    • About Our Projects
    • Ongoing Projects
    • Look for Partners
    • Completed Projects
  • AER Programmes
    • AER Eurodyssey
    • AER SUMMER ACADEMY
    • AER Youth Regional Network (YRN)
    • AER Observatory on Regionalisation
  • Events
    • AER events
    • Other events

Assembly of European Regions

Connecting regions, inspiring Europe since 1985

You are here: Home / News / Cohesion & Contrasted Regional Realities

Cohesion & Contrasted Regional Realities

10 September, 2019 By Norina Haubold

Facebooktwitterlinkedinmail
Share this!

This year’s AER Autumn Committee Plenaries in Podčetrtek (SI), will start off with a conference on Cohesion & Contrasted Regional Realities.

Disparities within regions can hamper sustainable regional development by generating tensions and leading to difficult choices between for instance innovation on the one hand and equal provision of services on the other hand.

A holistic approach to regional development is therefore needed. Place-based strategies, participatory approaches, and multilevel governance are of major interest in this context. At the same time, international cooperation provides opportunities for mutual learning and knowledge flow. 

A shift towards inclusive growth policies

According to the OECD, the GDP per capita dispersion is now greater within countries than between countries which means that the different national economies have converged but within countries, regions have diverged.

The European Union counters regional disparities in particular through cohesion policy and next to strengthening economic and social cohesion, the European Commission introduced a new dimension which is territorial cohesion. With each new country joining the EU, territorial cohesion received more and more importance focussing on different issues:

  • Ensure having the same quality of life in all the territories.
  • Capitalise on the strengths of each territory to contribute sustainably to the whole of Europe.
  • Manage the positive and negative impacts of cities and regions. An example of positive and negative impacts would be that cities would like to intensify innovation and productivity but, at the same time, cities increase pollution and social exclusion.
  • Develop cooperation over administrative borders between regions and countries, or even between urban and rural territories, to tackle transversal challenges such as climate change or traffic congestion.

A policy shift towards inclusive growth policies constructed through an appropriate governance system could counter the development of diverging regions. Inclusive growth policies would integrate policy packages that address both physical/environmental capital and human/social capital to foster equity and cohesion in cities and regions. Key actors involved in such policies would be partnerships across levels of government, as well as partnerships between public and private spheres, and civil society.

Sharing experiences

The conference will explore the topic of regional development in the face of contrasting regional realities and take the Sustainable Development Goals as a framework, in particular:

  • GOAL 3: Good Health and Well-being
  • GOAL 6: Clean Water and Sanitation
  • GOAL 9: Industry, Innovation, and Infrastructure

The following speakers will share their experience:

  • Lilijana Madjar, President, Development council of Cohesion, region Zahodna (West-Slovenia)
  • Ivan Žagar, President, Development council of Cohesion, Host region Vzhodna (East-Slovenia)
  • Luc Paque, Director, European Union External Relations, Wallonia, BE
  • Ronan Mac Con Iomaire, Director of Community Development and Language, Udaras na Gaeltachta, (IE) tbc

Join the conference to learn from our speakers’ experiences and get various insights on the topic of regional development and territorial cohesion.

Photo by Tom Fisk on Pexels.

Print Friendly, PDF & Email
Follow AER!
Facebooktwitterlinkedinrss

Filed Under: News Tagged With: Climate change, Cohesion, Danube, Energy, Environment, Event 2019 Autumn Plenaries, Governance, Growth, Health, Innovation, Regional development, Sustainable development

← Committee 2 Progress Report Autumn 2019 The Policy Learning Platform – take the shortcut to smart regional solutions! →

More articles on this topic

Committee 1 Progress Report Autumn 2019
Committee 1 Annual Report June 2019 – November 2020
Committee 1 progress Report Spring 2020
Why Food matters for regional development
Committee 1 Progress Report Spring 2018

AER. Connecting regions, inspiring Europe since 1985.

Follow our newsletter!




View previous campaigns.


  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • LinkedIn
  • Twitter
  • YouTube
Tweets by @europeanregions

AER Projects

  • Ongoing projects
    • EU-BELONG: An Intercultural Approach to Migrant Integration in Europe’s Regions
    • Includ-EU: Regional and local expertise, exchange and engagement for enhanced social cohesion in Europe
  • Partner search
  • Completed projects
    • SCIROCCO Exchange project
    • SKILLNET – Sector Skills Network of VET centres in Advanced Manufacturing: a coalition of transnational VET providers
    • CUBES – Cultural Administration Boosting with the Engagement of Sustainability for Local Communities
    • Y-FED: Europe is what we make of it
    • AMiD – Access to Services for Migrants with Disabilities
    • AER Summer Academy 2016
    • Alcohol Prevention Peer Reviews
    • ECREIN+
    • Engaged
    • Joint Efforts to Combat Dropout (JET-CD)
    • Let’s REUnite! Together for cohesion project
    • MOCHA
    • MORE4NRG
    • PRESERVE
    • PYE – Promoting Youth Employment
    • PRO-I3T
    • REALM – Regional Adult Learning Multipliers and the Europe 2020 Flagship Initiatives
    • Regions4GreenGrowth
    • Road to the Future
    • SEED European Silver Economy Awards
    • Smart Care
    • Smart Europe
    • YES – Youth Entrepreneurship Strategies

Library

Statutory Documents
AER Strategies
Minutes
Media Kit
Activity Reports
Newsletters
European Regions Map

Join AER!

Become a Member

Job Opportunities

Sign up for our Newsletter

Website map

Brussels · Strasbourg · Alba Iulia

A Network, a Partner and a Voice of European regions, since 1985 · Copyright © 2023 · Assembly of European Regions · [email protected] · Log in