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Assembly of European Regions

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Regions take holistic and wholehearted approach to SDGs

15 May, 2019 By Erica Lee

On the morning of 15 May 2019, AER and Oppland (NO) co-organised a Breakfast Seminar entitled “The Sustainable Development Goals and regional growth – Is it possible?“, which took place at Oslo Region European Office in Brussels

The sustainable development goals (SGD) call upon governments, businesses and civil society to come together and work towards a sustainable planet, leaving no one behind. Many, if not all regions, are working towards this in one form or another.

The discussion, moderated by Turid Wulff Knutssen from Oppland County, featured input from Oppland County, (NO), Region Värmland (SE), Flanders (BE) and the OECD Centre for Entrepreneurship, SMEs, Regions and Cities.

After some warm words of welcome by Even A. Hagen, County Mayor, Oppland, the discussion turned to the subject of how to build a new region in the light of Sustainable Development Goals? Erik Lagethon, Advisor on Regional Development for Oppland County Authority shared his views on how the SDGs can be framework or roadmap for regional planning and the upcoming merger of the Oppland and Hedmark regions in Norway.

Stina Heikkila, Consultant on Territorial Approaches for the SDGs at the OECD, spoke about the OECD’s work on a Territorial Approach to the Sustainable Development Goals.

AER Working Group on Climate Change and Energy Chairperson, Eva Hallström, took the floor to present her view on “Implementing SDGs in regional planning – more than words?” and to give examples from her region, Värmland (SE) before being joined by Ine Baetens, Expert on Sustainable Development for Flanders (BE), who presented “Vision 2050: a long-term strategy for Flanders” linked to the SDGs.

Is the question really Growth vs Sustainability?

Many of the speakers highlighted that the paradigm needn’t be so black and white. Regions, national governments and international organisations are looking beyond economic growth alone for indicators for progress. Social and environmental factors, as well as happiness indices, can also be used as measures that we are moving in the right direction.

How best should regions approach the SDGs?

Whether undergoing regional restructuring or simply reflecting on how to move forward on the Global Goals the consensus was that regions need to anchor the #SDGs in an interdisciplinary way, taking a whole of government approach, involving all stakeholders and avoiding that the Goals are siloed into the work of the regional department for the environment, for example.

Additionally, when looking at the 17 Sustainable Development Goals, regions need to go ‘all-in’ rather than focusing on one or two goals that suit their current work plans or are likely to lead to successful outcomes.
An integrated approach is fundamental to ensuring progress made has the widest possible impact. As such, comprehensive implementation is therefore essential to ensuring success.

Emphasis needs to be placed on including reporting and evaluation into a regional SDG strategy to avoid ‘greenwashing’.

It may be demanding & time-consuming to implement SDG’s into regional planning but the consensus at this widely-attended event was that the effort is undoubtedly worthwhile.

What can be done? And where do we start?

This event jointly organised by AER and Oppland County is a direct result of the 2019 AER Committee Plenaries in Örebro, Sweden, where sharing best practices and knowledge exchange takes centre stage.

In this spirit, the breakfast seminar afforded the regions present to exchange on concrete actions they have undertaken to inspire others to do the same.

One such example is the Oppland County Bioeconomy Strategy and the integrated approach taken in this work. In a similar vein, Värmland County Council shared its experience as Swedens most sustainable County Council. Citing the award it received for Europe’s first LEED Healthcare Gold-certified hospital, Värmland showed how its active efforts for a sustainable environment have yielded positive results.

The Flanders region in Belgium also shared its experience of how it has grown to change the way we perceive what it means to evolve in the right direction. The wide-ranged efforts untaken have covered everything from Blue Growth (moving from subsidising fossil fuels to subsidising waste removal from the seas) through to Industry 4.0 & the circular and sharing economies.

  • Erik Lagethon, Oppland County
  • Stina Heikkilä, OECD
  • Ine Baetens, Flanders
  • Eva Hallström, Region Värmland
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The Committees’ 2019-2020 work programme is out!

3 April, 2019 By Johanna Pacevicius

On the occasion of the Committees’ plenaries in Örebro, AER members identified the topics which matter most for them and on which they want to develop joint actions on with fellow regions. The development of the work programme 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 planned actions in the AER Committee on Economy and Regional Policy can be summed up as follows:

Innovation & SMEs :

-sharing experiences & mutual learning on simplification of legislation
-exchange of experiences on attraction & retention of workforce
–organisation of a mutual learning event on a current & transversal aspect of innovation & industry in Brussels on 4 december 2019

Rural development

-exchange of experiences on waste management in rural areas
-initiating collective action for the protection of Romanian forests
-develop a project for good practice exchange on farming practices
-sharing experiences on investments & financing of infrastructure in rural areas
-develop a project together with the Committee on Social Policy & Public Health on e-health in rural areas

Energy & climate change

–organisation of a roundtable on how to integrate the Sustainable Development Goals in regional planning, during the EU Green Week in Brussels on 15 May 2019
-exchange of good practices on small hydropower plants
-exchange of experience on multistakeholder engagement around the topic of energy, partnerships, and advocacy towards different levels of governance
-sharing good practices around gas exploitation: environmental & economic impact on national tourism strategy on Norway in Sweden in particular
–organisation of workshop at European Week of Cities and Regions in Brussels in October 2019
–organisation of a workshop on energy efficiency
-Breakfast briefing on competition

Transports & mobility

-exchange of good practices and engage a shared reflexion on how to achieve zero emission transports
–organise a workshop during the European Sustainable Development Week in Brussels on clean energy hubs
–organise a side event at Smart City Expo World Congress

Committee for Social Policy& Public Health

The planned actions in the AER Committee for Social Policy & Public Health can be summed up as follows:

Social inclusion

-exchange experiences and identify solutions around the issue of isolated elderly people in rural areas
-share information on the inclusion of children with disabilities in school
-exchange experiences around the care and wellbeing of children whose parents have moved abroad for work (specifically in Romania)
-identify good practices for the support of young orphans who are 18 and are no longer supported by institutions

Health innovation

-compile achievements of the AER e-health network in the past 13 years
-mapping of e-health systems and integrated care in Europe via the Scirocco Exchange project
-develop a project together with the Committee on Economy & Regional Development on e-health in rural areas

Committee for Culture, Education & Youth

The planned actions in the AER Committee on Culture, Education, and Youth can be summed up as follows:

Culture

-mutual learning around culture for all and how to, in particular, reach out to young people
-mutual learning on culture &

Education

-share knowledge, experiences and practices to address the issue of brain drain and move from brain drain to brain gain
-exchange around the issue of governments investing in education and “losing” their qualified workforce and identify elements of resilience or compensation for territories which “lose” qualified workforce
-exchange experiences on lifelong learning for 50+ people in order to improve wellbeing and employability

Youth

-share experiences on early school leaving and the issue of young people who are not in education and not in employment. In particular explore practices around building confidence and encouraging young people.
-Organise a workshop, potentially at the Eurodyssey Forum, on the Eurodyssey programme to increase the number of applicants for the first youth mobility programme in Europe

The AER Action Plan & planning cycle

The AER Committees’ work programmes are developed at the Spring plenaries each year and are then consolidated into the AER Action Plan, which is adopted at the General Assembly.

The AER Action Plan brings together all the activities carried out within and via the AER network, be they large or small, including the Committees’ work programmes. The Action Plan is constantly updated during the year. 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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Food in Focus at Spring Plenaries in Örebro

1 April, 2019 By Erica Lee

The AER Spring Committee Plenaries, which took place from 26-28 March 2019 in Örebro County, Sweden, revolved around food, innovation and health.

The seminar ‘Food for Action!’ A regional approach to innovating food systems, was an exemplary opportunity for regions to share how they innovate food systems to achieve nutrition for healthy and sustainable diets, climate and environmental sustainability, circularity and resource efficiency, and innovation and empowering communities.

Moderated by Tina Wu, Member Relations Coordinator the seminar saw participants engage in a multisensory activity on Sensory research within the field of Gastronomy – a multisensory perspective in order to promote healthy eating” delivered by Åsa Öström, from Örebro. This delightful and delicious experience was followed by inputs on nutrition & mental health by Robert Jan Brummer, another expert from Örebro County. AER members Olimpia Neagoe, Dolj (RO), Peter Medved, Eastern Slovenia (SI), Erik Lagethon, Oppland (NO), Thomas Norrby, from the European Network for Rural Development (ENRD), were among the participants who then shared insights from their regions and networks on the all-encompassing issue of food, nutrition and innovation.

Keeping with the theme of food a Breakfast Debate was organised on youth entrepreneurship, and all participants to the Joint Plenary had the opportunity to join a dinner reception at Örebro Castle where they were greeted by Governor of Örebro, Maria Larsson and President of the Regional Executive Board Andreas Svahn, and treated to a vast menu of local specialities including Hjalmaren Pikeperch.

A number of other successful workshops that took place at the Plenaries included:

  • Energy and Climate Change: the SDGs as a policy framework
  • Transports & Mobility: Open Data & Blockchain
  • The AMID workshop on multilevel cooperation for migration policies
  • Available opportunities for AER members in current projects

As always, the three AER Committees

  • Economy and Regional Development
  • Social Policy and Public Health
  • Culture, Education and Youth

held their dedicated plenary sessions and outlined achievements made over the last six months and spent some quality time reflecting on the work programmes for the upcoming year. More on this to follow!

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Candidates for AER Committees’ elections

15 March, 2019 By Editor

The AER Election Committee has been screening applications for open positions within the Committees. 

The elections will take place at the AER Spring Committee Plenaries in Örebro on the 26th and 27th of March. Each Committee will elect its President & Vice-Presidents as well as the Chairs of the Working Groups, Subcommittees and representatives for Equal Opportunities. The election of the Committee Presidents will be confirmed by the AER General Assembly in Cyprus.

