Assembly of European Regions

1st AER-ENoP Forum on New Forms of Democratic Engagement
2022-06-01 09:30 - 2022-06-02 16:45 (Europe/Brussels) | Comet Louise, Place Stéphanie 20, 1050 Brussels, Belgium, Comet Louise, Place Stéphanie 20, Brussels, 1050, Belgium
How to actively involve citizens in policy development in order to regain political trust and add legitimacy to political decisions?
On 1-2 June 2022, in Comet Meeting-Louise, and Online, the Assembly of European Regions (AER) and the European Network of Political Foundations (ENoP) will co-organise a Forum dedicated primarily to innovative and more participatory forms of democratic engagement.
A new form of politics is gaining steam. Providing an alternative to traditional representative routes, citizen assemblies and other forms of deliberative democracy try to help governments through discussing and developing recommendations on needed steps to safeguard a healthy and stable world. Practical examples on direct involvement of citizens in democratic processes enable an open discussion on particular policy challenges and giving recommendations to elected governments. Involved citizens are randomly selected to reflect the demographic diversity of the population. The process is typically facilitated by an independent and apolitical organisation, which brings in experts across a wide range of disciplines, as well as competing interest groups and the voices of those personally affected by the issue in question. Building up on this, ENoP and AER are initiating a project that would capitalise on successful examples and good practices, while at the same time discussing the full potential and future of such direct involvement of citizens in democratic processes.
How the project is built?
The first part of the project consists of a 1.5-day forum where different examples and experiences of citizen assemblies from different country contexts are presented, aiming to:

Help the EU to formulate/design its deliberative policies/approaches in Europe and for its
international cooperation programmes;
Highlight the opportunities and challenges of direct involvement of citizens in democratic
processes, as well to allow for an exchange of lessons learned from different forms of deliberative
processes ;
Discuss the options of relationship between those assemblies and representative
bodies/governments and elaborate recommendations for different options of structured
engagement of citizens in policy making (based on the experiences from the case studies).

Following the forum, a series of studies will be compiled, based on the following criteria:

The good practice model has innovative elements
The good practice model has achieved and recorded concrete results
The achieved results are relevant to the people living in the region, municipality, commune
The good practice model is sustainable and replicable to other regions, municipalities, communes

Speakers Include

Marcin Gerwin, PhD, Center for Blue Democracy, Specialist in Deliberative Democracy and Sustainability
Toma Šutić, Member of the Cabinet of Dubravka Šuica, European Vice President for Democracy and Demography
Aleksandra Dulkiewicz, Mayor of Gdansk, Poland
Mathilde Bouyé, Démocratie Ouverte & World Resources Institute – presenting the French Ctizens’ Convention on Climate
Prof. David Farrell, The Irish Citizens’ Assembly Project
Karl-Heinz Lambertz, Rapporteur of Congress of Local Regional Authorities, and President of German-speaking Community of Belgium
Lukas Mandl, Member of the European Parliament; and Vice President for European Integration & Wider Europe, Assembly of European Regions

More speakers are to be confirmed so stay tune!

Check out the Programme HERE
Interested in attending?

Contacts:
Anna Comacchio, Project and Policy Officer, a.comacchio@aer.eu
Gisela Guari Cañada, Institutional Relations & Advocacy Officer, g.guari@aer.eu

Inclusion, Creativity & Human Potential: Includ-EU Workshop
2022-06-14 09:30 - 18:00 | The Home of The Human Safety Net Procuratie Vecchie – Piazza San Marco 105, Venezia, Venice, Italy
This workshop is organised in the context of the Includ-EU project co-financed by AMIF programme of the European Union. It will look at labour market inclusion from a skills, creativity and human potential angle.
The opening and roundtable (09:30-11:00) will be streamed, you can register here to get the link to attend online:

The objective is to take a holistic approach to labour market inclusion, which takes into account space, skills and the realisation of potential. Participants will share policies and practices which support stakeholders to build on their ideas, motivation, competences and experiences.
Migrant entrepreneurs contribute to economic growth, create jobs and can support the post-COVID-19 recovery. Effective inclusion of migrants and EU citizens with a migration background into the labour market requires the active collaboration of a large variety of actors, including public authorities at local, regional, national and European level, civil society organisations, economic and social partners and employers.
This workshop aims to:

Give visibility to inclusion policies and practices shared in the context of the project and which can be of use to stakeholders across wider Europe
strengthen the collaboration between partners, support them in mobilising both their local and international networks
Facilitate the exchange of policies and practices for inclusion between local and regional stakeholders in Europe
Encourage the development of new collaborations between local and regional stakeholders

AGENDA

Just Announced: Join AER's Event on Regional Support for Ukraine
2022-06-17 10:00 - 13:00 | Zoom
In the context of the war in Ukraine, a number of initiatives, led by cities, regions, institutions, and civil society organisations have been set up.
For that reason, the AER is organising a webinar on Friday, 17 June to share information on ongoing initiatives and available support to Ukrainian regions, provide examples and experiences from regions in their support to Ukraine, and hear from Ukrainian regions what they need in terms of support. The overall goal is to help regions provide support that really makes an impact on the ground in Ukraine.
You can register and view the draft agenda using the buttons above. We hope you can join us for this timely, crucial discussion to share your insights, experiences and ideas for strengthening partnerships with Ukrainian regions. 🇺🇦
***More information will follow shortly, so be sure to keep an eye on this event page for updates.

AER Working group on the bioeconomy: first meeting
2022-06-22 14:00 - 15:30 | Online
The newly created Working Group on the bioeconomy will meet online for the first time to define its action plan for the coming months. This meeting is open to all AER members

The proposal to develop a working group on the bioeconomy was lead by Innlandet (NO), and is supported by Värmland (SE), Lower Austria (AU), Gelderland (NL).
During this first meeting, AER members interested in sharing experiences and knowledge on the topic of the bioeconomy will:

get to know each other (pitch on the region)
share why the topic matters for them now
share how the working group would create value for them: what they expect, how they would like to contribute
define activities for the coming months

The group will also agree on who should be the Chair of the Working Group

More information on how to set-up a working group at AER here.
For any questions, please contact AER Coordinator for Policy & Knowledge Transfer Johanna Pacevicius
Photo by Olena Sergienko on Unsplash
