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Committees develop their 2018-2019 work programme

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On the occasion of the Committees’ plenaries in Arad, AER members identified the topics which matter most for them and on which they want to develop joint ations on with fellow regions. The developement of the Action Plan was a collective process to enable all participants to specify needs and decide to initiate activities which add value for their region. The principle is the following: as long as an action fits with the AER values, is in line with the AER priorities and has support from other regions, it can be included in the Committees work programmes.

Committee for Economy & Regional Policy

The main upcoming actions in the AER Committee on Economy and Regional Policy can be summed up as following:

Innovation & SMEs :

-sharing experiences & mutual learning on mainstreaming innovation in all public services
-youth entrepreneurship in link with Committee 3
-Event on the Share Economy led by Brussels Capital & Catalonia

Rural development

-waste management in rural areas
-import & export of local agricultural products
-local food systems/ short supply chains
-potential study visit to Norrbotten (to be linked with the TAIEX EIR peer learning opportunity of the European Commission)

Energy

-follow-up on the visit on the energy transition in Gelderland: preparing peer learning via the TAIEX-EIR tool
-international event on biomass in Vojvodina
-use the Sustainable Development Goals to communicate about AER activities
-event on using the Sustainable Development Goals as regional development framework

Transport and Mobility

-experience sharing on the deployment of electric mobility
-REFIT H2020 project on New Mobility Services
-experience sharing & advocacy in the framework of the European Innovation Partnership on Sustainable Cities and Communities on New Mobility Services and exchanges with AER members

Cohesion Policy

-follow-up activities

Committee for Social Policy & Public Health

The main upcoming actions in Committee 2 can be summed up as following:

Social inclusion

-exchange experiences on unaccompanied migrant children
-AMID project on migrants with disabilities
-exchange experiences on social entrepreneurship & social canteen
-highlight frontrunners to increase visibility& inspire

E-health & health innovation

-leadership programme for policy makers on e-health, integrated care systems and health innovation
-risks of digital exclusion
-business models
-data protection, profiling & mass surveillance
-Artificial intelligence, bots

Equal access to health

-vulnerable groups: meet them where they are & help them
– exchange good practices on reducing barriers to care & access to services

Committee for Culture, Education & Youth

The main upcoming actions in Committee 3 can be summed up as following:

Youth

-Erasmus+ project
-promote youth mobility for all across wider Europe via the Eurodyssey programme & ensure all AER members are aware of the opportunities the programme offers
– training on youth mobility for civil servants in the framework of the European College of Cluny

Education

-workshop on entrepreneurship education best practices
-digitalisation in education
-sexual& relationship education
-LGBTIQ rights & sexual identity in education systems

Youth mental health

-organise a webinar on youth mental health
-workshop for mutual learning & experience exchange
-youth mental health as a topic for an upcoming Summer Academy
-awareness activities on the importance of youth mental health
-data collection on youth mental health & impacts/ costs of ill mental health
-sharing of resources for prevention

Culture

-2018 Summer Academy on cultural heritage for regional attractiveness
-Virtual reality: creation of an informal network of regions with a focus on immersion and visualisation of world heritage and cultural heritage
-walking and hiking paths along cultural routes

AER Action Plan

The AER Action Plan brings together all the activities carried out within and via the AER network, be they large or small. The Action Plan aims to be constantly updated. It is the Executive Board, which approves actions to be added to the AER Action Plan, in order to ensure alignment with values and priorities.

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Recapping the AER Youth Regional Network’s Spring Plenary and General Assembly Meetings!

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From 15 to 18 of March, the AER Youth Regional Network (YRN) held its General Assembly and Spring Plenary Meetings in Bodø, Nordland (NO), where YRN members attending this event were engaged in a three-day discussion and experience exchange on crucial issues for youth.

Some of the main topics discussed during the meetings were youth mental health –through the idea of how arts and culture could contribute to preventing mental disorders–; Artificial Intelligence, science and technology; youth and democratic participation; youth involvement in Cultural Heritage safeguarding; and education and digital competences.

The YRN 2018 General Assembly and Spring Plenary meeting was opened by county mayor Ms. Sonja Alice Steen, followed by an interactive workshop hosted by Hevrøy and Mette Jordahl-Broback about the linkage between youth mental health and arts and culture, as a means for young people to speak up and for prevention purposes. The second workshop about Artificial Intelligence was hosted by the communications advisor at NAROM (Norwegian Centre for Space-related Education) Ørjan H. H. Vøllestad who held a presentation on “How we stimulate the interest of science and technology using space”.

The President of the YRN, Gloria Vitaly, took also the opportunity within the YRN meetings to present the Norwegian Youth Festivals of Art (UKM); a cultural initiative aimed to stimulate children and young people from the age of 10 to 20 to be creative and active, and to develop and make their cultural activity or talent visible.

Additionally, the President of YRN, in her role as Regional Focal Point on the SDG-4 for the ECOSOC Youth Forum, made a presentation underscoring the importance of digital competences in education which was followed by a workshop where YRN participants had the opportunity to brainstorm on the multiple challenging aspects for ensuring quality and inclusive education for all.

The AER Secretariat introduced the European Year of Cultural Heritage to YRN members by organising a discussion dedicated to heighten awareness about the central role young people play in preserving heritage values, favouring intercultural understanding and respect for cultural diversity, and thus reinforcing a sense of common identity that guarantees the sustainability of heritage sites.

Click here to get the minutes of the 2018 AER Youth Regional Network’s General Assembly and Spring Plenary meetings.

You can also check the presentations and other key documents on the AER event page.

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AER Committee 2 President Mihai Ritivoiu looks back on the Plenaries in Arad

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AER’s Spring Committee Plenaries took place in Arad (Romania), from 20 to 22 March 2018 in the very beautiful location of the City Hall of Arad. The City Hall is one of the most beautiful public building in Arad. “Ferdinand” room is a spectacular location and the warm welcome of the host made our stay even more pleasant. The astonishing building embodies one of the most significant works of eclectic architecture in the city. At the time of building “Palazzo del Municipio”, was reflecting the citizens of Arad will to follow the European model of urban renewal and modernisation. The central tower is 54 meters high. The clock situated at the top of the tower was brought from the Netherlands. Its bell marked each half-hour for almost a century. After 1989, it was reconditioned, and once Romania joined the European Union, the song played at each passing hour was replaced with the Anthem of Europe. This European spirit is still present this days.

AER brings together regions, so that they may stand stronger together, and grow in a space of best practice exchange. A milestone at the Spring plenaries was the development of the Committees work programmes: all regions were invited to share initiatives they would like to develop within the network, with the AER priority “A democratic, cooperative, inclusive and sustainable Europe of Regions”. The plenaries are the perfect place to find partners to develop new collaborations and projects and their implementation.

The Committees’ plenaries: it’s all about sharing & learning

Across wider Europe, regions engage in multilevel cooperation to support the development of innovation ecosystems either within their own territory, or in collaboration with neighbouring regions and cities, in national and cross-border frameworks.  This kind of approach of regional policy is not something new to our members, just to mention two of our main topics in our committee: Arctic Light Conference focused on e-health, and Silver Economy (SEED).

At the core of our activities are two major topics: health and social affairs, which nowadays translates in Youth Mental Health which is a good example of Committee 2 and Committee 3 cooperation and Artificial Intelligence, that shows the cooperation between Committee 2 and Committee 1.

Migration and integration are not new to Europe, but the current refugee and migrant crisis is on a scale unseen for decades. Europe’s institutions and national governments have yet to forge proper responses – but rising tensions point to the need for a realistic and comprehensive policy that addresses both challenges and opportunities.

Integration issues, if not addressed effectively, will only serve to fuel discontent and create divisions. Policymakers need to avoid emotion and quick-fixes, and see migration and integration as an asset rather than a threat. Member regions address this topic ever since 2015 and an ongoing project I would like to highlight is AMiD, project for the inclusion of migrants with disabilities. This project will provide opportunities for experience sharing and capacity building in this area for all AER members.

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President of Committee 2 for Social Policy and Public Health

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The Committees’ plenaries: it’s all about sharing & learning

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Twice a year the AER Committees meet to share recent achievements, launch new initiatives and learn from each others. At AER, Committees are the place where knowledge, needs, ideas, questions are shared in an open and trusted space. Trust and openess have made the Committees a space of mutual learning for regional policy makers, and indeed a lab for innovation. The Spring Plenary meetings in Arad in March 2018 were a good example of this.

Sharing

The joint plenary meeting was an opportunity to share initiatives which have been carried out since the Nancy plenaries. One of the main highlight being the work on Cohesion Policy post 2020, which is highly relevant to all regions. Cohesion Policy is a warrant for the ability of regions to implement policies which actually reflect the needs of their territories. In this context AER has joined the Cohesion Alliance which brings together all interregional networks and the Committee of the Regions for joint efforts to keep regions and subsidiarity high on the agenda.

Another strong commitment in AER is on Climate Action, with the R20 which provides support for regions to finance climate action.

AER is continuing to support regions with the development of projects, which has led to several successful project proposals, capacity building and the strengthening of links with regions across wider Europe. AER is indeed committed to increase and revitalise links between regions in order to make its priority “A Strong Europe” a reality. This also led to a series of meetings between AER President Magnus Berntsson, AER Secretary General Mathieu Mori and Presidents of regions in order to better assess needs and provide tailor-made support. Regions which would like to organise such meetings in real life or by phone can contact AER Coordinator for Members Relations Elin Berglie.

Learning

The Plenaries are also a moment were regions can exchange about initiatives they have implemented and the ways they are using the AER network. AER has three thematic Committees:

  1. Economy and regional development
  2. Social policy and public health
  3. Culture, education and youth

At the beginning of each of the different Committee Plenaries, members shared how they had successfully carried out an initiative and made use of the available services. These initiatives ranged from mutual learning on youth mental health to the development of a mutual learning event on artificial intelligence. The idea being to look at success factors and benefits for the region.