Applications approved by the Election Committee

The list of approved applications can be found below:

Committee 1 for Economy & Regional development

  • Committee President: Kenneth Backgård, Norrbotten (SE) (View application)
  • Vice-President for Economic Development and Mobility: Michiel Scheffer, Gelderland (NL) (View application)
  • Vice-President for Rural Development, Energy & Environment: position currently held by Kenneth Backgård. If elected Committee 1 President, this position would be vacant. Applications still welcome.
  • Chair of the Working Group on Investment, Business & SMEs: Maricel Popa, Iași (RO) (View application)
  • One female representative for the Equal Opportunities Group: Applications still welcome.

Committee 2 for Social policy & Public health

  • Committee President : Mihai Ritivoiu, Timis (RO)(View application)
  • Vice-President for Health Innovation : Kenneth Johannesson, Värmland (SE) (View application)
  • Chair of the E-Health Network : Donna Henderson, Scotland (UK) (View application)
  • One male and one female representative for the Equal Opportunities Group: Applications still welcome.

Committee 3 for Culture, Education & Youth

  • Committee President : Radimir Čačić, Varazdin (HR) (View application)
  • Vice-President : Aleksandra Djankovic, Vojvodina (RS) (View application)
  • Chair of the Sub-Committee on Youth : Hrvoje Kovač, Varazdin (HR) (View application)
  • Chair of the Sub-Committee on Culture: Fereshteh Jalayer, Värmland (SE) (View application)
  • One male and one female representative for the Equal Opportunities Group: Applications still welcome.

That’s not all…

Applications are still welcome, so please do not hesitate to contact Ulla-Britt Höglund, Seconded Officer to the Election Committee Acting Chair.

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Committee 1 Progress Report Spring 2019

8 March, 2019 By Editor

Twice a year the members of the AER Committee on Regional Development and Economy gather in plenary meeting. This is the opportunity to set goals for cooperation through the elaboration of a joint work programme and to evaluate progress every six months.

On the occasion of the Committees’ plenaries in Arad, AER members identified joint actions they wanted to implement with fellow regions. Sa years later it is time to evaluate progress, celebrate achievements and share experiences!

Evaluating progress

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

Projects
Good practice sharing
Lobbying

The below progress report was compiled for the spring 2019 plenary meeting in Örebro. It gives an overview of the situation, a year after the adoption of the work programme.

Projects

Together for Cohesion: let’s rEUnite! project: ongoing

“Together for Cohesion: let’s rEUnite!” is a project submitted under a call launched by DG REGIO. On the one hand, this project aims at raising awareness on the importance of programmes, projects and services funded by the cohesion policy funds. On the second hand, the project will encourage the participation of citizens and stakeholders to turn them in active players in the dialogue on cohesion policy.

Silver Economy Awards (SEED): finished

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.

Last year the Silver Economy Awards replaced the traditional AER Regional Innovation Award. The first Awards Ceremony took place on May 2018 in Brussels.

SEED was a two-year project: 10/2016 to 09/2018
After two years of dedicated work, the SEED project has met its objectives.

ARLEM project – Capacity building for an integrated and sustainable urban development: canceled

This is a joint project of the Committee of the Regions regional and local authorities focused on the Mediterranean. In this context, AER answered to the call of ARLEM – Euro-Mediterranean Regional and Local Assembly in order to provide technical expertise and political support. AER expressed its interest to focus piloting actions in Turkey, Tunisia and Morocco having already implemented several actions in these geographical areas.

This project aims to reinforce the capacities of local and regional authorities from the southern and eastern shores of the Mediterranean both in terms of urban management and integrated urban development. AER will contribute in the capacity building activities as well as the organisation of regional conferences.

It is funded by the Finnish Development Agency and activities are planned for 2 years and six months.

REFIT Project – New regulative frameworks to foster innovation in the transport sector: not accepted

The REFIT project, under the Horizon 2020 Programme, will improve the regulative framework to make it consistent with the development of new forms of mobility, including shared used mobility, having in mind to safeguard the interest of the users and to attend societal goals.

The main result will be the creation of a user-friendly governance tool facilitating regulatory processes to support the deployment of innovative transport technologies and services in the EU.

Event: EU funding for Croatian & Albanian regions: finished

The event on EU funding for Croatian regions, hosted by Varaždin (HR) and Committee 3 President Radimir Čačić, and the event on EU funding for Albanian regions, hosted by Korcë (AL) and MEG member Ana Verushi brought together about 70 participants, both members and non members of AER to:
-hear about AER’s activities
-learn more on AER services for projects and services
-obtain information on the areas of cooperation with EU
-get a relevant update on the current and forthcoming EU funding opportunities
-become aware of the successful experiences of project applicants

Good Practice Sharing

Open data and blockchain in transports, Working group meeting: ongoing

The AER working group on Transports and Mobility, which is chaired by Martin Tollén, member of the Transport and Urban Planning Committee of Östergötland (SE), will meet on March 28th, on the occasion of the 2019 Spring Committee Plenaries in Örebro.
The content will be the following:

  • The use of Open Data in public transport
  • Blockchain in logistics

The Sustainable Development Goals as policy framework: ongoing

The Working Group on Energy and Climate Change planned to organise a workshop on using the Sustainable Development Goals as a policy framework on September 26th in Novi Sad, Vojvodina (RS).

New mobility services: ongoing

Good practice exchange on electric cars (production of batteries) and infrastructure. Participation of the working group in the REFIT H2020 project on policies to support New Mobility Services.

Supporting members to use the TAIEX-Environmental Implementation Review: ongoing

The AER Secretariat disseminated information about the TAIEX-EIR peer to peer learning programme and supporting members to use this programme to gain or provide knowledge on environmental policies on topics as diverse as air quality, waste management, water management, the circular economy. This programme which is relatively easy and quick to access is a good complement to activities carried out within AER and an opportunity to access support from the Commission to carry out exchnages with other regions.

The TAIEX-EIR programme was presented at the Autumn plenaries in the workshop of the AER Working group on rural development.

The AER Project Unit will also organise a webinar in May or June 2019 to help members use the programme.

Food: short supply chains & quality food: ongoing

The Working Group on rural development organised a side event on the occasion of Smart City Expo World Congress on the topic of food. Findings of this side event will feed the work of the Bureau Task Force on food.

Youth entrepeneurship: ongoing

Members expressed the wish to develop youth entrepreneurship actions in link with Committee 3. EMAX, a Swedish organisation, which organises innovation camps presented their work on the occasion of the Autumn Committee 3 plenary meeting. They will also organise a Breakfast Debate on youth entrepreneurship on the occasion of the Spring 2019 plenary meetings in Örebro (SE).

Mutual learning event on the Sharing Economy: finished

Each year Brussels Capital proposes a mutual learning event on a current and transversal topic. On December 4th 2018, Brussels Capital organised a mutual learning event on the sharing Economy together with Catalonia, in Brussels, Brussels Capital Region (BE). This event organised upon the invitation of Committee 1 President Jean Luc Vanraes, aimed to gather experiences from all three AER Committees and regions were welcome to share inputs and regional examples.

The event brought together policymakers, entrepreneurs, academics and representatives of the third sector for vivid exchanges. A follow up article with updates on what happened in Brussels was published.

International Migrants Day: Promoting Diversity in Regions: finished

The three AER committees and the AER Task Force on Migration worked closely together to develop messaging ahead of the International Migrants Day: Promoting Diversity in Regions event in Barcelona on Tuesday 18 December 2018.
Participants shared their experiences and good practices in diversity management at regional level, including examples of policies, programmes and projects promoting inclusion, participation in civic, economic and political life, positive intercultural interaction and the sense of belonging.

Workshop on Life Cycle Approaches to Regional Sustainable Development: finished

Following the September 2017 workshop on life cycle approaches for renewable energy, circular economy and regional development, members of the working group on energy and climate change were invited to participate in a workshop in Bordeaux, France in 4 and 5 March 2019.
This workshop was intended as a consultative forum to gather advice, experience and further case studies to facilitate this move. It will help to develop an outreach programme on Life Cycle approaches to sustainable regional development.

Autumn Plenary, Vojvodina: finished

The 2018 Autumn Committee Plenaries were hosted by the region of Vojvodina in Serbia from 25 – 27 September 2018. A detailed recap of all the meetings that took place is available here.

Plenary meeting: Committee for Economy and Regional Development: finished

On the occasion of the 2018 Autumn the Committees Plenary meetings in Vojvodina, the Committee on Economy and Regional Development members decided that the Task Force on Cohesion Policy, which for historic reasons was under the responsibility of this Committee, should be transferred to the Bureau for coherence purposes, as it is the Bureau which is in charge of the identification of policy messages and advocacy activities.

Panel discussion at the Vojvodina plenaries on Open data for regional development: finished

On the occasion of the Autumn plenaries in Vojvodina, the panel discussion “Open data for regional development: governance, start-ups and innovation” took place.

The discussion focused on how public institutions collect and generate enormous quantities of data in areas as varied as unemployment, air pollution, hospital consultations etc and how this data can best be re-used to create or improve both public and private services. There is a need to change the political perception of Open Data and instead view it as opportunity for policy-making.

Sustainable Urban Mobility, Working group meeting: finished

The Working Group on Transports and Mobility decided in Spring 2018 to work on sustainable urban mobility. At the Autumn Committees Plenary meetings, Miroslav Tadic, UNDP Climate Change Portfolio Manager shared the experience of UNDP in Serbia.

Meeting of the Working group on Energy and Climate Change: finished

The Working Group on Energy and Climate Change met in September 2018 on the occasion of Autumn the Committees Plenary meetings. On this occasion, the workshop “The SDGs as a policy framework” took place. Many regions are very active in this space. Oppland, Norway and Varmland, Sweden provided case studies.

Meeting of the Working group on Rural development: finished

The Working Group on Rural Development met in September 2018 on the occasion of Autumn the Committees Plenary meetings. On this occasion, the workshop “Waste management in rural areas” took place. Svetlana Marusic presented the situation in Vojvodina (RS) and Olimpia Neagoe, Chair of the Working Group, presented a project which is being implemented in Dolj (RO) and which is substantially supported by EU funding. Sustainable Waste Management involves both considerable investments in infrastructure and a lot of work on behavioural changes.

