Following last year’s positive experience, AER Committees ‘Economy and Regional development’ (1) and ‘Culture, Education Youth and International Cooperation’ (3) joined forces again from 5-7 November to discuss in Arnhem (Gelderland-NL) about the state of play of their political priorities and activities.
This time the format of the plenary meeting changed with the main focus being on two political debates: ‘Energy security’ and ’The role of regional media’.
Committee 1’s working groups (WG) and Committee 3’s Sub-Committees (SC) work at a glance:
While WG “Transport“ discussed why connectivity is essential to Europe’s regions, SC “International Cooperation” tried to identify new possibilities to deepen the relationships with regions from the Eastern Partnership. SC “Youth” worked on a toolkit to complement the political report on youth participation in democratic life. At the same time climate change was the topic of WG “Energy” and a proposal for the elaboration of a political report on “energy security” has been submitted. SC “Education” debated on questions related to early school drop-outs and how to improve the transition from school to the labour market. The WG “Investment, Business and SMEs” focused on how to turn environmental challenges into business opportunities. Finally the WG “Rural development” discussed the trends, key challenges and opportunities for European rural areas in the coming years, while SC “Culture” presented regional experience in the field of ‘Culture and Health’ and how it can contribute to the wellbeing of the society.
The work sessions ended with a meeting of the working group on school drop-outs which started sharing experience in the field of compensation measures. The Summer Academy Organising Committee worked on the agenda for the upcoming Academy in Mordovia (RU) from 16 to 22 August 2015.