Building together

Spring is work programme definition season at AER! On the occasion of the Spring Plenary meetings in Arad, members of the three thematic Committees decided what they would like to do together and how they want to leverage regional initiatives via the network.

The actions members decided to implement via the committees are diverse. A few examples include the development of a project on youth for the dialogue with policy makers, mutual learning on mental health and the organisation of events on this topic, good practice sharing on the use of virtual reality for world heritage, the development of a training for civil servants to support territorial innovation, good practice sharing on the support to unaccompanied migrant children, leadership for the deployment of integrated care systems, mutual learning on new mobilities…

 

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AER in Arad, Romania for Spring Committee Plenaries

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The AER Spring Committee Plenaries took place from 20 to 22 March 2018 in Arad, Romania.

Below you will find a recap of the event, with updates, presentations, and take aways from the conference.

Day 1 (20 March)

The Committees’ plenaries: it’s all about sharing & learning

The day started with, on one side, the AER Executive Board meeting, and on the other, a Study Visit of  the city of Arad..

Following this we moved on to the AER joint-committee plenary meeting. Members were welcomed by the President of Arad County Council, Iustin Cionca, and Magnus Berntsson, AER President. 

AER’s member relations coodinator, Elin Berglie, then presented the AER presentation to members, which explains what AER is, how it works, and how it presents a great added value for its member regions. (This presentation is available here)

Shinebright

Following a presentation of AER’s achievements by Secretary General Mathieu Mori, AER’s Committee Presidents presented awards to AER member regions that have contributed a lot to the AER network in the last months.

  • Committee 3 interim President Aleksandra Djankovic, presented an award to Trentino (IT) as a way to say welcome to the Eurodyssey Programme, their active participation will surely prove an asset to our youth mobility network.
  • Committee 2 President Mihai Ritivoiu, presented an award to Varazdin (HR) for their great engagement in our project unit and for their participation in the SEED project during 2017 Regions Week in Brussels. 
  • Committee 1 President Jean-Luc Vanraes presented an award to Korca (AL) for their dedicated work as part of AER’s Monitoring and Evaluation Group, that strives to improve AER’s output and work.

Political Priorities

Brian Greenslade, Honorary Vice-President of AER, presented the outputs from the Autumn Bureau Meeting in November 2017. You can find a recap of these outputs here. These outputs translate to AER’s political priorities for the 2018-2019 period.

AER Programmes

We got updates on the AER programmes from our members. Esther Estany (Catalonia, ES), President of Eurodyssey, updated members on the changes happening within Eurodyssey, encouraging them to attend the upcoming Eurodyssey Event in april.

Dancus Ioan Doru, Vice President of Maramures county, presented a little more information about the upcoming Summer Academy in his home region in August. 

Gloria Vitaly (Nordland, NO) offered a summary of the outcomes from the recent YRN plenaries in Nordland.

Autumn Committee Plenaries

Damir Zobenica (Vojvodina, RS) – talked about the great ideas being thought about for the upcoming Autumn Committee Plenaries and encouraged members to bring more ideas to the discussion! Regional Business Forum is the theme that has been suggested.

Innovation Ecosystems

Multilevel and Open Innovation Ecosystems discussed during Spring Committee Plenaries

Day 2 (21 March)

Committee 3 plenary

Mathieu Mori led the elections for open positions in Committee 3. Congratulations to our new Committee 3 Presidium members!

  • Radimir Čačić, Varazdin (HR) was elected as President Committee 3.
  • Simon Johnsen, Nordland (NO) was elected as Chair of the Sub-Committee on Education and Training

Actions were then set in across four discussion groups: Youth, Education, Culture and Youth Mental Health. The actions will be published soon.

Committee 1 plenary

Jean-Luc Vanraes (Brussels-Capital, BE), President of Committee 1, led the elections for open positions in Committee 1. Congratulations to our new Committee 1 Presidium members!

  • Håkon Noren, Oppland (NO) was elected to the Equal Opportunities Group.
  • Katarina Tolgfors, Örebro (SE) was elected to the Equal Opportunities Group.
  • Olimpia Neagoe, Dolj (RO) was elected as Chair of the working group on Rural Development.
  • Eva Hallström, Värmland (SE) was elected as Chair of the working group on Energy and Climate Change.

Sanja Šifliš (Vojvodina, RS) presented the upcoming event on Biomass in Vojvodina, find out more here.

Martin Tollén (Östergötland, SE) presented the progress being made in the Transport and Mobility working group.

Jean-Luc Vanraes presented the outcomes of the Artificial Intelligence debate that took place in November 2017. Find out more here.

Actions were then set in across four discussion groups: Transport and Mobility, Cohesion, SMEs and Innovation, Energy and Climate Change and Rural Development.  The actions will be published soon.

E-health workshop

After a welcome by Agneta Granström (Norrbotten, SE), Chair of the AER E-health Network (presentation here), Sandra Evans, from the University of Tübingen presented the Mach 5 project (presentation here).

Diane Whitehouse, from EHTEL, talked about the deployment of integrated care systems (presentation here). Diane engaged with members from Värmland (SE), Trento (IT) and Prahova (RO) who presented the status of integrated care in their regions.

AER explores E-Health, Transport & Inclusion during workshops at Spring Committee Plenaries

Committee 2 plenary

Mihai Ritivoiu (Timis, RO), President of Committee 2, welcomed members to the committee 2 plenary, and gave a presentation on the Committee’s achievements since the last plenaries in Nancy. 

The AER secretariat gave a presentation on the successful projects that have been joined in the field of social inclusion and health. As well as point out the efforts made in advocating for inclusive growth. (See previous presentation)

Committee President Ritivoiu then opened the floor for elections. The two vacant positions remain open:

  • One female representative for the Equal Opportunities Group
  • Vice President for Inclusion & Social entrepreneurship

Actions were then set in across four discussion groups: Inclusion, Health Innovation, and Equal Access to Health.  The actions will be published soon.

Working Group on Transport and Mobility

Martin Tollén (Region Östergötland, SE) moderated this discussion on transport and mobility in European regions.

Sergiu Bilcea, Vice President of the Arad County Council (RO), gave a presentation on a regional example of a transport and mobility project happening in Arad County. (Presentation available here)

Vivian Stribos (EU Lobbyist Eastern Netherlands, Gelderland Brussels Office, NL) then presented a project on the Rhine-Alpine Corridor. (Presentation available here)

Martin Tollén presented the EIP on smart cities & communities, with input from Rutger Schuitemaker (Flevoland, NL) and Diane Whitehouse (EHTEL)

Roger Esteferos (Senior Expert, SE), elaborated on the state aid issue. (Presentation available here)

You can find more information here.

Evening Lounge Meeting on Equal Opportunities

Equal Opportunity Group Member Kenneth Johannesson (Värmland, SE), standing in for Vice-President for Equal Opportunities Andrew Gibson (Hampshire, UK) led an informal political discussion on how relevant this AER group’s work is.

He offered several examples of the effects and the statistics linked to lack of Equal Opportunity. (Violence against women – Health Inequalities – Local level example)

Members then tackled the following questions:

  • To what extent is there still a gender pay gap?
  • What are the factors determining equality of health across regions?
  • How can we work towards equal opportunities in our regions?

AER’s Equal Opportunities Group: inspiring work for regions

Day 3 (22 March)

Breakfast debate:Democracy in practice

AER, a tool to further democracy in Europe

Workshop on inclusion

We were fortunate enough to be welcomed by Mrs. Erika Stark, General manager of the General Direction/Division for Social Assistance and Child Protection from Arad County Council. She led the conversation on inclusion (See presentation here)

You can find more information here.

AER Committee 2 President Mihai Ritivoiu looks back on the Plenaries in Arad

Extras…

Contributing the work programmes

Are you joining us in Arad? Read how you can participate in the defining of the work programmes here.

Event page

Visit the event page here.

Contact:

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Committee 3 Progress Report Spring 2018

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Twice a year the members of the AER Committee on Culture, Education and Youth gather in plenary meeting. This is the opportunity to set goals for cooperation through the elaboration of a joint work programme. Progress is evaluated, achievements are celebrated and experiences shared.

Evaluating progress

During the elaboration of the work programme in London, planned activities were organised in 3 categories:

  • Projects
  • Good practice sharing
  • Advocacy/ Lobbying

The below progress report was compiled for the Spring 2018 plenary meeting in Arad. It gives an overview of the situation, a year after the adoption of the work programme. The 2018 Committee 3 work programme will be jointly developed and adopted on March 21st at the Committee 3 Plenary meeting. Activities which are still ongoing will be integrated in the 2018 work programme too if still relevant for the Committee.

Projects

  • Involvement of YRN in AER projects: ongoing

AER is supporting the YRN’s participation in European Projects in 2 main aspects:

  1. support in the development of own projects, as in the case of the development of an environment project based on the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). YRN representatives met with AER Coordinator for European Projects & Private Partnerships Agnese Pantaloni to learn about project development steps and potential funding opportunities. The YRN will work on the definition of an EU project.
  2. Systematically think of including the YRN when AER is invited to join a consortium

  • Project development, Youth Mental Health: ongoing

On the occasion of the Nancy plenary meeting a project development workshop on youth mental health was held to further identify areas for potential collaboration on the topic of youth mental health and the desired scope for such a project. During the Committees Plenary meetings in London, Committee 2 and Committee 3 decided to join forces for the development of a European project on youth mental health. This is the follow-up of a workshop which was held in Izmir and which identified the difficulty for young people to relate to others as a shared challenge for many very diverse regions in Europe. During the AER General Assembly a first project development meeting was held to discuss the type of focus and funding programmes. In the context of this project development the AER Secretariat also engaged with diverse experts from organisations working on mental health and held a meeting with DG EAC on youth mental health.

Due to difficulties in identifying a potential lead partner this activity could be refocused on good practice sharing during workshops at plenaries, webinars and or meetings in Brussels, depending on members needs and wishes. This will be defined on the occasion of the definition of the 2018 Committee 3 work programme in Arad on March 21st.