Webinar on New Mobilities: canceled

The Working Group on Transports & Mobility will organise a webinar on New Mobilities for all AER members. Date & topic tbc.

International event on Biomass in Vojvodina: canceled

Organisation of an international event on Biomass in Vojvodina (RS) in collaboration with AER members. It was replaced by an International Business Summit

Using the SDGs to communicate AER activities: planned

Oppland suggested that as many of the AER activities are contributing to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals, AER should promote the 2030 Agenda, raising visibility of how AER and its member regions are contributing to reach goals.

Study visit on the energy transition: finished

The main focus of the study visit, was the bottom-up approach for the energy transition, which was implemented in the region. This multi-stakeholder cooperation was materialised by the Gelders’ Energy agreement (GEA). The shared goal is to make the province energy-neutral by 2050. Local and regional industries, governments and NGOs’ in the province of Gelderland, Netherlands, have pledged for the province to become energy-neutral by 2050. It facilitates a co-creative process where initiatives, actors, and energy are integrated into society.

Participants shared good practice and experience and in particular:

observe Gelders’ Energy agreement working process
meet with Gelders’ Energy agreement regional partners
carry out visits to observe regional results
participate in a serious game on energy and the diverging interests of stakeholders to exchange about challenges.

Waste management in rural areas: finished

The Working Group on rural development organised a workshop on waste management in rural areas on September 27th in Novi Sad, Vojvodina (RS).

Study visit on food production: cancelled

The idea was to focus the study visit on the approach to food production in order to see how microfirm became large company, which was implemented in the Norrbotten region. The initiative could potentially have been linked with the TAIEX EIR peer learning opportunity of the European Commission. This idea was not implemented.

Advocacy/ Lobbying

Mobility: engagement in the EIP-SCC: ongoing

The AER Working Group on Transports and Mobility is involved in the European Innovation Partnership on Smart Cities and Communities. It shares regular updates on the work of the EIP-SCC with members

Cohesion Policy Activities: ongoing

Members agreed in September 2018 that the Task Force on Cohesion will now be under the responsibility of the Bureau, which is also in charge of the other Task Forces. Joint actions include:
– Convene joint advocacy: Bureau Members adopted an updated position on the European Commission legislative proposals for the future EU cohesion policy, setting out the specific changes European regions propose to make to the new framework.
– Advocate towards the European Union and Member States
– Work in alliance with other relevant stakeholders and European associations
Flevoland (NL) is coordinating the implementation of the action and the cohesion policy task force help implement the action.

Financing climate action: ongoing

AER works alongside R20, Blue Orchard and Leonardo Di Caprio Foundation to set up a 350 million $ Subnational Climate Fund to finance climate projects in European regions. In August AER met the European Investment Bank to pursue negotiations.

AER was present at this year’s UN climate meeting, which took place in Katowice, Poland. The highlight of AER’s involvement was when AER President Magnus Berntsson spoke at the high-level segment 12 December on behalf of all the regions and municipalities of the world.

AER at the OECD Roundtable on Cities and Regions for the SDGs: finished

Eva Hallström from Värmland, chairing the AER working group on energy and climate change, represented AER while speaking at the 1st OECD Roundtable on Cities and Regions for the SDGs, which took place at the OECD Headquarters in Paris.

The Roundtable brought together cities, regions, national governments, international organisations, private sector and other key stakeholders to identify trends and challenges in the localisation of the SDGs, including the experiences and key findings from the pilots of the programme “A Territorial Approach to the SDGs”.

Joint initiatives for advocacy

Member regions can decide to initiate joint actions and find partners among AER members. Regions can get support from the Secretariat to connect with other regions, get an overview of existing legal framework and identify relevant actions, target institutions. The AER Secretariat will also organise Breakfast Briefings to help regions organise their advocacy activities.

AER Bureau Task Forces

The 2018 Spring Bureau established the creation of Task Forces on dedicated topics. These Task Forces will gather examples, identify and formulate policy messages which will be brought together in position papers which will then be used for advocacy. Members who would like to contribute to one of the below Task Forces should contact AER Coordinator for Advocacy & Institutional Relations Vania Freitas

-Task Force on Food

-Task force on Digitalisation

-Task Force on Migration

-Task Force on Social Innovation

-Task Force on Cohesion

The Committees’ work programmes and the AER action Plan

The developement of the Action Plan is 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. The work programmes are developped in Spring each year.

The AER action plan is the consolidation of the three Committees’ work programmes with all other activities led by the Bureau and the Executive Board. It is adopted at the General Assembly.

Members can propose new joint initiatives at any time during the year, these are then approved by the Executive Board and included in the AER Action Plan.

Photo by Ryan Yao on Unsplash

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Committee 2 Progress Report Spring 2019

8 March, 2019 By Editor

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 and to evaluate progress every six months.

On the occasion of the Spring 2018 Committees’ plenaries in Arad, AER members identified joint actions they wanted to implement with fellow regions. A year later it is time to evaluate progress, celebrate achievements and share experiences!

Evaluating progress

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

Projects
Good practice sharing
Lobbying

The below progress report was compiled for the spring 2019 plenary meeting in Örebro. It gives an overview of the situation, 1 year after the adoption of the work programme.

Projects

SCIROCCO Exchange project – Personalised knowledge transfer and access to tailored evidence-based assets on integrated care: ongoing

The SCIROCCO Exchange project, under the 3rd Health Programme, is based on the SCIROCCO project, which has resulted in the development of an online self-assessment tool for integrated care. The project will run from end 2018 to end 2020. It will support regions, mainly health and social care authorities for the adoption and the scaling-up of integrated care. The maturity matrix, at the core of the project, offers a tool for regions to better deliver integrated care for their citizens while at the same time empowering citizens. With this tool regions can assess their current status, revealing areas of strengths and also gaps in their capability managing the many activities needed in order to deliver integrated care.

The lead partner is the Scottish Government Health Agency Service, a new AER member. The consortium is composed by 14 organisations.

AER is leading the Working Package on knowledge transfer, helping the regions in preparing the local environment for implementation and scaling-up integrated care.

Together for Cohesion: let’s rEUnite! project: ongoing

The project will launch an integrated campaign “Together for Cohesion: let’s rEUnite!” with ongoing press functions and an activity mix which will allow us to achieve indirect and direct reach of the target audience.
The campaign centers on the stories of locals in regions in each of the five selected countries (Croatia, Hungary, Romania, Italy and Spain), as a highly-relatable focal points to convey the positive impact of Cohesion policy in people’s everyday lives.

The project is led by AER with the international communication agency MC Group (DE). The application was submitted to the DG Regio on the media calls for proposals.

The project is part of AER’s work on Cohesion Policy.

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 AMiD project will provide opportunities for experience sharing and capacity building in this area for all AER members.

Silver Economy Awards (SEED): finished

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.

Last year the Silver Economy Awards replaced the traditional AER Regional Innovation Award. The first Awards Ceremony took place on May 2018 in Brussels.

SEED is a two-year project: 10/2016 to 09/2018.
After two years of dedicated work, the SEED project has met its objectives and is wrapping up its activities.

Models of Child Health Appraised (MOCHA): finished

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. The final conference took place on 15-16 November in The Hague.

Event: EU funding for Croatian & Albanian regions: finished

The event on EU funding for Croatian regions, hosted by Varaždin (HR) and Committee 3 President Radimir Čačić, and the event on EU funding for Albanian regions, hosted by Korcë (AL) and MEG member Ana Verushi brought together about 70 participants, both members and non members of AER to:

-hear about AER’s activities
-learn more on AER services for projects and services
-obtain information on the areas of cooperation with EU
-get a relevant update on the current and forthcoming EU funding opportunities
-become aware of the successful experiences of project applicants

HOME4LIFE – Certified smart and integrated living environments for ageing well: pending approval

AER joined this project as supporting partner, upon the request of AGE Platform which is partner in the consortium. No budget or specific tasks assigned.

This project has been submitted within Horizon 2020 – CSA on “Supporting investment in smart living environments for ageing well through certification” and aims at the development of a European certification scheme fostering safe investments and supporting physical and technological retrofitting for what concerns age-friendly environments and accomodation.

The results of the evaluation should be known in 2018.

INTEGRATE PERMED project – The inter-regional linking infrastructure for implementation in personalised medicine:project rejected

The INTEGRATE PERMED has been submitted under the Horizon 2020 Programme. It aims at linking the efforts in personalised medicine across European Regions by mapping them and then exchange of experiences between selected regions. The project will focus on breast cancer as a launching pathology to maintain focus. After validation, the approach will be replicated to other pathologies.

PATHWAY project – Pathway to social entrepreneurship: project rejected

The PATHWAY project, under the Erasmus+ Programme, aims at providing learners with a training programme which meet their needs in the sector of social entrepreneurship. It also aims to raise awareness on the role social entrepreneurship can play in local development, fostering also be the establishment of links and cooperation between different stakeholders.

The multiplier event will be a collateral activity of the AER Summer Academy

Submitted within the Erasmus+ Programme, the Social Entrepreneurship Key competences (SEK) project strives for providing learners with specialized training in the sector of social entrepreneurship with a special focus on tourism.

Social Entrepreneur Key competencies – SEK project: project rejected

Within this project, AER is in charge of organising an international information day, which will be the opportunity to share the project outcomes and to foster networking. AER is also in charge of a training session to test training course for social entrepreneurs. On top of that, AER will perform advocacy work in order to raise the attention on the project findings at regional and EU level.

The activities realised by the AER will take place in the scope of the Eurodyssey and the AER Youth Regional Network.

PIKTOGRAMA project – Visual thinking for social innovation: project rejected

PIKTOGRAMA is a project submitted within Erasmus+ Programme. It focuses on design thinking approach as a method to empower non-profit organisation and implement original visual thinking tools to face new EU societal challenges (e.g. climate change). The project aims at raising awareness on this approach and the advantages it has in the social innovation context as well as stimulating its use by training the youths.

