Brussels, Bruxelles-Capitale (BE), 18 March 2014
Can innovation save the industrial sector? Recommendations to the European Council:
This week, the European Council will underline the importance of a strong and competitive European industrial base, building on the Commission’s recent Communication on the new reform package for the future European Union (EU) industrial policy.
At the occasion of two round tables held yesterday in the Press Club Europe, the Assembly of European Regions (AER) representatives:
- Acknowledged the role of innovation as a key growth factor for Europe’s industry.
- Recommended a serious governance shift, placing the Regions at the heart of Europe’s innovation and industrial policy.
- Identified territorial attractiveness and education as two of the major challenges for European regions to make innovation happen and save the industrial sector.
- Insisted on the need to create a culture of entrepreneurship, including a debate on risk and failure.
AER Regional Innovation Award 2014 recognises the leading attitude of Värmland towards innovation
As an illustration of the strategic role that regions play in making innovation happen in Europe, our Assembly also unveiled its Regional Innovation Award (RIA) winner: Värmland County Council (SE) The region was awarded the prize following the building of a hospital in Karlstad, which aimed at monitoring and assessing an environmentally conscious choice of materials, as well as phasing out harmful chemicals in the construction of a new department for premature babies at the hospital.
The project builds on Värmland Landstinget’s long established tradition in choosing the best environmentally friendly products in buildings. By controlling the selection of materials and managing the outputs, the project tries to avoid using material which will cause the structure to be in need of sanitizing or decontamination at a later stage or which might cause illness.
Marian-Constantin Vasile, President of the AER Committee for Economy and Regional Development, underlined that the task at the hand of the jury members was not easy due to the outstanding quality of the projects such as: “Pre-commercial public procurement and living labs” from Vale d’Aosta (IT); “Stella” from Noord-Brabant (NL); “Building integrated photovoltaic” from Castilla y Leon (ES).
For more information about the Regional Innovation Award
You can check in AER Youtube Channel: AERegions, our video interviews with Värmland representatives and Jean-Luc Vanraes.
For more information: info@aer.eu