  •  Silver Economy Awards (SEED): ongoing

The Silver Economy Awards aim to catalyse a sustainable European digital Silver Economy movement by promoting and rewarding innovative solutions to improve the quality of life for over 50s. The Awards are an opportunity to raise awareness around the lesser-known notion of the Silver Economy. They illustrate the breadth of the consumer markets and the public spending involved and the size of the opportunities available for entrepreneurs, investors, public authorities and civil society.

This year the Silver Economy Awards replace the traditional AER Regional Innovation Award. The first Awards Ceremony will be on May 2018 in Brussels.

SEED is a two-year project: 10/2016 to 09/2018

  • Youth Caravan: cancelled

This interregional project was developed to follow-up on the workshop organised by Harghita at the 2016 EWCR. It aimed to foster the dialogue between youth and policy makers. The YRN had the possibility to participate to the main project meetings (mainly the youth consultations and the final conference) having travel & accommodation costs covered, they would have had the possibility to contribute to the elaboration of the joint action plan as well as to be involved in the other project activities. This was supposed to be a 3 years project starting in autumn 2017.

  • Project development, Cultural Heritage: planned

On the occasion of the Plenary meetings in London a project development workshop was organised on the topic of cultural heritage. Several topics were suggested for project development, such as cultural heritage routes and digitalisation. The region of Nordland presented their project proposal, Via Querinissima, which was also presented on the AER website. The AER Secretariat supported the region for the consortium building.

AER in particular contributed to the development of project idea based on the promotion of the heritage to young generations of edible landscapes. The aim was to raise awareness on the importance to transfer to young generation the immaterial heritage that shaped landscapes through the production of edible local traditional products and give to the landscape a future. This project was not awarded funding.

Other regions regions discussed potential areas for collaboration. AER regularly receives invitations to join projects or requests for support to consortium building. These are generally shared on the AER website.Regions willing to get support for the development of a project can contact the AER Secretariat.

  • Summer Academy “Cultural heritage for regional attractiveness” Europe for Citizens project: planned

In order to support the implementation of the 2018 AER Summer Academy in Maramures and further develop its impact for citizens the host region developped a Europe for Citizens project proposal which has just been published.

Good Practice Sharing

  • Committees Autumn Plenaries in Nancy: finished

The 2017 Autumn’s committees’ plenary took place in Nancy, France, from the 12th to the 14th of September. The events put culture high on the AER agenda, as the main topic of the event was “Is there a future for culture in the digital age?”. The events featured a debate on culture in the digital age, a breakfast briefing on regional culture strategies, a workshop for the development of a project on youth mental health,  and the Committees Plenary meetings.

A discussion on Cohesion Policy and its advantages also took place in Nancy.

  • INTERREG Europe Policy Learning Platform (IEPLP): finished

AER was a partner of the Policy Learning Platform (PLP) which is the second action of the Interreg Europe programme established to boost EU-wide policy learning and capitalisation of practices from investments on growth and jobs. The Platform aims to be a space for continuous learning where regional actors in Europe can tap into the know-how of experts and peers. The PLP was present at the European Week of Regions and Cities (formerly Open Days).

  • Event on a current transversal topic: finished

Jean-Luc Vanraes, President of the AER Committee on Regional Development and Economy invited AER members to contribute to the organisation of a mtual learning event on artificial intelligence held in Brussels, on November 30th 2017. A debate at the Committee 1 Plenary meeting paved the way for this event. This event, “Artificial Intelligence: are regions up to the challenge” was organised on the same format as the event “E-health let’s find a common language” which took place in December 2016 with the contribution of very diverse stakeholders. At the event, group discussions adressed the following topics:

  1. Supporting innovation, attracting innovators
  2. The Health Revolution
  3. Culture In a Digital World
  4. Skills and Competences: racing with machines
  5. AI: Towards a Soulless World?

The event lead also to the publication of a series of articles on artificial intelligence and its implications for different policy areas.

  • Cultural heritage: ongoing

On the occasion of the workshop on cultural heritage, AER members shared their experiences, challenges and good practices. Another means of sharing good practices is via the AER website. The region of Gävleborg for instance shared their vision and activities in the context of the European Year for Cultural Heritage

  • AER Most Youth Friendly European Region: finished

The MYFER award ceremony took place on the occasion of the AER GA in Lower Austria and recognised the particularly impressive achievements of Vojvodina and Catalonia. The evaluation and selection of the projects was carried out together with representatives from the AER Youth Regional Network, Eurochild, the European Youth Forum (EYF), the European Youth Parliament (EYP), and the Advisory Council on Youth of the Council of Europe Youth Department. Each of the projects submitted received a detailed evaluation and advice for improvements. The youth-friendly initiatives shared were highlighted in a series of #shinebright articles on the AER website in order to inspire other regions.

  • Awareness-raising & engagement about Eurodyssey: ongoing

While Eurodyssey is the oldest AER programme its achievements and the way it works are not always well known to AER members. Eurodyssey provides young Europeans a work experience abroad. This has proven to be extremely positive in increasing employment perspectives for young people. The programme is for youth 18 to 30, unemployed or recently qualified, living in a participating region. The work placements are organised and financed by the host regions. Since its creation, over 10,000 young people have benefited from Eurodyssey work placements. New regions can join and benefit from the programme. The feedback from the last Eurodyssey Forum can be found on the AER website and the next Eurodyssey Forum will take place in Brussels Capital Region from 18-20 April.

  • Par/Tea, culture and inclusion: cancelled

This initiatives aimed to integrate migrant people by organising cultural events. The exchange of cultural values and learning by dialogue are the 2 main objectives. The idea was for the events to be organised as non-formal gathering of people on a weekly basis and more formal workshops.
Vojvodina initially foresaw to organise a “PARtea” seminar end 2017 and discuss results with AER members. This initiative was cancelled.

  • Culture & Health: cancelled

Follow-up on previous actions and conferences in Istanbul & Västerbotten on topics such as culture on prescription, culture and sports. After the workshop on culture and health in Nordjylland an AER handbook on Culture and Health was published in 2015. Regions willing to engage in further policy learning on this topic can contact the Secretariat to define activities they can lead within the AER network. The Secretariat did not receive expressions of interest from regions wanting to develop concrete policy learning activities.

  • Compilation of good practices on school dropouts: finished

The region of Västernorrland brought together regions to share good practices to combat early school leaving through the AER working group on school dropouts. They set up an Erasmus+ project to further develop the exchanges and mutual learning. They finalised the work with a very useful handbook which brings together good practices from 11 regions in wider Europe.

  • Awareness raising on YRN activities: ongoing

Awareness raising on YRN activities is carried out through:

  1. information on the AER website
  2. communication around YRN activities, such as high-level meetings, conferences or capacity building activities
  3. inclusion of YRN representatives in the AER slack teams for online collaboration
  4. invitation of YRN representatives to AER activities, partnership development, and plenary meetings

  • Training on European regional affairs: ongoing

AER is a partner of the European College of Cluny, a new training offer 100% dedicated to local democracy, territorial engineering and innovation in Europe. An AER delegation participated in the Cluny Summer School to further develop the collaboration for the training as well as for the AER Summer Academy. In the framework of this cooperation with the European College of Cluny, AER has proposed to offer a training on youth mobility for regional policy makers in the first year the College will be operating. The Eurodyssey Steering Committee will be developing and implementing this training, as decided during the meeting in Sibenik Knin in October 2017.

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Committee 2 Progress Report Spring 2018

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Twice a year the members of the AER Committee on Social Policy and Public Health gather in plenary meeting. This is the opportunity to set goals for cooperation through the elaboration of a joint work programme. Progress is evaluated, achievements are celebrated and experiences shared.

Evaluating progress

During the elaboration of the work programme in London, planned activities were organised in 3 categories:

  • Projects
  • Good practice sharing
  • Advocacy/ Lobbying

The below progress report was compiled for the Spring 2018 plenary meeting in Arad. It gives an overview of the situation, a year after the adoption of the work programme. The 2018 Committee 2 work programme will be jointly developed and adopted on March 21st at the Committee 2 Plenary meeting. Activities which are still ongoing will be integrated in the 2018 work programme too if still relevant for the Committee.

Projects

  • Brokerage event in Partnership with ERRIN on health innovation: finished

After the success of the brokerage event on the green economy and innovation early 2017, we collaborated with ERRIN to stimulate project development. This resulted in the organisation of the Horizon 2020 Project Development Week.

  • Project development, Youth Mental Health: ongoing

On the occasion of the Nancy plenary meeting a project development workshop on youth mental health was held to further identify areas for potential collaboration on the topic of youth mental health and the desired scope for such a project. During the Committees Plenary meetings in London, Committee 2 and Committee 3 decided to join forces for the development of a European project on youth mental health. This is the follow-up of a workshop which was held in Izmir and which identified the difficulty for young people to relate to others as a shared challenge for many very diverse regions in Europe. During the AER General Assembly a first project development meeting was held to discuss the type of focus and funding programmes. In the context of this project development the AER Secretariat also engaged with diverse experts from organisations working on mental health and held a meeting with DG EAC on youth mental health.

Due to difficulties in identifying a potential lead partner this activity could be refocused on good practice sharing during workshops at plenaries, webinars and or meetings in Brussels, depending on members needs and wishes. This will be defined on the occasion of the definition of the 2018 Committee 2 work programme in Arad on March 21st.

  •  Silver Economy Awards (SEED): ongoing

The Silver Economy Awards aim to catalyse a sustainable European digital Silver Economy movement by promoting and rewarding innovative solutions to improve the quality of life for over 50s. The Awards are an opportunity to raise awareness around the lesser-known notion of the Silver Economy. They illustrate the breadth of the consumer markets and the public spending involved and the size of the opportunities available for entrepreneurs, investors, public authorities and civil society.

This year the Silver Economy Awards replace the traditional AER Regional Innovation Award. The first Awards Ceremony will be on May 2018 in Brussels.