The project will provide regions with recommendations regarding design thinking, which can be an interesting method for non-profit organisations to approach social challenges.

The multiplier event will be a collateral activity within the Youth Regional Network General Assembly, thus creating synergies between AER programmes and the project.


Good Practice Sharing

Equal access to healthcare: ongoing

The AER Group on Equal Opportunities has identified equal access to health as the main topic to be addressed in Committee 2. This includes:

-vulnerable groups: meet them where they are & help them
– exchange good practices on reducing barriers to care & access to servicesThe AER Transversal Group on Equal Opportunities held regular phone calls to identify joint actions on the topics identified by the Group.

Autumn Plenary, Vojvodina: finished

The 2018 Autumn Committee Plenaries were hosted by the region of Vojvodina in Serbia from 25 – 27 September 2018. A detailed recap of all the meetings that took place is available here.

Breakfast Briefing on welcoming unaccompanied migrant children: finished

Committee 2 members decided to share experiences on welcoming unaccompanied migrant children. In this context a Breakfast Briefing was organised on welcoming unaccompanied migrant children in Novi Sad on 27 September 2018, which was led by the European Programme for Integration and Migration, an initiative of currently 25 private foundations, which has the goal of strengthening the role played by civil society in advocating for constructive approaches to migration in Europe.
A background article on youth on the move was published by the AER Secretariat.

Plenary meeting: Committee for Social Policy and Public Health: finished

On the occasion of the 2018 Autumn the Committees Plenary meetings in Vojvodina, the Committee on Social Policy and Public Health members said farewell to Agneta Granström, Vice President of the Committee and Chair of the AER e-Health network. Albert Castellanos, Catalonia (ES) was elected Vice-President for Health Innovation, other positions were left open for future candidacies.
On the occasion of Committee 2 plenary meeting in Novi Sad, Vojvodina (RS), members decide to focus on social entrepreneurship & inclusion
Good practices from Umbria (IT) and Maramures (RO) were presented.

Panel discussion at the Vojvodina plenaries on Open data for regional development: finished

On the occasion of the Autumn plenaries in Vojvodina, the panel discussion “Open data for regional development: governance, start-ups and innovation” took place.

The discussion focused on how public institutions collect and generate enormous quantities of data in areas as varied as unemployment, air pollution, hospital consultations etc and how this data can best be re-used to create or improve both public and private services. There is a need to change the political perception of Open Data and instead view it as opportunity for policy-making.

Meeting of the Working Group for Equal Opportunities: finished

The AER Group on Equal opportunities has regular phone meetings and met as well in Novi Sad to discuss the development of a Code of Conduct for AER.

Mutual learning event on the Sharing Economy: finished

Each year Brussels Capital proposes a mutual learning event on a current and transversal topic. On December 4th 2018, Brussels Capital organised a mutual learning event on the sharing Economy together with Catalonia, in Brussels, Brussels Capital Region (BE). This event organised upon the invitation of Committee 1 President Jean Luc Vanraes, aimed to gather experiences from all three AER Committees and regions were welcome to share inputs and regional examples.

The event brought together policymakers, entrepreneurs, academics and representatives of the third sector for vivid exchanges. A follow up article with updates on what happened in Brussels was published.

International Migrants Day: Promoting Diversity in Regions: finished

The three AER committees and the AER Task Force on Migration worked closely together to develop messaging ahead of the International Migrants Day: Promoting Diversity in Regions event in Barcelona on Tuesday 18 December 2018.
Participants shared their experiences and good practices in diversity management at regional level, including examples of policies, programmes and projects promoting inclusion, participation in civic, economic and political life, positive intercultural interaction and the sense of belonging.

AER e-health network activities: planned

The AER e-health network has achieved the objectives it had set at its creation. The plenary meeting in Arad was the opportunity to set new objectives. These include good practice sharing on

-risks of digital exclusion
-business models
-data protection, profiling & mass surveillance
-Artificial intelligence, bots
After the 2018 Spring plenaries, no concrete initiatives were identified. This was mainly due to the fact the AER e-health network didn’t have a chair to give impulse to its activities. At the Spring 2019 Committee 2 plenary meeting, members will elect a new chair and get an opportunity to define new actions they would like to implement jointly.

Leadership programme for policymakers on e-health, integrated care systems and health innovation: cancelled

The AER e-health network wants to share good practices on leadership for the deployment of integrated care systems. After the 2018 Spring plenaries, no concrete initiatives were identified. New opportunities may arise with the implementation of the Scirocco Exchange knowledge hub which will be developed and will also provide tools to improve readiness to change, leadership and governance in general.

Advocacy/ Lobbying

Cohesion Policy Activities: ongoing

Members agreed in September 2018 that the Task Force on Cohesion will now be under the responsibility of the Bureau, which is also in charge of the other Task Forces. Joint actions include:
– Convene joint advocacy: Bureau Members adopted an updated position on the European Commission legislative proposals for the future EU cohesion policy, setting out the specific changes European regions propose to make to the new framework.
– Advocate towards the European Union and Member States
– Work in alliance with other relevant stakeholders and European associations
Flevoland (NL) is coordinating the implementation of the action and the cohesion policy task force help implement the action.

AER Bureau Task Forces

The 2018 Spring Bureau established the creation of Task Forces on dedicated topics. These Task Forces will gather examples, identify and formulate policy messages which will be brought together in position papers which will then be used for advocacy. Members who would like to contribute to one of the below Task Forces should contact AER Coordinator for Advocacy & Institutionnal Relations Vania Freitas

-Task Force on Food

-Task force on Digitalisation

-Task Force on Migration

-Task Force on Social Innovation

Joint initiatives for advocacy

Member regions can decide to initiate joint actions and find partners among AER members. Regions can get support from the Secretariat to connect with other regions, get an overview of existing legal framework and identify relevant actions, target institutions. The AER Secretariat will also organise Breakfast Briefings to help regions organise their advocacy activities.

The Committees’ work programmes and the AER action Plan

The developement of the Action Plan is 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. The work programmes are developped in Spring each year.

The AER action plan is the consolidation of the three Committees’ work programmes with all other activities led by the Bureau and the Executive Board. It is adopted at the General Assembly.

Members can propose new joint initiatives at any time during the year, these are then approved by the Executive Board and included in the Committees work programmes and the AER action plan.

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Committee 3 Progress Report Spring 2019

8 March, 2019 By Editor

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 and to evaluate progress every six months.

On the occasion of the Spring 2018 Committees’ plenaries in Arad, AER members identified joint actions they wanted to implement with fellow regions. A year later it is time to evaluate progress, celebrate achievements and share experiences!

Evaluating progress

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

Projects
Good practice sharing
Lobbying

The below progress report was compiled for the Spring 2019 plenary meeting in Örebro. It gives an overview of the situation, 1 year after the adoption of the work programme.

Projects

“Road to the Future”: ongoing

Road to the Future” is a project submitted under the Erasmus+ programme, within the Key Action 3 – Support for Policy Reform, and it is designed around the European Parliament Elections in 2019. First, it will encourage debate among young European on the European elections and increase young voters turnout. This will be realised through training of youth activists, leaders and the development of tools and resources. After the elections, the project will continue the training for trainers and mentors, based on the ideas collected during the first phase. This will ensure that young people gain the knowledge, skills and tools necessary to be engaged for the future of Europe at the local level.

The lead partner is JEF Europe – Young European Federalist. AER represents local and regional authorities. The consortium is composed by 21 organisations, mainly national JEF associations.

AER is responsible to connect young people and decision makers, especially via the involvement of the YRN.

“Road to the Future” will last 16 months, from September/October 2018 to December 2019/January 2020, depending on its actual start.

Together for Cohesion: let’s rEUnite! project: ongoing

The project will launch an integrated campaign “Together for Cohesion: let’s rEUnite!” with ongoing press functions and an activity mix which will allow us to achieve indirect and direct reach of the target audience.
The campaign centers on the stories of locals in regions in each of the five selected countries (Croatia, Hungary, Romania, Italy and Spain), as a highly-relatable focal points to convey the positive impact of Cohesion policy in people’s everyday lives.

The project is led by AER with the international communication agency MC Group (DE). The application was submitted to the DG Regio on the media calls for proposals.

The project is part of AER’s work on Cohesion Policy.

Bridging the gap project: cancelled

Dialogue between elected politicians and Youth representatives aims to promote the active participation of young people in democratic life and foster debate around the major issues affecting youth. After several exchanges, the project initiator, the Province of Vojvodina (RS), and the potential coordinator, Timis County Council (RO), agreed that there the conditions to finalise the submission were not met.

Silver Economy Awards (SEED): finished

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 replaced the traditional AER Regional Innovation Award. The first Awards Ceremony took place on May 2018 in Brussels.

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

Event: EU funding for Croatian & Albanian regions: finished

The event on EU funding for Croatian regions, hosted by Varaždin (HR) and Committee 3 President Radimir Čačić, and the event on EU funding for Albanian regions, hosted by Korcë (AL) and MEG member Ana Verushi brought together about 70 participants, both members and non members of AER to:

-hear about AER’s activities
-learn more on AER services for projects and services
-obtain information on the areas of cooperation with EU
-get a relevant update on the current and forthcoming EU funding opportunities
-become aware of the successful experiences of project applicants

Good Practice Sharing

Civil servants exchange programme: ongoing

This programme will be a follow-up programme of the former Centurio programme, which was implemented for several years in AER and was very successful. The programme supports innovation in the public sector & capacity building by allowing civil servants to be placed in another region for a few months, learn processes and practices there and share their experience when they come back. The action is led by Committee 3 President Radimir Čačić, Varaždin (HR)

Identify best practices on Youth entrepreneurship: ongoing

Committee 3 would like to exchange good practices on youth entrepreneurship and identify best practices in Europe.The idea is to develop curricula, which could be applied in different region.

EMAX, a Swedish organisation, which organises innovation camps presented their work on the occasion of the Autumn Committee 3 plenary meeting. They will also organise a Breakfast Debate on youth entrepreneurship on the occasion of the Spring 2019 plenary meetings in Örebro (SE).

Equal opportunities Committee 3: ongoing

Members expressed the intention to follow up on activities on culture and health as well as wellbeing, education and culture to fight obesity.
The AER Transversal Group on Equal Opportunities held regular phone calls to identify joint actions on the topics identified by the Group.

AER Training on youth mobility at European College of Cluny: ongoing

In the framework of the cooperation with the European College of Cluny, AER will 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.
Regular meetings are taking place between AER Secretary General and the Cluny Steering Committee.

Raise awareness on added value for members of Eurodyssey programme: ongoing

Promote youth mobility for all across wider Europe via the Eurodyssey programme & ensure all AER members are aware of the opportunities the programme offers. The Catalonia President will lead the action and the Eurodyssey Steering Committee and Eurodyssey members will participate as well.

International Migrants Day: Promoting Diversity in Regions: finished

The three AER committees and the AER Task Force on Migration worked closely together to develop messaging ahead of the International Migrants Day: Promoting Diversity in Regions event in Barcelona on Tuesday 18 December 2018.
Participants shared their experiences and good practices in diversity management at regional level, including examples of policies, programmes and projects promoting inclusion, participation in civic, economic and political life, positive intercultural interaction and the sense of belonging.

Autumn Plenary, Vojvodina: finished

The 2018 Autumn Committee Plenaries were hosted by the region of Vojvodina in Serbia from 25 – 27 September 2018. A detailed recap of all the meetings that took place is available here.

Plenary meeting: Committee for Culture, Education and Youth : finished

On the occasion of the 2018 Autumn the Committees Plenary meetings in Vojvodina, the Committee on Culture, Education and Youth a discussion took place on the launch of the Civil Servant Exchange Programme, an initiative proposed by Radimir Čačić, President of this Committee. This programme will be hosted at the European College of Cluny, in the region of Bourgogne, France and is expected to be operational by 2020.

Panel discussion at the Vojvodina plenaries on Open data for regional development: finished

On the occasion of the Autumn plenaries in Vojvodina, the panel discussion “Open data for regional development: governance, start-ups and innovation” took place.

The discussion focused on how public institutions collect and generate enormous quantities of data in areas as varied as unemployment, air pollution, hospital consultations etc and how this data can best be re-used to create or improve both public and private services. There is a need to change the political perception of Open Data and instead view it as opportunity for policy-making.

Mutual learning event on the Sharing Economy: finished

Each year Brussels Capital proposes a mutual learning event on a current and transversal topic. On December 4th 2018, Brussels Capital organised a mutual learning event on the sharing Economy together with Catalonia, in Brussels, Brussels Capital Region (BE). This event organised upon the invitation of Committee 1 President Jean Luc Vanraes, aimed to gather experiences from all three AER Committees and regions were welcome to share inputs and regional examples.

The event brought together policymakers, entrepreneurs, academics and representatives of the third sector for vivid exchanges. A follow up article with updates on what happened in Brussels was published.

Activities around youth mental health: finished

On the occasion of the 2018 Spring plenaries in Arad members decided to refocus the cooperation, which initially was oriented on project development (see here the 2017-2018 action on youth mental health) activity on good practice sharing and awareness raising through

-workshops
-webinars
-data collection
-gathering of prevention resources
-potential topic for a future Summer Academy
-advocacy activities

These activities have yet to be organised, regions are welcome to take the lead.

Youth Mental Health: participation in “Young Carers in a Changing World” event: cancelled

Over the Summer the AER Secretariat has been in touch with the President of the Greek Carer Network (EPIONI), who is also a board member of EUFAMI – European Federation of Associations of Families of People with Mental Illness, and of the World Federation for Mental Health.

EPIONI is organising an event at the Office of European Parliament on Mental Health in Athene (GR) the 28 September 2018: “Young Carers in a Changing World” and invited AER members working on youth mental health to speak at this conference. Members involved in youth mental health were not available to contribute to this event.

AER Summer Academy 2018 – Cultural Heritage for Regional Attractiveness: finished

This aim was to create opportunities for inter-cultural exchanges & debates among people from European regions, supporting citizens understanding of the relevance of culture & cultural heritage as a means of promoting social inclusion, equality, combating discrimination as well as increasing the attractiveness of their regions.

LGBTIQ rights: cancelled

Members at the Committee 3 plenary meeting expressed interest in working on LGTBIQ rights and sexual identity in education systems. After the 2018 Spring plenaries no concrete initiatives were identified. In case this topic is still relevant to members steps for implementation need to be defined at the Spring 2019 plenary meeting.

Sex and relationship education in schools: cancelled

Members at the Spring 2018 meeting expressed interest in exchanging experiences on sex and relationship education in schools. After the 2018 Spring plenaries no concrete initiatives were identified. In case this topic is still relevant to members steps for implementation need to be defined at the Spring 2019 plenary meeting.

Virtual reality: planned

Creation of an informal network of regions with a focus on immersion and visualisation of world heritage and cultural heritage. Best practices, exchange of methods and exchange of “products”, I.E. VR, AR & MR visualisations of different cultural heritages, museums and schools. Gävleborg (SE) will lead the action, other supporting regions are Västragötaland (SE) and Västernorrland (SE).

Cooperation around Cultural Routes: finished

Västra Götland is particularly interested in developing cooperations around walking and hiking paths along cultural routes through the path of St Olov. Västra Götland is a “missing link” in the path from Santiago de Compostela to Nidaros and is developing this path. The path should be completed by 2031 for the big celebration of St Olov.
Members have been made aware of initiatives around cultural routes. So far no additional activities were planned. In case this topic is still relevant to members steps for implementation need to be defined at the Spring 2019 plenary meeting.

Digitalisation in education: cancelled

Nordland (NO) expressed interest in working around the topic of digitalisation in education. The AER Secretariat disseminated information via the website and mail on opportunities in this field, in particular a project development workshop held in Brussels, which was attended by Varazdin (HR). No additional activities were initiated.

banner for advocacy

Advocacy/ Lobbying

Cohesion Policy Activities: ongoing

Members agreed in September 2018 that the Task Force on Cohesion will now be under the responsibility of the Bureau, which is also in charge of the other Task Forces. Joint actions include:
– Convene joint advocacy: Bureau Members adopted an updated position on the European Commission legislative proposals for the future EU cohesion policy, setting out the specific changes European regions propose to make to the new framework.
– Advocate towards the European Union and Member States
– Work in alliance with other relevant stakeholders and European associations
Flevoland (NL) is coordinating the implementation of the action and the cohesion policy task force help implement the action.

AER Bureau Task Forces

The 2018 Spring Bureau established the creation of Task Forces on dedicated topics. These Task Forces will gather examples, identify and formulate policy messages which will be brought together in position papers which will then be used for advocacy. Members who would like to contribute to one of the below Task Forces should contact AER Coordinator for Advocacy & Institutionnal Relations Vania Freitas

-Task Force on Food

-Task Force on Cohesion Policy

-Task force on Digitalisation

-Task Force on Migration

-Task Force on Social Innovation

Joint initiatives for advocacy

Member regions can decide to initiate joint actions and find partners among AER members. Regions can get support from the Secretariat to connect with other regions, get an overview of existing legal framework and identify relevant actions, target institutions. The AER Secretariat will also organise Breakfast Briefings to help regions organise their advocacy activities.

The Committees’ work programmes and the AER action Plan

The developement of the Action Plan is 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. The work programmes are developped in Spring each year.

The AER action plan is the consolidation of the three Committees’ work programmes with all other activities led by the Bureau and the Executive Board. It is adopted at the General Assembly.

Members can propose new joint initiatives at any time during the year, these are then approved by the Executive Board and included in the Committees work programmes and the AER action plan.

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The Committees’ work programme development explained

4 March, 2019 By Johanna Pacevicius

Spring is work programme definition season at AER! On the occasion of the Spring Plenary meetings in Örebro, 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.

Just do it!

Many things change, but the n°1 rule doesn’t: everything is possible!

The main idea is the following: if you want to carry something out 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!

Picking a topic has never been so easy

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.

The three AER Committees work on:

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

Because the topics addressed by the Committees are rather broad, many policy areas can be addressed within the different Committees. Recent activities give an idea of what is possible but shouldn’t be considered as a limit.

Committee 1 works on issues covering innovation, economic development and SMEs, transport and mobility, renewable energies and rural development. Food and sustainable food systems are a topic of particular interest in this context. For the past year, there has been a strong focus on supporting the collaboration of regional innovation stakeholders. Members, in particular, discussed the implications of the development of the sharing economy on regional policymaking and new emerging roles.

Committee 2 supports 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. Inclusion is a key topic. In this context, members discussed welcoming unaccompanied migrant children and catering for the needs of youth on the move in general. They also worked on how to welcome migrants with disabilities in a more integrated way.

Committee 3 focuses on culture, education and youth policies. The Committee published a handbook with good practices on culture for inclusion. Youth entrepreneurship was also discussed at meetings. Another main topic has been cultural heritage. Committee 3 is developping an exchnage programme for civil servants and is also collaborating closely with the European College of Cluny for the development of a post-master degree.

How this will be done

As with the Arad 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 & jointly develop 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


Actions will be discussed together after which the work programme will be adopted

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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AMiD workshop: multilevel cooperation for migration policies

28 February, 2019 By Editor

On the occasion of this year Spring Plenaries in Örebro (SE), AER is organising a workshop on multilevel cooperation for migration policies.

What is AMiD about

The AMiD-Access to services for Migrants with Disabilities project aims to support an efficient management of the reception and integration of asylum seekers and migrants with disabilities in the EU.
AER is an important partner in the consortium, representing local authorities. Timis (RO), Värmland (SE) and Valencia (ES) have an active role in the Community Advisory Board (CAB), which gathers partnership members, European Regions and external experts from service providers.