SEED is a two-year project: 10/2016 to 09/2018

  • Models of Child Health Appraised (MOCHA): ongoing

The MOCHA team is led by the Imperial College London and involves 19 scientific partners from ten European countries and 30 country agents from each European Member State and EEA country. MOCHA appraises the differing models of child health that are used across Europe. The project identified gaps in knowledge, on surveillance of children’s primary care and children’s specific needs in primary care, lack of coordination of care, models of care that are not based on current child health epidemiology, and low prioritisation of children’s needs in e-health strategies. AER is a member of the Advisory Board. AER is benefitting from the connection with the MOCHA experts, which have been invited at AER events (workshop on health innovation ecosystems in Izmir, workshop on social capital for integrated care in Norrbotten) and also shared expertise and advice for the development of the project on youth mental health led by Catalonia and Norrbotten. The project is now in the final year where results will be published.

  • Active and Healthy Ageing Network AHA-NET: cancelled

The project proposal aimed to implement a Leadership programme for the coaching and training of future reference sites. The development of a Leadership Programme for e-health innovation was agreed on by Committee 2 in 2012. Since then the methodology has been developed and ad-hoc training academies have taken place on the Silver Economy and integrated care systems. This project would have provided an ideal framework for the deployment at larger scale of this programme.

  • ACT2Bridge project – Actions to Support Regional Ecosystems on Health Innovation Research: postponed

This project aims to encourage and increase the participation of European regions with a low level of health-related research and innovation activity in European research programmes through benchmarking and mutual learning. An increase in their R&I activity is expected to leverage health services, and thus, into social and economic benefits for these regions. Within this project AER is leading the Working Package “Benchlearning and knowledge exchange between regions”, having as one of the main objective of to support our regions to reach equivalent levels of development in the different areas.

This project has not been financed but, considering the high standard of the consortia and the good evaluation it received, it is planned to be submitted again in the forthcoming calls.

  •  AMID project for the inclusion of migrants with disabilities: ongoing

This project is led by the European Association of Service Providers  for Persons with Disabilities and aims to improve the access to services for migrants with disabilities. AER is a partner and Valencia, Timis and Värmland are all members of the Advisory Board. The project is will provide opportunities for experience sharing and capacity building in this area for all AER members.

  • European network for harmonising self, society, and systems to facilitate integrated care, COST action proposal: cancelled

This project led by partners we have been working with previously aimed at pursuing the work of AER in the field of integrated care systems. The project was not accepted.

  • Project development, Social inclusion of vulnerable groups: ongoing

With views to the preparation of a project gathering regional good practices on inclusion a debate took place on the occasion of the Committee 2 Plenary meeting. The idea with this project is to define a general approach to inclusion, helping policy makers appraise their policies and develop effective policies for inclusion. As the topic received a lot of interest, a workshop on inclusion is foreseen on the occasion of the Committees Spring Plenaries in Arad.

  • Project development, Combatting isolation and social exclusion: ongoing

The region of Timis would like to develop a project to address the isolation of 2 social groups:
-orphans, who at the age of 18 find themselves without support and homeless because orphanages do not support youth after their 18th birthday.

-elderly people, who often live on their own and would need minimal support and company.

The idea is to gather good practices which have been implemented in similar contexts and to look at transferability and adaptation of such good practices.

The debate at the Autumn 2017 Committee 2 plenary showed that these issues are recurring issues in different regions. These topics will also be addressed on the occasion of the workshop on inclusion at the  Committees Spring Plenaries in Arad. The idea is to identify good practices for potential benchmarking and transfer.

  • Project development, Public-private cooperation for social inclusion: cancelled

In order to initiate a project  for good practices exchanges on the collaboration between regional governments and the private sector for the social inclusion of vulnerable groups, AER published an article outlining the different issues at stake. Following the publication of this article several regions have expressed interest in developping a project. As no lead partner was identified for the project development the project was canceled

  • Project development, Equal Health: cancelled

Possible project (seek funding opportunities). Exchange of experiences from different programs offering parental support. As this project idea was not further specified, the activity is cancelled.

  • DIGIT-ABLE project: planned

Building on the work previously done by AER on digitisation and inclusion, Committee 2 is leading on a project setting up a “European Platform on Vulnerable People in the Information Society”, mapping best practices and socio-economic impact of the digital empowerment of disadvantaged people.

The DIGITABLE-EU project aims to raise the knowledge about the level of digital inclusion of vulnerable people in EU countries and to trigger the sharing of knowledge and good practices in order to increase the level of digital inclusion of vulnerable people. In order to achieve this goal, this project will work on four main priorities:

  1. Networking with public authorities (national/regional/EU level), social business actors, civil society organisations, international associations focusing on improving the quality of life and social inclusion of the different vulnerabilities targeted by the project as well as digital literacy.
  2. Establishing a metrics for evaluating the quality and impact of practices for digital inclusion of vulnerable people, for the vulnerabilities covered by the project: People with disabilities; Elderly people; Marginalised young people and children (based on socio-economic status); Unemployed or those facing social problems; Migrants.
  3. Realise an interactive online catalogue of best practices, accessible via a dedicated website;
  4. Disseminate the catalogue through dedicated events

The project was submitted on September 2017 under the Horizon 2020 and it will run for 24 months. The coordinator is INSIEL SpA (Friuli Venezia Giulia – IT).

Good Practice Sharing

  • Committees Autumn Plenaries in Nancy: finished

This Autumn’s committees’ plenary took place in Nancy, France, from the 12th to the 14th of September. The events featured a debate on culture in the digital age, a workshop on the value of data, a workshop for the development of a project on youth mental health,  and the Committees Plenary meetings.

A discussion on Cohesion Policy and its advantages also took place in Nancy.

  • INTERREG Europe Policy Learning Platform (IEPLP): finished

AER was a partner of the Policy Learning Platform (PLP) which is the second action of the Interreg Europe programme established to boost EU-wide policy learning and capitalisation of practices from investments on growth and jobs. The Platform aims to be a space for continuous learning where regional actors in Europe can tap into the know-how of experts and peers. The PLP was present at the European Week of Regions and Cities (formerly Open Days).

  • Event on a current transversal topic: finished

Jean-Luc Vanraes, President of the AER Committee on Regional Development and Economy invited AER members to contribute to the organisation of a mtual learning event on artificial intelligence held in Brussels, on November 30th 2017. A debate at the Committee 1 Plenary meeting paved the way for this event. This event, “Artificial Intelligence: are regions up to the challenge” was organised on the same format as the event “E-health let’s find a common language” which took place in December 2016 with the contribution of very diverse stakeholders. At the event, group discussions adressed the following topics:

  1. Supporting innovation, attracting innovators
  2. The Health Revolution
  3. Culture In a Digital World
  4. Skills and Competences: racing with machines
  5. AI: Towards a Soulless World?

The event lead also to the publication of a series of articles on artificial intelligence and its implications for different policy areas.

  • Follow up on ALEC: ongoing

The Arctic Light E-health conference is an emblematic example of a succesful cooperation between an AER member region and the AER network. The workshop on data of the AER e-health network in Nancy followed up on issues addressed during the conference. Articles elaborating on topics of the ALEC conference, which are of specific interest to AER members should be published.

  • Healthcare without harm: tbc

The idea which was presented on the occasion of the Committe 2 Plenary meeting was to combine the topics of healthcare and environment. Activities have not yet been specified and can range from the publication of articles on the AER website showcasing good practices to the organisation of a mutual learning event (online webinar, workshop in Brussels or on the occasion of another AER event). Any such activity needs to be lead by an AER region and supported by a few others. The idea will be submitted at the Spring plenaries to identify whether this is an area where different regions would like to cooperate on.

In the meantime the AER Secretariat has connected the region of Värmland, which proposed this topic, with Diane Whitehouse, an e-health expert who has done research on this topic and whom AER members have had the opportunity to meet at the AER event on artificial intelligence.

  • Equal opportunities: tbc

Members were interested in sharing experience through articles on the AER website, exchange of good practices, and the sharing of regional data. Members interested in doing so can get support from the AER Secretariat.

This action needs to be further specified, especially in the context of the priorities the AER group on Equal Opportunities has defined for Committee 2: Health Inequalities (gender and socio- economic)

AER AT THE EUROPEAN WEEK OF CITIES AND REGIONS

  • Workshop on climate and energy transition: finished

Led by the region of Abruzzo, AER co-organised a climate side-event during the European Week of Regions and Cities 2017.

  • Workshop on the Silver Economy: finished

Led by the SEED consortium. This workshop took participants through four inspiring examples of how a Silver Economy can help regions and cities to better match the needs of their ageing population while supporting local businesses and solution providers. It was the opportunity to discuss the complementarity between these examples and the initiatives at EU level. The networking session that followed brought together potential partners around issues related to the Silver Economy.

  • Workshop of the INTERREG Europe Policy Learning Platform: finished

The workshop aimed at helping regions learn from the project outputs from their peers in Europe.

 

Advocacy/ Lobbying

  • Cohesion Policy Activities: ongoing

Building on AER’s role in advocating for a strong cohesion policy, and following the adoption of a position paper on the future of cohesion policy post 2020 at the Bureau meeting in Sankt Pölten, Lower Austria (AT) on 1 June 2017, AER will continue to convene and deliver joint policy influencing work for the future cohesion policy by:

  • Holding regular debates on cohesion policy among members and between members and relevant stakeholders, such as the “Cohesion Policy: are you getting anything out of it?” debate during the AER Committees’ Autumn Plenary Meeting in Nancy on 12 September.
  • Gathering facts and figures on cohesion investments results and impact for a evidence-based advocacy.
  • Disseminating the AER position on future cohesion policy to key stakeholders and decision-makers in-country (in coordination with member regions) and in Brussels.
  • Working together with other European associations of regions, municipalities and cities and the Committee of the Regions to generate broader support for regions interests and policy proposals, including #CohesionAlliance created to demand that the EU budget after 2020 makes cohesion policy stronger, more effective, visible and available for every region in the European Union.