A multistakeholder approach

In the migration context, cooperation and coordination between governments, local and regional authorities, civil society and other relevant stakeholders is needed.

At the International Migrants Day: Promoting Diversity in Regions, regions already discussed how to successfully harness the benefits of diversity for better social cohesion outcomes, through multi-level and multi-actor cooperation.

The AMiD project itself uses a multi-actor approach – involving civil society organisations and regional authorities. The workshop will devote particular attention to the local level and to the role of regions in the multi-level governance of migration and integration.

The workshop: get involved!

The AMiD workshop will take place on March 28th from 9:00 to 10:00 in Örebro. The idea is to have an interactive 60-minutes workshop which will allow participants to share their experiences and to learn from the experience of their peers in other regions. The main focus will be on multistakeholder cooperation and how this results in better outcomes in inclusion policies.
Highlights of this workshop also include a presentation of the AMiD Needs Assessment Tool, which should help regions address the needs of migrants with disabilities in an effective and integrated way.
The AMID project is an example of the way AER gets involved in EU-financed projects, with the aim to provide extra benefits and services for members.



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Interreg Central Europe funds experimentation and collaboration in final call

28 January, 2019 By Editor

For their Final Call for Project Proposals, the folks at Interreg Central Europe are thinking outside the box. They are looking for experimental projects that will bring together outputs and lessons from several projects previously funded by their programme and other European funding programmes. The call will open 4 March 2019.

What can I do?

Projects should address one of seven topics:

  • Industry 4.0/Advanced Manufacturing
  • Energy Efficient Renovation of Public Building in Cities
  • Climate Change Adaptation and Risk Prevention
  • Social Entrepreneurship
  • Low Carbon Mobility and Urban Air Quality
  • Cultural Heritage Sites & Buildings At Risk
  • Accessibility of Peripheral and Border Regions to TEN-T and CNC

How can I do it?

The partnerships will roll out promising project outputs and results of already funded Interreg Central Europe projects at the regional and local level, or improve policy making. Project ideas have to build on complementing results and outputs from at least 3 different projects co-financed by Interreg Central Europe and directly-managed EU programmes such as Horizon 2020, LIFE, Connecting Europe Facility, etc. At least two of the projects have to be Interreg Central Europe projects. To explore your options, go to the Interreg Central Europe website for an archive of past projects.

There should be a mix of Interreg Central Europe stakeholders and newcomers from projects funded under directly-managed EU programmes. Additional partners from other Interreg projects, projects funded by mainstreaming programmes as well as complete newcomers are welcome. This call is a great opportunity for those who are newer to the funding programme to learn from experienced partners and to offer an external perspective that could take outputs from past projects to new and exciting places.

Develop your proposal

Interreg Central Europe has developed multiple tools and services to help you develop your idea, find partners, and shore up your application. You can join their online Project Idea Community or connect with the Interreg Central Europe LinkedIn group, to exchange with others interested in the call. For face-to-face networking and consortium building, matchmaking activities will be organised in Vienna 2-3 April 2019, and the Commission will hold an info day in Brussels in May.

Once the time comes to draft your application, you can get tips and other information on the programme’s YouTube Channel. For assistance in national languages, you can reach out to National Contact Points on primarily national application issues. What’s more, starting in mid-April 2019, lead partners will be asked to book individual consultations, via phone or video conferences, to speak about their proposals.

Start planning

The call will be open from 4 March until 5 July 2019 and projects will be set to begin implementation in early 2020. Be sure to check the call page regularly for updates and answers to Frequently Asked Questions.

As always, get in touch with the AER Project Unit if you need help finding partners to team up with. We’ll be happy to share your ideas with our network and external followers.

Photo by domeckopol onpixabay.

European Projects

Agnese Pantaloni

Phone: +32 2 400 10 52 E-mail: a.pantaloni(at)aer.eu Skype ID: agnesepanta Languages: it, en, pt Articles by Agnese
  • EU funding
  • Calls for projects and tenders
  • Partner search

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New rules, new roles for governments in a Sharing Economy

11 December, 2018 By Editor

The Sharing Economy is disrupting not only transports and tourism, it may soon drastically change the way we envision public services, raising new questions for policymakers. On 4 December 2018 the “The Sharing Economy: Reshaping the way we do business” event, co-organised by AER, Brussels Capital and Catalonia brought together policymakers, entrepreneurs, academics and representatives of the third sector for vivid exchanges.

Governments in the Digital Age

The digital transformation changes the way institutions work, share information and organise power. This is why the topic is recurring in different AER thematic activities be it e-health, transports, food… Indeed it touches upon governance and multistakeholder cooperation.

With views to the sharing or collaborative economy, it poses new challenges to governments in terms of taxation but also for the protection of citizens, security of users and workers, or with respect to the support to innovation and SMEs.  As Lluís Juncà, General Director for Economic Promotion, Competence and Regulation at the Generalitat de Catalunya, explained, this raises the question as to what governments  should support and how. How should they regulate to the benefit of citizens? Different governments have taken steps to, at the same time provide protection to workers, and impose taxes. The disruption however goes further than taxes and insurances and involves changes in the very role of governments. This regards the way governments:

  • ask for data (for instance from shared mobility or hospitality stakeholders)
  • share the data they generate or collect
  • collaborate with other entities to provide the seamless services citizens want to access at the tip of their fingers.

These questions were specifically addressed in the discussion group moderated by Anna Merino Castelló, who is an economist, expert in competition, better regulation and digital markets and has worked extensively with the Catalan government to define their sharing economy policy. This group included François Gerard, Managing Director at Helpper, an interface which connects people who need help, for instance for the groceries, with people who can help and would like to sell such services. A cooperation has already started in Flanders with a local government in order to help people with low incomes to access services via Helpper. Yves Muyters, is Project Manager at KlaarIsKees, a similar company, which allows individuals to either propose their paid services or, at the end-user level, to ask for support for a task. Mayo Fuster, Director of research on the collaborative economy at the Dimmons Research Group of the Open University of Catalonia, is well known for crowdsourcing the Barcelona policies on the sharing economy. She provided numerous examples on collaborations between the public sector and the entrepreneurs from the Sharing Econonmy in Catalonia. Èlia Ferrer, Public Affairs Manager at mytaxi The Taxi App, explained how for citizens what matters is the easy access to a service and its capacity to answer a specific need.

Business in a changing world

The group moderated by Aurora Sanz, Lawyer  at Grant Thornton, focused on the support to entrepreneurs. The sharing economy representing a wide span of very different types of businesses, it can be difficult for governments to navigate. Jean-Luc Vanraes, President of the AER Committee on Economy and Regional Development highlighted the difficulty to decide how to tax new services in the context of a new economy. A harmonised tax on digital services at global level in 2020 will simplify the situation. Mar Alarcón, CEO of SocialCar, a car sharing company explained how close contact with the Catalan government when developping the company, enabled them to provide feedback on existing legislation and advise on needed changes. This contact also ensured the company was gathering right type of data, regarding mobility and usages, to inform the government. Camille Lepinay shared experiences from the EU-Give project, a pilot project on the sharing economy initiated by the European Parliament, while Philippe Eiselein from the Chair on Social Entrepreneurship at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel presented elements of success for social entrepreneurs. Together the group agreed that key success factors were:

  • people: A team can change the business plan along the way, ideas do evolve. Investors are very serious about people and teams.
  • space for interaction between peers: to achieve this, some would recomend the support and creation of incubators while others thought there were actually too many incubators
  • a clear vision

Skills and Competences

Governments also face challenges in the field of education and training, as it is likely that children and students today will have jobs which don’t even yet exist. In this context David Vuylsteke, founder of PiggyBee, a crowdshipping company and Lieza Dessein, Project manager at SMart, a cooperative supporting freelancers and empowering enrepreneurs, insisted on the need for peer learning, ceativity from an early age and acceptance of failure. The sharing economy is rarely adressed in economy lessons and more contacts and cooperations with entrepreneurs can be very beneficial for students. The digital transformation is not only about digital skills, it is also very much about interpersonnal skills, the ability to build connections and networks, to engage others. Creative hubs are a powerful tool in that respect as they provide a space where entrepreneurs meet others in a more engaging and facilitated way than mere co-working spaces.

Ethics: what is good, what should be supported?

The founder of Consumo Colaborativo, a Spanish language blog dedicated to exploring the trend of collaborative consumption Albert Cañigueral, facilitated a discussion around ethics, inclusion and how to define what is good and should be suported in the sharing economy. He reminded participants that technology doesn’t exist in the void, it exists in a legal and cultural context. The discussion brought together Víctor Moyano, a Project Manager at the Fundación Creafutur, a public-private initiative which identifies business opportunities with positive social and environmental impact, raises awareness and advises stakeholders, Xavier Marichal, the CEO of USITOO, a platform where users can borrow “things” instead of buying them and Dimitri Berliner, cofounder of Communa, an organisation which develops shared spaces in empty buildings. Contributors found that the platform economy intersects with several aspects: legal, social, taxation. More people are willing to share and provide services and while platforms are providing massive opportunities, key questions to be addressed to know what kind of stakeholders should b supported by governments could be:

-how to ensure these services are accessible?

-What about decent working conditions?

-How is the value generated by those activities shared?

-What is the model of governance of the business?

In general there is a need to make a difference between the many types of stakeholders of the sharing economy who can have diverging purposes. As Lieza Dessein mentioned in her keynote address, the narrative of the original sharing economy has been adopted by companies from the platform economy, which do not share collaborative values. This has created confusion both for users and for governments. Lieza Dessein proposed that the cooperative and sharing economy stakeholders reinvent a new narrative to be able to differentiate themselves from the other platforms.