The Task Force on Cohesion Policy post 2020 will continue to support the work of AER in this field, providing strategic direction and oversight.

These actions aim to ensure European regions engage in the future cohesion policy discussions at regional, national and European level, and meaningfully contribute to the design and implementation of a stronger and more effective reformed policy.

  • AER Report on Regionalisation: ongoing

More than 40 academic experts accepted to give their contribution to this work, by delivering detailed reports about the state of regionalisation and multilevel governance in chosen European countries. The study covers 41 countries, and each country report is based on a similar structure, thereby allowing a comparative approach among all studied countries.

  • AER participation in the European Innovation Partnership on Active and Healthy Ageing: ongoing

AER is a member of the B3 Action Group on integrated care systems. In this framework AER has a commitment towards raising awareness & building capacities for integrated care systems. Participating in the EIP-AHA enables AER to connect with the right stakeholders, provide state of the art knowledge on health innovation and raise the voice of regions in European discussions on health innovation.

  • 33rd Session of the Congress Local and Regional Authorities: ongoing

AER has a partnership status with the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe. It sends high-level representatives to the meetings of the Congress and sits in the Chamber of Regions Bureau. On 19 October, the AER President, Magnus Berntsson, took part in the 33rd Session of the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe and addressed the Chamber of Regions during the debate on “Regional Co-operation and democracy in Europe: the role of European regional associations and organisations”. At the Session, the AER and the Congress expanded their existing collaboration by signing a Joint Action Plan for 2018-2020. The document reiterates the commitment to work together on various issues of mutual interest, notably regional democracy, youth participation and cultural diversity.

 

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The essential guide to contributing to the work programmes

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Spring is work programme definition season at AER! On the occasion of the Spring Plenary meetings in Arad, members of the three thematic Committees will decide what they would like to do together and how they will leverage regional initiatives via the network. The below elements will help you make the most of this opportunity.

Rule nº1: everything is possible

The main idea is the following: if you want to carry out something within the network, just do it! Any idea is welcome!

The actions members can implement via the committees are diverse: project development, organisation of a workshop, seminar, international conference, study visit, brokerage event, breakfast briefing, webinar, collection of good practices, elaboration of a political report based on the experience of regions etc.

To have it included in the work programme, members should:

  1. Share their idea in the relevant Committee plenary meeting. This will be done in workshop style (see below). Members should explain what they would like to do and how they would like to implement their action.
  2. Explain how other regions will benefit: visibility? contacts? new collaborations? benefits for other regional stakeholders…
  3. Explicit what support they would need from other regions: speakers? Ideas? Partners for a project? Contacts to a specific stakeholder? Support for an advocacy action? Advice…
  4. Agree with other members on upcoming steps and be specific!

Rule nº2: everything is possible

The topics addressed in the three AER Committees are the following topics:

  1. Economy and regional development
  2. Social policy and public health
  3. Culture, education and youth

Because these topics are rather broad, many policy areas can be addressed within the different Committees. The topics which have been addressed recently give an idea of what is possible but shouldn’t be considered as a limit. As long as an action fits with the AER values, is in line with the AER priorities and has support from other regions, it can be included in the Committees work programmes.

Committee 1 works on issues covering innovation, economic development and SMEs, Cohesion Policy, transport and mobility, renewable energies and rural development. For the past year, there has been a strong focus on supporting the collaboration of regional innovation stakeholders. Members in partiular discussed the implications of the rise of artificial intelligence, on regional policy making. Long term investments and green investments are also high on the Committee 1 agenda as illustrated by the collaboration with the R20.

Committee 2 is supporting members in implementing e-Health services and exploring the potential of integrated care. It aims at building leadership on change management and innovation in the public sector. Active ageing is a major topic, especially for cooperation at EU level. Inclusion is also a key topics. Committee 2 members have started to collaborate with Committee 3 on the topic on youth mental health, exploring the possibilities for project development and sharing good practice.

Committee 3 focuses on culture, education and youth policies. The Committee has been particularly active in the fight against school drop-out. This resulted in the implementation of an ERASMUS+ interregional project to share good practices and improve regional policies for youth inclusion and empowerment and the publication of a handbook with good practices. Committee 3 furthermore shared regional good practices in the field of culture for inclusion and cultural heritage.

How this will be done

As with the London Spring Plenaries, Participants will be seated around round tables, where each table will work around one topic (or set of related topics). They will share their own ideas & develop jointly actions on the different topics the Committees are working on.

The 3 plenary meetings will be held separately and consecutively so that members are able to participate in all meetings, allowing for synergies & cooperation between Committees.

Members of the AER Youth Regional Network, the Summer Academy and the Eurodyssey programmes are invited to join the process as well so that they can provide ideas on how their work could integrate and feed the work of the committees.

At the end of the session the different actions will be brought together on a flip-chart and organised according to the 3 main categories:

  • Advocacy/ Lobbying
  • Projects
  • Good practice exchange

This document will then be adopted as the Committee’s action plan.

How to prepare?

In order to get involved AER members can

  • identify the needs they have in their region which could be addressed via the AER network
  • liaise with their colleagues from other regional departments to identify needs
  • define an activity they would like to carry out in the Committees
  • think about how other members could contribute and benefit from this activity
  • Join the AER Committees online community in order to already share and test ideas with other members
  • think how they can support other members who have suggested joint actions

What is a Committee?

The AER Committees are the backbone of the network’s activity. They are the place where knowledge and experience exchange happen and where new collaborations are shaped. To this end Committee members meet at least twice a year on the occasion of their Spring and Autumn plenaries. Workshops are organised along with the statutory meetings in order to dig deeper in specific topics and identify areas for policy innovation. Through experience sharing, including both good and bad practices, AER members engage in mutual learning. Whenever a need arises for focused cooperation on a topic, specific projects are set-up, to ensure the experience exchange will be sustainable and co-funded.

 

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Regionalisation in Iceland: from the national level, straight to local

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Divided in Statistical regions

Iceland is an island country located in the North Atlantic Ocean. A member of the European Free Trade Association, from March 2015 it is not anymore a candidate country to the European Union. Iceland is a unitary State and a republic with a parliamentary government. It presents two levels of administration: the national/central government and local authorities (municipalities). No regional level exists. There are regional committees based on regional cooperation between local governments, but they cannot be considered as separate units of administration. The eight landsvæði (regions) in which the country is divided are only used for statistical purposes, e.g. demography. The Icelandic statistical regions are: Capital region, Southwest, West, Westfjords, Northwest, Northeast, East and South.

Landsvæði are subdivided into 23 sýslur (counties), eight kaupstaðir (independent cities), seven bæir (towns), and five divisions of other types. The counties are further subdivided into smaller units, i.e. municipalities, which can be defined using different Icelandic generic terms. As a result of rapid social development over the last decades, improved communications, increased duties of local authorities and shifting of tasks to them, several municipalities have merged. Since the 1970s their number has decreased by almost a half. While there were 204 municipalities in Iceland in 1990, their number diminished to 76 in 2010.

Local governance

Municipalities administer local matters through an elected council. They have responsibilities in several fields, such as water supply, waste collection and treatment, electricity, street construction and maintenance, social services, primary education, town planning and building regulation, public parks and open areas, monitoring of public and environmental health, economic promotion, transport and harbours. Such tasks are entrusted to municipalities by law. They have a certain degree of flexibility in undertaking other tasks relevant to residents.

The legal status of local authorities and their relationship with the central government is defined by Article 78 of the Icelandic Constitution of 1944. It affirms that: “Local authorities shall govern their own affairs themselves as provided by law. The revenue sources of local authorities shall be determined by law, as shall their right to decide whether, and to what extent, to exploit them”. The autonomy of local authorities was confirmed on 20 November 1985, when Iceland signed The European Charter of Local Self-Government.

In addition to the Constitution, another important legal source concerning local authorities is the Local Government Act, n° 138/2011, as amended. Section 1 of Article 1 of the Local Government Act states that Iceland is divided into municipalities which govern their own a airs. Two other main legislative texts are the Local Government Elections Act n° 5/1998, as amended and the Local Government Finance Act n° 4/1995, as amended. Legislation for specific sectors such as social welfare, education and planning was also enacted.

The local authorities’ administration is exercised under central government supervision. The Ministry of the Interior ensures that decisions of local authorities conform to the law and do not include tasks that have been assigned to other bodies of law.

According to section 5 of Article 3 of the Local Government Act, local authorities shall have their own sources of revenue, and shall be autonomous in establishing fees, which are collected by their own companies and agencies in order to meet their own expenses. The local authorities’ own taxes are the real estate taxes and local income taxes. The Local Government Finance Act permits municipalities to levy them.

The Act also provides for transfer payments to local authorities through the Local Authorities’ Equalisation Fund. Article 77 of the Icelandic Constitution affirms that the tax system shall be decided by law; as a result, local authorities are not allowed to introduce new types of taxes. Icelandic local authorities’ income is mainly based on municipal income tax (63%). Various service fees account for 18% of their income and property taxes for 11%, whereas income from the Municipality Equalisation Fund accounts for 8% of total revenues.

by Gianmartino Contu

The Report on the state of Regionalisation in Europe.

More than 40 experts contributed to this work, by delivering detailed reports about the state of regionalisation and multilevel governance in chosen European countries. The study covers 41 countries, and each country report is based on a similar structure, thereby allowing a comparative approach among all studied countries.

  • The first part of the report gives the political impetus from the main European stakeholders
  • The second part of this report entails a summarised version of the country reports. The objective is to provide interested readers with a short overview of the main features of regionalisation in various European countries. The complete versions of the country reports are available on the AER website, under LINK
  • The third part provides a thematic approach based on the main findings delivered by the country reports and the current state of regionalisation in Europe. The trends and outlooks lead to open questions on the future of the regions in the European landscape, and more broadly on the role of subnational authorities in the shaping of the continent.
  • The fourth part gives the floor to the actual regional decision-makers in Europe, across a series of interviews and statements by Presidents, Vice-Presidents and elected representatives of the European regions.

Over the next months, we will be focusing on a different European country’s approach to regionalisation. During these months, look out for #RoR2017 on Twitter and/or Facebook and follow us at @europeanregions.

Strong European regions are a pathway to a stronger Europe.

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Nancy workshops: targeted experience exchange

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The value of data, smart green and integrated transport systems, regions and culture,  youth mental health and life-cycle approaches: the workshops organised on the occasion of the Nancy plenary meetings were an opportunity to exchange experiences on a series of topics close to regions’ heart.

Data, the world’s most valuable resource

We generate quantities of data each day said Agneta Granström, Chair of the AER e-health Network and Committee 2 Vice President for Health Innovation, and know only part of how this data is used and by whom. Yet data may be referred to as the new oil: complex to collect, expensive to transform, central to the economy and with endless potential.

In healthcare applications include a variety of aspects including the patient’s records, healthcare management, and the aggregation of medical information to support diagnosis and treatment.

Guy Mangin, coordinator of the NENObase big data project at the Technical University of Nancy and Marilyne Vô, collaborator to the NENObase explained how their project started from the needs of neurologists and involves doctors, hospital managers, students in an effort to offer support to neurologists for diagnosis and treatment.

The strength of the project resides in it involving different stakeholders in the co-creation of the tool. Because brain tumours are very rare and extremely diverse, neurologists often find themselves in a difficult place when they have to propose the best treatment. Moreover the treatment involves a team of different specialists ranging from radiologists to anatomopathologists. The NENObase allows to pool the knowledge of hundreds of specialists and provide patients with better quality of healthcare.

As Kenneth Johannesson, Committee 2 Representative for Equal Opportunities underlined, big data tools like the NENObase have tremendous potential to provide citizens in rural areas with better healthcare and give doctors  with access to existing knowledge.

Data and data treatment are a game changer too. They are re-organising power between stakeholders. Policy-makers therefore need to concentrate considerable efforts on the development of health innovation ecosystems. This relates also to the topics which will be discussed at the Artificial intelligence: are regions up to the challenge? event on November 30th in Brussels.

Transports: smart green and integrated

The AER working group on Transports and Mobility, which is led by Martin Tollén looked into the opportunities for members to get involved in the European Strategy on Cooperative Intelligent Transport Systems (C-ITS). AER Coordinator for Institutional Relations & Advocacy Vania Freitas provided an update on the EC Strategy and informed about the ways she can offer members support.

Matthieu Jacquot, Director of COVIVO, a Grand Est (FR) example of shared mobility solutions offering carpooling for companies and communities, explained how public and private transport solutions complement each others. The futur of mobility is facilitated by IT applications.

Discussions included questions of access to transport solutions, inter-modality and shifting habits. The working group will continue to focus on these topics and the ways regions can promote sustainable mobility services. A recurrent topic for this group is also the support to regional airports (as opposed to larger airports), which continue to be an essential part of the connectivity of territories. Roger Estefors, the group’s expert on regional airports provided an update on the situation.

Regions for culture and vice-versa

The breakfast briefing on culture was an opportunity to reflect about the role of regions for the development of culture and the role of culture in regional development. Grand Est Vice President in charge of Culture Pascal Mangin provided insights on the region’s role and action in this field. Magnus Berntsson, in his quality of President of the Regional Council of Västra Götaland (SE) shared an example of how the region’s support in the film industry enabled to propulse the sector and get significant returns on investments, in terms of quality, international recognition and regional development. Katarina Tolgfors, County Councillor from Örebrö, shared the experience of the theatre where she also works as a communication professional and Alf Norberg, County Councillor from Gävleborg provided more insights on his region’s action in the framework of the 2018 European Year for Cultural Heritage.

AER Coordinator for Finance of European Projects Luca Magri updated members on opportunities which will be available for regions in the context of the European Year for Cultural Heritage. 2018 will see activities and initiatives all around Europe to get people interested and involved in cultural heritage. The calls for projects were published after the Breakfast Briefing and are now available on the European Commission’s webpage. The deadline is 22/11.

Youth mental health: creating real added value

Any project proposal should always aim to create useful outputs for stakeholders. Linda Moestam explained how the SAM project in Norrbotten (SE) has been able to engage all interested parties in a co-creation process on good mental health. They jointly developed an toolbox to promote good mental health at all stages of life. Participants identified jointly the stakeholders they would like to benefit with this project and then worked together to define outputs which would actually be efficient.

The AER Subcommittee on Youth led by Marta Vilalta has been working on the identification of needs for regional action in the field of youth since November 2016 in Izmir. The group identified the difficulty for young people to relate to others as a shared concern across wider Europe. This led to the idea to developing a joint initiative involving Committee 2 and Committee 3 members. A preparatory meeting took place on the occasion of the AER General Assembly and resulted in the decision to develop an EU-funded project.

Life-cycle approaches

The last workshop of the week was the one led by Fritz Balkau on life-cycle approaches for regional development. This approach which takes into account all the steps of elaboration of products and services is useful for regional development planning and blends well with AER activities on the circular economy such as the 2016 Regional Innovation Award.

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The AER Committee Plenaries –  Thank you for an eventful week!

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The AER Autumn committee plenary week was very busy indeed.

Hosted by the city of Nancy and the region of Grand Est, we were pleased to welcome our members in the grand setting of Nancy town hall (Grand Est-FR).

As the week went by, we covered an incredible range of topics and gave concrete tips and cooperation opportunities to our members.

Many things were accomplished during the week. The Executive Board (EB) gathered and decided on the Vice Presidents’ portfolios. Their action plan will be discussed at the next October EB meeting.

Another gathering occurred: the renewed AER team comprised of the Strasbourg and Brussels staff and the Seconded officers team. This was quintessential to align working methods, and ensure great cooperation in the months to come.

Committee meetings shined a light AER’s services on European projects and advocacy as well as how to use the Interreg Europe policy learning platform, of which AER is a key leader for the next 8 years.

To list only a few of the topics of the week in Nancy:

  • A debate on culture in the digital age in presence of the director on culture and creativity of the European Commission;
  • next steps on cohesion policy;
  • e-health and the value of data;
  • the latest innovation on carpooling and sustainable mobility solutions;
  • our next advocacy actions on regional airports;
  • next steps on our European project on youth mental health;
  • an introduction to the lifecycle for renewable energy.

It was quite impossible to leave Nancy without at least one cooperation opportunity!

Finally, please see below a few words from AER President Magnus Berntsson, who offered words of summary during the Committee Plenaries last week.

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AER Committee Plenaries – 12/14 September – Relive the week here!

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#AERCP2017

From 12 to 14 September, AER was in Nancy, France for their Autumn Committee Plenaries.

The programme focused on the following topics:
For presentations, please visit the event’s webpage. >>HERE<<

As the autumn committees’ plenaries have come to an end, we look back on three very interesting and intense days, gathering more than 130 people from approximately 50 regions.

The theme for the plenaries was “Is there a future for culture in the digital age? The rhetorical question was vividly discussed the first day by the moderators as well as by our member regions. Several regions shared their experiences and best practices, and many good examples on how to make culture more accessible and how to empower the citizens were given. The regions also got an update on the European Year for Cultural Heritage 2018 and projects to come.

The Culture debate was followed by an update on AER’s task force work on the Cohesion Policy paper, which is one of the main advocacy works done by AER this year. This discussion brought many members into the task force, which shows the importance of advocacy. In addition to the task force’s work, a recently launched call for proposal for a project regarding Cohesion Policy was presented. The call was launched by DG Regio and the objective of the call is clear: to produce and disseminate information and content linked to EU Cohesion policy.

These engaging topics were followed by the three Committees’ Plenaries.

Committee 1

Jean-Luc Vanraes, Committee 1 President, opened his Committee’s session describing the status of their activity plan. It was followed by a debate on Artificial Intelligence (AI), and if the regions are up to the challenge. The participants were divided into groups to discuss the following AI in the following areas, education, jobs and innovation, health and citizen’s engagement.

The outcome will serve as a base for the event on Artificial Intelligence the 30th of November in Brussels organised by AER’s member, Brussels Capital.

Committee 2

Mihai Ritivoiu, Committee 2 President, opened the Committee 2 session with a current state of the Committee 2 Action Plan. After that a debate was held around inclusion and what the regions are working on and what their focus is. Groups were formed to exchange ideas and good practices on senior citizens, young people, immigrants and minorities. The result of the discussions will lay ground for potential joint projects on inclusion, to share good practices from all over Europe and try to define a general approach to inclusion.

Committee 3

Dag Rønning, Committee 3 President, started by giving a view on the action plan, then Mr Rønning presented a proposal of a cultural cooperation between AER and The Norwegian Youth Festivals of Art, UKM.

The objective of UKM is to stimulate young people’s creativity and make their cultural activity visible. The UKM is designed to be flexible and informal; it aims at tickling the participants’ curiosity and broaden their cultural horizon. The UKM is rooted in the regions in Norway and it’s therefore natural to use the regional level as a basis for developing international cooperation. The Assembly of European Regions (AER) with its Youth Regional Network could to be an ideal structure to realise this.

Several regions expressed their interest in the presentation and discussions will follow on how to realise this project starting in 2018.

During the day, Shine Bright recognitions, were given to 6 regions for their excellent work, engagement in the network and work to promote interregional cooperation. The regions were as following; Upper Austria (AT), Izmir (TR), Örebro (SE), Abruzzo (IT), Covasna (RO) and Grand Est (FR).

The following day, regions got the opportunity to debate and discuss around several interesting topics, the role of regions in culture, E-health network and the role of data, transport and mobility, smart and integrated, Youth Mental Health and Sustainable Development. The regions shared best practices and exchanged information on the various subjects, and the day also served as an arena for our members to meet and discuss potential cooperations and joint projects. Many new ideas were born and several regions learnt that they were sharing the same challenges. The challenges and the opportunities that follows will help to create better interregional cooperation and a stronger Europe.