Contributors in the discussion group on ethics, inclusion and social cohesion also suggested that “frictions” be potentially created to slow dow the pace of the sharing economy to adjust and make improvements on access, benefits, etc. The codes of conducts and guidelines adopted by some regions could be replicated in other regions and combined across different levels of governance (national, regional, local). At the moment regulation across Europe is uneven, which is why contributors in this groups advocated for harmonised rules.

Mutual learning for policy innovation

This was the third year in a row that AER organised this special kind of mutual learning event on a current and transversal topic together with Brussels Capital. Previous events focused on “E-health: let’s find a common language” and “Artificial Intelligence: are regions up to the challenge?“. Stakeholders from the private and public sector, industry specialists, entrepreneurs, and policy makers engaged in genuine exchange. The idea being to share and discuss initiatives which can be implemented right away, not to develop an official declaration. This contributes to creating an environment of trust and free speech.

A major asset of these events is also to discover initiatives and hear of stories first hand. Entrepreneurs presented their work in the afternoon, which prove both exciting and interesting. Moreover, participants also had the opportunity to test Scooty’s shared electric scooters during the break, which was very entertaining.

In a setting where each participant is a contributor, this event aimed to generate new ideas, challenge people to think further and inspire policymaking.

Presentations,  pictures and the list of participants are available on the event webpage.

 

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All eyes on Education & Training at Sharing Economy event

6 November, 2018 By Editor

The world is changing and so is business. These developments are reshaping the future of education. Updating teaching materials to keep them relevant for students is no longer enough, a whole new approach to education might be necessary.
We are currently experiencing fast, technology-driven social change. According to the OECD, the future will be characterised by new opportunities, as well as by new uncertainties. This represents a critical challenge for educators. With the current pace of innovation and shorter innovation cycles, new technologies will keep transforming how we live and work. In a fast-changing world, producing more of the same knowledge and skills will not suffice to address the challenges of the future.

Tomorrow’s services and products

Sharing goods and services between individuals is nothing new in itself. However, the evolution of the internet and, consequently, the development of online platforms have made sharing easier than ever. In the past decade, many companies managing such platforms have emerged on the market. A well-known example is the BlaBla Car platform, where people can book a shared trip.
Digital platforms are powerful tools for matching needs, cooperation and sharing information. By applying the democratic ownership and governance model, transparency and self-determination, cooperatives could provide a significant contribution to the ongoing discussion on advancing decent work practices in the sharing and collaborative economy.

New work profiles

The digital revolution has created new roles, new types of organisations, and even new sectors of the economy.  Today, due to fast economic and social change, schools need to prepare students for jobs that do not yet exist, technologies that have not yet been invented and problems that we don’t yet know will emerge. Educators must seek versatility, making their students constantly able to adapt, but also to learn and grow. Furthermore, what is important is to train both high technical skills and soft skills to have excellent professionals.

Education & the digital transformation

Practical technical knowledge must be consolidated into many fields of education, but the OECD underlines the need to develop other skills and abilities that are crucial in the context of the digital transformation.
To prepare for the future, people should be able to think creatively, innovation comes from cooperation and collaboration with others. Moreover, we should learn to be systems thinkers by developing the capacity to reconcile diverse perspectives and to understand the needs and desires of others. Central it is also the concept of self-regulation, which involves self-control, self-efficacy, responsibility, problem solving and adaptability.
Traditionally, when a person finished school, they began their professional career without needing further schooling. This worked well at a time when industrial cycles were long. According to the founder of Blablacar Frederic Mazzella, since industrial cycles last no longer than 10 years, the training system cannot be the same and expectations change too.

Mutual learning event on the Sharing Economy

On December 4th in Brussels, AER is organising a mutual learning event on the Sharing economy. This event is organised in cooperation with Brussels Capital and Catalonia. Stakeholders from both the private and public sector will share experiences around four discussion groups and engage in mutual learning.

Discussion groups will cover the following topics:

  • Business in a world of mega-changes

How to encourage entrepreneurship, and support innovation?

  • Sky’s the limit, or is it?

Ethics, what is good, what is desirable, how to build open, inclusive & cohesive societies?

  • Towards an uberisation of public services?

The role of governments and regions specifically: from regulation, taxes and protection to collaboration

  • Education & training

Preparing tomorrow’s workforce for new business models & priorities

Contributing

Regional governments and stakeholders who would like to share their experience or pitch their company should contact AER Coordinator for Policy & Knowledge transfer Johanna Pacevicius

Policy & Knowledge Transfer

Johanna Pacevicius

Mobile: +33 6 24 29 19 37
E-mail: j.pacevicius(at)aer.eu
Skype ID: johanna.pacevicius
Languages: fr, nl, en, pt

Articles by Johanna


  • Thematic Coordination
  • Committees
  • Mutual Learning

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Photo Credit: Don Harrison on Flickr

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Looking for partners? Sakarya Municipality (TR) is ready to join a cultural landscape project!

8 October, 2018 By Editor

Sakarya Metropolitan Municipality (TR), member of AER, is looking for projects to join as a partner within the call “HORIZON 2020 SC5-20-2019: Transforming historic urban areas and/or cultural landscapes into hubs of entrepreneurship and social and cultural integration”.

What is it for?

Actions funded under this call will seek to re-activate and re-generate historic urban areas and/or cultural landscapes,  spurring innovation by facilitating collaboration among a diverse set of actors.

This call is for projects aiming to:

  • reverse trends of abandonment and neglect of historic heritage in urban areas and landscapes
  • establish new and tested blueprints for the socially and economically viable regeneration of European historic urban areas and cultural landscapes.

The project should assess cultural and heritage values, respect the identity of the places and promote social innovation.

Why partner with Sakarya?

The city of Sakarya (pop. 990.214) is one of the most important and well-connected cities in Turkey, notable for its rapid growth and development. Sakarya’s natural beauty and cultural richness also make it an attractive locale .

Sakarya’s participation will be focus on restoring an ancient Roman bridge.

Sakarya Metropolitan Municipality have many years of experience in managing funded projects. They are excited to explore the various dimensions of this call with committed partners.

What next?

If you are interested in taking on Sakarya as a partner on a project under this call, please contact the AER Secretariat as soon as possible. The deadline for the submission of project proposal is 19 February 2019.

European Projects

Agnese Pantaloni

Phone: +32 2 400 10 52
E-mail: a.pantaloni(at)aer.eu
Skype ID: agnesepanta
Languages: it, en, pt

Articles by Agnese


  • EU funding
  • Calls for projects and tenders
  • Partner search

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Fund your project in the 2nd call of the Black Sea Basin Programme 2014-2020

3 October, 2018 By Editor

The Black Sea Basin Programme 2014-2020 is back with a second call for project proposals. In September, panels at the AER 7th Black Sea Summit discussed topics closely related to the programme’s focus on business development and environmental protection. This call is a great opportunity for AER members to translate the ideas discussed in Odessa (UA) into concrete action.

As part of the European Union’s Cross-Border Cooperation (CBC) under the European Neighborhood Instrument (ENI), the programme makes funding available to applicants from regions in Bulgaria, Greece, Romania, Turkey, and Ukraine as well as to applicants throughout all of Armenia, Georgia, and Moldova. A list of all eligible regions can be found here.

Grants between 300.000 and 1.500.000 EUR will be rewarded to partnerships of  3 to 6 public authorities, bodies governed by public law, and non-profit organizations. The projects must last between 18 and 30 months and cover at least 8% of eligible costs with national co-financing.

Find a topic

Projects should address the programme’s overarching objectives and priorities:

  1. Promote business and entrepreneurship within the Black Sea Basin
    • Priority 1.1. Jointly promote business and entrepreneurship in the tourism and cultural sectors
    • Priority 1.2. Increase cross-border trade opportunities and modernisation in the agricultural and connected sectors
  1. Promote coordination of environmental protection and joint reduction of marine litter in the Black Sea Basin
    • Priority 2.1. Improve joint environmental monitoring
    • Priority 2.2. Promote common awareness-raising and joint actions to reduce river and marine litter

Dig deeper into expectations for project topics and gain a more detailed understanding of the call by reading the Applicants Pack. The Black Sea Basin Programme also has a very thorough FAQ section on their website to help you navigate the application process.

Strengthen your application

As you develop your idea, read through projects that have already been awarded through the programme. This will allow you to make sure that someone else has not already carried out your idea. Meanwhile, you can note the characteristics of the kinds of projects that tend to get funding and begin to imagine new avenues for action.

Keep in mind that the project applications will be evaluated on the basis of the project’s cross-border added value, sustainability, and capacity to enhance knowledge and skills. When looking for partners, be sure of their relevance to the project’s aims. A strong application will clearly communicate these characteristics of the project and the partnership corresponding to the call.

Get started!

The call opened on 1 October 2018, and applicants can request clarifications from the Joint Technical Secretariat until 17 January 2019. To be considered for selection, submit your project proposal online by 31 January 2019 at 14:00  (GMT+2).

We encourage you to get in touch with the AER Project Unit if you have any questions or would like to find potential partners to join your application.

European Projects

Agnese Pantaloni

Phone: +32 2 400 10 52
E-mail: a.pantaloni(at)aer.eu
Skype ID: agnesepanta
Languages: it, en, pt

Articles by Agnese


  • EU funding
  • Calls for projects and tenders
  • Partner search

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Regional representatives gather in Vojvodina, Serbia

25 September, 2018 By Editor

The AER travelled to Vojvodina, Serbia for its Autumn Plenary from 25 – 27 September 2018. A detailed recap of all the meetings that took place is available  below. The key takeaways from the plenary are as follows:

  • There will be a strong collaboration in the coming months between the Committees, where mutual learning and experience exchange take place, and the Bureau Task Forces, where the findings from the Committees will be used to develop policy messages. For example, the three AER committees and the AER Task Force on Migration will work closely together to develop messaging ahead of the International Migrants Day: Promoting Diversity in Regions event in Barcelona on Tuesday 18 December.
  • The Task Force on Cohesion Policy, which is currently under the responsibility of the Committee for Economy and Regional Development, will be transferred to the Bureau.
  • The regions of Umbria (IT), Maramures (RO) and Brussels Capital (BE) discussed support for social entrepreneurs and the impact of such on improving regional and national policy frameworks. A discussion on the potential creation of an exchange programme for entrepreneurs from different regions took place. Interested regions should contact the Policy and Knowledge Transfer Coordinator.
  • Talks progressed on the new Civil Servant Exchange Programme. It will be co-organised with the European College of Cluny and will provide high quality training and education as well as placements in regional administrations. Please fill out this survey if your region would like to participate in the programme.
  • Emax Sweden presented their concept of a Youth Innovation Camp which could be deployed elsewhere in Europe. A workshop on the development of such a Youth Innovation Camp will be held during the Spring 2019 Plenary in Orebro (SE). Please contact the Programmes Coordinator for further information.
  • A handbook on the use of SDGs as a policy framework could be developed. Interested regions should contact the Policy and Knowledge Transfer Coordinator.
  • A webinar will be organised in January 2019 to further help regions make use of the TAIEX EIR programme for peer learning in the field of environmental policies. Please contact the Project Unit for further information.