 

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Committee 3 Progress report 2017

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Twice a year the members of the AER Committee on Culture, Education and Youth gather in plenary meeting. This is the opportunity to set goals for cooperation through the elaboration of a joint work programme. Progress is evaluated, achievements are celebrated and experiences shared.

Evaluating progress

During the elaboration of the work programme in London, planned activities were organised in 3 categories:

The below progress report was compiled for the autumn 2017 plenary meeting in Nancy. It gives an overview of the situation, 6 months after the adoption of the work programme.

Projects

  • Involvement of YRN in AER projects: ongoing

AER is supporting the YRN’s participation in European Projects in 2 main aspects:

  1. support in the development of own projects, as in the case of the development of an environment project based on the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). YRN representatives met with AER Coordinator for European Projects & Private Partnerships Agnese Pantaloni to learn about project development steps and potential funding opportunities. The YRN will work on the definition of an EU project.
  2. Systematically think of including the YRN when AER is invited to join a consortium

  • Project development, Youth Mental Health: ongoing

On the occasion of the Nancy plenary meeting a project development workshop on youth mental health will be held. All regions are welcome to join!
During the Committees Plenary meetings in London, Committee 2 and Committee 3 decided to join forces for the development of a European project on youth mental health. This is the follow-up of a workshop which was held in Izmir and which identified the difficulty for young people to relate to others as a shared challenge for many very diverse regions in Europe. During the AER General Assembly a first project development meeting was held to discuss the type of focus and funding programmes.

In the context of this project development the AER Secretariat also engaged with diverse experts from organisations working on mental health and held a meeting with DG EAC on youth mental health.

  • Silver Economy Awards (SEED): ongoing

The Silver Economy Awards aim to catalyse a sustainable European digital Silver Economy movement by promoting and rewarding innovative solutions to improve the quality of life for over 50s. The Silver Economy is a topic which is relevant for all 3 AER Committees. This market is growing even faster than the Green Economy, which means new and different jobs and therefore adequate education and training. The Silver Economy also includes culture for people of 50+ years.

The Awards are the perfect opportunity to raise awareness around the lesser-known notion of the Silver Economy. They will illustrate the breadth of the consumer markets and the public spending involved and the size of the opportunities available for entrepreneurs, investors, public authorities and civil society.

This year the Silver Economy Awards replace the traditional AER Regional Innovation Award. Regions are invited to submit their innovative solutions for active healthy and happy ageing until 15 November 2017 on the SEED website. SEED runs regular webinars.

  • Youth Caravan: ongoing

This interregional project was developed to follow-up on the workshop organised by Harghita at the 2016 EWCR. It aims to foster the dialogue between youth and policy makers. The YRN will have the possibility to participate to the main project meetings (mainly the youth consultations and the final conference) having travel & accommodation costs covered, will have the possibility to contribute to the elaboration of the joint action plan as well as to be involved in the other project activities. This is a 3 years project which, if approved, will start in autumn 2017.

  • Project development, Cultural Heritage: ongoing

On the occasion of the Plenary meetings in London a project development workshop was organised on the topic of cultural heritage. Several topics were suggested for project development, such as cultural heritage routes and digitalisation. The region of Nordland presented their project proposal, Via Querinissima, which was also presented on the AER website. The AER Secretariat supported the region for the consortium building.

AER regularly receives invitations to join projects or requests for support to consortium building. These are generally shared on the AER website.

Other regions regions discussed potential areas for collaboration. Regions willing to get support for the development of a project can contact the AER Secretariat.

 

 

Good Practice Sharing

  • Committees Autumn Plenaries in Nancy: ongoing

This Autumn’s committees’ plenary will take place in Nancy, France, from the 12th to the 14th of September. The events will feature a debate on culture in the digital age, a breakfast briefing on regional culture strategies, a workshop for the development of a project on youth mental health,  and the Committees Plenary meetings.

A discussion on Cohesion Policy and its the issues at stake will also take place in Nancy.

  • INTERREG Europe Policy Learning Platform (IEPLP): ongoing

AER is a key partner of the Policy Learning Platform (PLP) which is the second action of the Interreg Europe programme established to boost EU-wide policy learning and capitalisation of practices from investments on growth and jobs. The Platform is a space for continuous learning where regional actors in Europe can tap into the know-how of experts and peers. The PLP will be present at the European Week of Regions and Cities (formerly Open Days).

  • Event on a current transversal topic: ongoing

Jean-Luc Vanraes, President of the AER Committee on Regional Development and Economy is inviting all AER members to contribute to the preparation of an event on artificial intelligence to be held in Brussels, on November 30th 2017. A debate at the Committee 1 Plenary meeting will pave the way for this event. This event, “Artificial Intelligence: are regions up to the challenge” will be organised on the same format as the event “E-health let’s find a common language” which took place in December 2016 with the contribution of very diverse stakeholders.

  • Cultural heritage: ongoing

On the occasion of the workshop on cultural heritage, AER members shared their experiences, challenges and good practices. Another means of sharing good practices is via the AER website. The region of Gävleborg for instance shared their vision and activities in the context of the European Year for Cultural Heritage

  • AER Most Youth Friendly European Region: finished

The MYFER award ceremony took place on the occasion of the AER GA in Lower Austria and recognised the particularly impressive achievements of Vojvodina and Catalonia. The evaluation and selection of the projects was carried out together with representatives from the AER Youth Regional Network, Eurochild, the European Youth Forum (EYF), the European Youth Parliament (EYP), and the Advisory Council on Youth of the Council of Europe Youth Department. Each of the projects submitted received a detailed evaluation and advice for improvements. The youth-friendly initiatives shared were highlighted in a series of #shinebright articles on the AER website in order to inspire other regions.

  • Awareness-raising & engagement about Eurodyssey: ongoing

While Eurodyssey is the oldest AER programme its achievements and the way it works are not always well known to AER members. Eurodyssey provides young Europeans a work experience abroad. This has proven to be extremely positive in increasing employment perspectives for young people. The programme is for youth 18 to 30, unemployed or recently qualified, living in a participating region. The work placements are organised and financed by the host regions. Since its creation, over 10,000 young people have benefited from Eurodyssey work placements. New regions can join and benefit from the programme. The feedback from the last Eurodyssey Forum can be found on the AER website and the next Eurodyssey Forum will take place in Croatia from 3-5 October.

  • Par/Tea, culture and inclusion: ongoing

This initiatives aims to integrate migrant people by organising cultural events. The exchange of cultural values and learning by dialogue are the 2 main objectives. It will be organised as non-formal gathering of people on a weekly basis and more formal workshops.
Vojvodina will organise a “PARtea” seminar end 2017 and discuss results with AER members. Interested members can join this initiative.

  •  Culture & Health: tbc

Follow-up on previous actions and conferences in Istanbul & Västerbotten on topics such as culture on prescription, culture and sports. After the workshop on culture and health in Nordjylland an AER handbook on Culture and Health was published in 2015. Regions willing to engage in further policy learning on this topic can contact the Secretariat to define activities they can lead within the AER network.

  • Compilation of good practices on school dropouts: finished

The region of Västernorrland brought together regions to share good practices to combat early school leaving through the AER working group on school dropouts. They set up an Erasmus+ project to further develop the exchanges and mutual learning. They finalised the work with a very useful handbook which brings together good practices from 11 regions in wider Europe.

  • Awareness raising on YRN activities: ongoing

Awareness raising on YRN activities is carried out through:

  1. information on the AER website
  2. communication around YRN activities, such as high-level meetings, conferences or capacity building activities
  3. inclusion of YRN representatives in the AER slack teams for online collaboration
  4. invitation of YRN representatives to AER activities, partnership development, and plenary meetings

  • Training on European regional affairs: ongoing

AER is a partner of the European College of Cluny, a new training offer 100% dedicated to local democracy, territorial engineering and innovation in Europe. An AER delegation participated in the Cluny Summer School to further develop the collaboration for the training as well as for the AER Summer Academy.

AER AT THE EUROPEAN WEEK OF CITIES AND REGIONS

  • Workshop on the Silver Economy: ongoing

Led by the SEED consortium. This workshop will take its participants through four inspiring examples of how a Silver Economy can help regions and cities to better match the needs of their ageing population while supporting local businesses and solution providers. It will be the opportunity to discuss the complementarity between these examples and the initiatives at EU level. The networking session that follows will bring together potential partners around issues related to the Silver Economy.

  • Workshop of the INTERREG Europe Policy Learning Platform: ongoing

Looking for new solutions for regional policy? 2000+ institutions have already exchanged experiences through interregional cooperation. You can learn from other cities and regions and their tried-and-tested solutions. The Interreg Europe Policy Learning Platform is launching an expert-validated Good Practice Database. Visit our show-case corner, learn more and get inspired!

Lobbying

  • Cohesion Policy Activities: ongoing

The Assembly of European Regions (AER) is closely following the ongoing European debates on cohesion policy, whose future is uncertain. Aiming at defending regions’ interests in this field and make their voices heard, AER has been and will continue to work intensively on this issue. The next Bureau Meeting will be held in Maastricht.

  • AER Report on Regionalisation: ongoing

More than 40 academic experts accepted to give their contribution to this work, by delivering detailed reports about the state of regionalisation and multilevel governance in chosen European countries. The study covers 41 countries, and each country report is based on a similar structure, thereby allowing a comparative approach among all studied countries.national Climate Fund to finance climate projects in European regions. In August AER met the European Investment Bank to pursue negociations.

  • 33rd Session of the Congress Local and Regional Authorities: ongoing

AER has a partnership status with the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe. It sends high-level representatives to the meetings of the Congress and sits in the Chamber of Regions Bureau.

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Committee 2 Progress report 2017

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Twice a year the members of the AER Committee on Social Policy and Public Health gather in plenary meeting. This is the opportunity to set goals for cooperation through the elaboration of a joint work programme. Progress is evaluated, achievements are celebrated and experiences shared.

Evaluating progress

During the elaboration of the work programme in London, planned activities were organised in 3 categories:

The below progress report was compiled for the autumn 2017 plenary meeting in Nancy. It gives an overview of the situation, 6 months after the adoption of the work programme.

Projects

  • Brokerage event in Partnership with ERRIN on health innovation: ongoing

After the success of the brokerage event on the green economy and innovation, we are this time proposing a new type of event in collaboration with ERRIN to stimulate project development: the Horizon 2020 Project Development Week. This 5 days event replaces the half day brokerage event on e-health initially foreseen. It will bring together 400 different regional stakeholders around a series of selected EU calls to initiate project partnerships. These events are open to your regional stakeholders, don’t hesitate to invite them to join and share project ideas!

  • Project development, Youth Mental Health: ongoing

On the occasion of the Nancy plenary meeting a project development workshop on youth mental health will be held. All regions are welcome to join!
During the Committees Plenary meetings in London, Committee 2 and Committee 3 decided to join forces for the development of a European project on youth mental health. This is the follow-up of a workshop which was held in Izmir and which identified the difficulty for young people to relate to others as a shared challenge for many very diverse regions in Europe. During the AER General Assembly a first project development meeting was held to discuss the type of focus and funding programmes.

In the context of this project development the AER Secretariat also engaged with diverse experts from organisations working on mental health and held a meeting with DG EAC on youth mental health.

  • Silver Economy Awards (SEED): ongoing

The Silver Economy Awards aim to catalyse a sustainable European digital Silver Economy movement by promoting and rewarding innovative solutions to improve the quality of life for over 50s. The Awards are the perfect opportunity to raise awareness around the lesser-known notion of the Silver Economy. They will illustrate the breadth of the consumer markets and the public spending involved and the size of the opportunities available for entrepreneurs, investors, public authorities and civil society.

This year the Silver Economy Awards replace the traditional AER Regional Innovation Award. Regions are invited to submit their innovative solutions for active healthy and happy ageing until 15 November 2017 on the SEED website. SEED runs regular webinars.

  • Models of Child Health Appraised (MOCHA): ongoing

The MOCHA team is led by the Imperial College London and involves 19 scientific partners from ten European countries and 30 country agents from each European Member State and EEA country. MOCHA appraises the differing models of child health that are used across Europe. The project identified gaps in knowledge, on surveillance of children’s primary care and children’s specific needs in primary care, lack of coordination of care, models of care that are not based on current child health epidemiology, and low prioritisation of children’s needs in e-health strategies. AER is a member of the Advisory Board. AER is benefitting from the connection with the MOCHA experts, which have been invited at AER events (workshop on health innovation ecosystems in Izmir, workshop on social capital for integrated care in Norrbotten) and recently shared expertise and advice for the development of the project on youth mental health led by Catalonia and Norrbotten.

  • Active and Healthy Ageing Network AHA-NET: project on reserve list

The project proposal aimed to implement a Leadership programme for the coaching and training of future reference sites. The development of a Leadership Programme for e-health innovation was agreed on by Committee 2 in 2012. Since then the methodology has been developped and ad-hoc training academies have taken place on the Silver Economy and integrated care systems. This project would have provided an ideal framework for the deployment at larger scale of this programme.

  • ACT2Bridge: project on reserve list

This project proposal aimed at facilitating knowledge flow for health research and innovation activities between EU regions. One of the main aspects was the support to health innovation ecosystems. The aims and activities of this project corresponded to needs expressed by AER members and would have offered AER regions a set of useful services.

  •  AMID project for the inclusion of migrants with disabilities: ongoing

This project is led by the European Association of Service Providers  for Persons with Disabilities and aims to improve the access to services for migrants with disabilities. AER is a partner and Valencia, Timis and Värmland are all members of the Advisory Board. The project is will provide opportunities for experience sharing and capacity building in this area for all AER members.

  • European network for harmonising self, society, and systems to facilitate integrated care, COST action proposal: project was not accepted

This project led by partners we have been working with previously aimed at pursuing the work of AER in the field of integrated care systems.

  • Project development, Social inclusion of vulnerable groups: ongoing

With views to the preparation of a project gathering regional good practices on inclusion a debate will take place on the occasion of the Committee 2 Plenary meeting. The idea with this project is to define a general approach to inclusion, helping policy makers appraise their policies and develop effective policies for inclusion.

  • Project development, Combatting isolation and social exclusion: ongoing

The region of Timis would like to develop a project to address the isolation of 2 social groups:
-orphans, who at the age of 18 find themselves without support and homeless because orphanages do not support youth after their 18th birthday.

-elderly people, who often live on their own and would need minimal support and company.

The idea is to gather good practices which have been implemented in similar contexts and to look at transferability and adaptation of such good practices.

  • Project development, Public-private cooperation for social inclusion: ongoing

In order to initiate a project  for good practices exchanges on the collaboration between regional governments and the private sector for the social inclusion of vulnerable groups, AER published an article outlining the different issues at stake. Following the publication of this article several regions have expressed interest in developping a project. In order to move ahead with the project development, a lead partner willing to take a leading role in the proposal writing needs to be identified.

  • Project development, Equal Health: tbc

Possible project (seek funding opportunities). Exchange of experiences from different programs offering parental support. At the moment this project idea would need to be further specified.

 

Good Practice Sharing

  • Committees Autumn Plenaries in Nancy: ongoing

This Autumn’s committees’ plenary will take place in Nancy, France, from the 12th to the 14th of September. The events will feature a debate on culture in the digital age, a workshop on the value of data, a workshop for the development of a project on youth mental health,  and the Committees Plenary meetings.

A discussion on Cohesion Policy and its advantages will also take place in Nancy.

  • INTERREG Europe Policy Learning Platform (IEPLP): ongoing

AER is a key partner of the Policy Learning Platform (PLP) which is the second action of the Interreg Europe programme established to boost EU-wide policy learning and capitalisation of practices from investments on growth and jobs. The Platform is a space for continuous learning where regional actors in Europe can tap into the know-how of experts and peers. The PLP will be present at the European Week of Regions and Cities (formerly Open Days).

  • Event on a current transversal topic: ongoing

Jean-Luc Vanraes, President of the AER Committee on Regional Development and Economy is inviting all AER members to contribute to the preparation of an event on artificial intelligence to be held in Brussels, on November 30th 2017. A debate at the Committee 1 Plenary meeting will pave the way for this event. This event, “Artificial Intelligence: are regions up to the challenge” will be organised on the same format as the event “E-health let’s find a common language” which took place in December 2016 with the contribution of very diverse stakeholders.

  • Follow up on ALEC: ongoing

The Arctic Light E-health conference is an emblematic example of a succesful cooperation between an AER member region and the AER network. The workshop on data of the AER e-health network will follow-up on issues addressed during the conference. Articles elaborating on topics of the ALEC conference, which are of specific interest to AER members will be published in the coming months.

  • Healthcare without harm: tbc

The idea which was presented on the occasion of the Committe 2 Plenary meeting was to combine the topics of healthcare and environment. Activities have not yet been specified and can range from the publication of articles on the AER website showcasing good practices to the organisation of a mutual learning event (online webinar, workshop in Brussels or on the occasion of another AER event). Any such activity needs to be lead by an AER region and supported by a few others.

  • Equal opportunities: tbc

Members were interested in sharing experience through articles on the AER website, exchange of good practices, and the sharing of regional data. Members interested in doing so can get support from the AER Secretariat.

AER AT THE EUROPEAN WEEK OF CITIES AND REGIONS

  • Workshop on the Silver Economy: ongoing

Led by the SEED consortium. This workshop will take its participants through four inspiring examples of how a Silver Economy can help regions and cities to better match the needs of their ageing population while supporting local businesses and solution providers. It will be the opportunity to discuss the complementarity between these examples and the initiatives at EU level. The networking session that follows will bring together potential partners around issues related to the Silver Economy.

  • Workshop of the INTERREG Europe Policy Learning Platform: ongoing

Looking for new solutions for regional policy? 2000+ institutions have already exchanged experiences through interregional cooperation. You can learn from other cities and regions and their tried-and-tested solutions. The Interreg Europe Policy Learning Platform is launching an expert-validated Good Practice Database. Visit our show-case corner, learn more and get inspired!

Lobbying

  • Cohesion Policy Activities: ongoing

The Assembly of European Regions (AER) is closely following the ongoing European debates on cohesion policy, whose future is uncertain. Aiming at defending regions’ interests in this field and make their voices heard, AER has been and will continue to work intensively on this issue. The next Bureau Meeting will be held in Maastricht.

  • AER Report on Regionalisation: ongoing

More than 40 academic experts accepted to give their contribution to this work, by delivering detailed reports about the state of regionalisation and multilevel governance in chosen European countries. The study covers 41 countries, and each country report is based on a similar structure, thereby allowing a comparative approach among all studied countries.national Climate Fund to finance climate projects in European regions. In August AER met the European Investment Bank to pursue negociations.

  • AER participation in the European Innovation Partnership on Active and Healthy Ageing: ongoing

AER is a member of the B3 Action Group on integrated care systems. In this framework AER has a commitment towards raising awareness & building capacities for integrated care systems. Participating in the EIP-AHA enables AER to connect with the right stakeholders, provide state of the art knowledge on health innovation and raise the voice of regions in European discussions on health innovation.

  • 33rd Session of the Congress Local and Regional Authorities: ongoing

AER has a partnership status with the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe. It sends high-level representatives to the meetings of the Congress and sits in the Chamber of Regions Bureau.

Follow AER!
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AER Committees’ Autumn Plenary

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#AERCP2017

The Autumn 2017 committees’ plenary took place in Nancy, France, from the 12th to the 14th of September.

 

Presentations

12 September

13 September

14 September

Detailed Programme

Participants list 

Direct Links

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Freddie Martyn
Communications and Events Coordinator
[email protected]

 

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