Detailed recap

The plenary was officially opened on Tuesday 25 September with a video message from Ana Brnabić, Prime Minister of Serbia. In it she stressed the importance of regional cooperation as a means to promote integration. She also reiterated her support for the European Union, saying that it is the ‘first and foremost priority’ for Serbia.

The opening ceremony was followed by the joint plenary. At this we were very pleased to recognise the outstanding contributions of three AER regions: Umbria, Vienna and Scotland. All three were rewarded a ShineBright Recognition Award for their commitment to the AER core priorities.

We were also very pleased to hear from the latest AER and Eurodyssey member, the region of Sardinia, Italy. Massimo Temussi, Managing Director fo the Sardinia Employment Agency ASPAL, provided an overview of active labour policies in the region.

The AER Project had the opportunity to provide and overview of their work with this video.


Finally, we gave a warm send-off to Agneta Granström, County Council Commissioner, Norrbotten County Council, Sweden, who will be leaving politics. She has been an active and engaged member of the AER for several years.

A panel debate, focusing on the role of Open Data and the role it can play in governance, start-ups and innovation took place in the evening. Panellists were:

  • Brigitte Lutz, Open Data Coordinator, City of Vienna
  • Margriet Nieuwenhuis, The European Data Portal
  • Geert-Jan Waasdorp, The Intelligence Group
  • Ton Zijlstra, The Green Land
  • Moderator: Slobodan Markovic, UNDP Technical Advisor on Digital Governance

The discussion focused on how public institutions collect and generate enormous quantities of data in areas as varied as unemployment, air pollution, hospital consultations etc and how this data can best be re-used to create or improve both public and private services. There is a need to change the political perception of Open Data and instead view it as opportunity for policy-making.

On Wednesday 26 September our focus turned to the activities of our three Committees:

  • Economy and Regional Development
  • Social Policy and Public Health
  • Culture, Eduction and Youth

All three outlined achievements made over the last six months, including regional projects which have recently gained funding to work on integrated care systems, social entrepreneurship and social inclusion. Jean Luc Vanraes, president of  the Committee on Economy and Regional Development initiated a discussion on the Sharing Economy and the role it can play in the regions. While many AER regions are very familiar with collaborative services such as Uber, Airbnb and Deliveroo, the sharing economy landscape is very diverse and includes companies, which are very social and very green as well as classic larger corporations. The stakes are furthermore very different for larger cities or for rural areas, where collaborative services can compensate gaps public services. Bruxelles Capitale region will organise a conference on this very topic on 4 December in Brussels. Further information will follow on this in the coming weeks but we do hope you can join us.

At the plenary for the Committee on Economy and Regional Development members decided that the Task Force on Cohesion Policy, which for historic reasons was under the responsibility of this Committee, should be transferred to the Bureau for coherence purposes, as it is the Bureau which is in charge of the identification of policy messages and advocacy activities.

Martin Tollen, Östergötland (SE) was re-elected Chair of the Working Group on Transports and Mobility, other positions were left open for future candidacies

At the plenary for the Committee on Social Policy and Public Health members said farewell to Agneta Granström, Vice President of the Committee and Chair of the AER e-Health network. Albert Castellanos, Catalonia (ES) was elected Vice-President for Inclusion & Social entrepreneurship, other positions were left open for future candidacies.

At the plenary for the Committee on Culture, Education and Youth a discussion took place on the launch of the Civil Servant Exchange Programme, an initiative proposed by Radimir Čačić, President of this Committee. This programme will be hosted at the European College of Cluny, in the region of Bourgogne, France and is expected to be operational by 2020. If your region is interested please fill out this survey.

Emax Sweden presented their concept of a Youth Innovation Camp which could be deployed elsewhere in Europe. A workshop on the development of such a Youth Innovation Camp will be held during the Spring 2019 Plenary in Orebro, Sweden

Two workshops took place in the afternoon. The AER Working Group on Energy and Climate Change looked at use of the Sustainable Development Goals as a policy framework. Many regions are very active in this space. Oppland, Norway and Varmland, Sweden provided case studies.

A presentation on the ways in which The UNDP in Serbia is helping stakeholders from the private and the public sector to reach the SDGs, provided useful insights to participants on how to structure support: Areas for action are

  • improving legislation;
  • encouraging private investments and providing information on funding opportunities;
  • supporting the development of infrastructure for renewable energies such as biomass;
  • sourcing innovation through prizes and open data challenges;
  • supporting engagement of society through awareness raising; and
  • matchmaking.

The AER Working Group on Transport and Mobility looked at Sustainable Urban Mobility, with Miroslav Tadic, UNDP Climate Change Portfolio Manager, providing the foundation for the discussion. The region of Östergötland, Sweden is particularly engaged in this field.

Mathieu Mori explained the main advantages of an EGTC, especially for interregional projects on transports. Regions interested in developing an EGTC to develop project should get in touch with the EGTC platform of the Committee of the Regions for support.

AER is involved in the New Mobility Services Initiative of the European Commission. This initiative was set up within the Sustainable Urban Mobility Action Cluster of the European Innovation Partnership on Smart Cities and Communities (EIP-SCC). The engagement in this partnership has proven very beneficial for Östergötland as it allows to source knowledge, innovation and qualified advice. Other regions are invited to take part in the New Mobility Services Initiative. On 10 October, a seminar on “Sustainable Urban Mobility in the Smart City: How to make change happen?” in Brussels will be an opportunity to learn more about this initiative and meet stakeholders. Interested members can register here.

On the occasion of the AER Black Sea Summit, the AER partnership with the Arge Donau Working Community was reinstated. This will be of interest for members who would like to develop partnerships along specific transport corridors too.

On Thursday 27 September a breakfast debate on ‘Welcoming unaccompanied migrant children’ was held with guest speaker Sarah Sommer, Senior Programme Manager at the European Programme for Integration and Migration, a collaborative fund supporting civil society projects in the fields of migration and integration. This topic was chosen by the President of the Committee on Social Policy & Public health Mihai Ritivoiu based on the discussions, which took place during the Spring plenaries in Arad. At the EPIM the focus is on youth on the move, rather than unaccompanied children only, in order to not leave out other vulnerable youth. The difficulty with youth on the move is not scale, as such, but the fact that good solutions still have to be developed. This can only happen through pilot projects, mutual learning between stakeholders and involving users in a feedback loop to evaluate the effectiveness of measures. Further collaboration with EPIM and partners will be developed to prepare the mutual learning event on migration to be held on 18 December in Catalonia, which will feed the work of the Bureau Task Force on Migration.

Following this our Working Group on Rural Development met to discuss waste management in rural areas. Svetlana Marusic presented the situation in Vojvodina (RS) and Olimpia Neagoe, Chair of the Working Group, presented a project which is being implemented in Dolj (RO) and which is substantially supported by EU funding. Sustainable Waste Management involves both considerable investments in infrastructure and a lot of work on behavioural changes. The main takeaways are:

  • things take time;
  • changing behaviours requires a lot of work, awareness raising and discussions, in all regions;
  • it is worth working on it, investing time, energy, creativity and money in changing the way things are done; and
  • it should be more expensive to behave badly than to do the right thing.

The workshop finished with a presentation on the TAIEX EIR programme of the European Commission which finances study visits, workshops and expert visits to help regions improve environmental policies and learn from their peers abroad. Regions interested in using the programme can check the Commission webpage explaining the procedure to benefit from it here. A webinar will be organised on this topic in January 2019.

The AER Group on Equal opportunities has regular phone meetings and met as well in Novi Sad to discuss the development of a Code of Conduct for AER.

View photos HERE and HERE. 

View press conference videos HERE.

Presentations & background articles

Joint Plenary meeting

New AER Member: Sardinia’s Agency for Active Labour Policy (ASPAL), by Massimo Tenussi

The AER Programme for youth mobility: Eurodyssey (and how to join), by Andres Muñoz Rojo

Eurodyssey from the youth point of view: video

The AER Summer Academy: video by 2018 host region Maramures

Address by Monica Gundahl, Interim Chair of the Election Committee

Debate on Open data

Background article on Open Data

Regional Business forum

Peer review in Flevoland, NL, by Rutger Schuitemaker

Bursa Chamber of Commerce and Industry, TR

Economic Development of West Region Romania, by Mihai Ritivoiu

Vojvodina Development Agency, RS

Plenary meeting of the Committee on Economy & Regional Development

Introduction, by Snezana Sedlar

General presentation & info on the Sharing Economy, by Jean-Luc Vanraes

Background article on the sharing economy & the stakes for regions

Plenary meeting of the Committee on Social policy & Public Health

SCIROCCO Exchange: knowledge transfer to help regions implement integrated care systems, by Andrea Pavlickova

Umbria, IT: support to Social Entrepreneurs, by Ana Ascani

Maramures, RO: ASSOC, a good practice with high impact, by Florian Sălăjeanu

General Presentation, by Mihai Ritivoiu

Background article on social entrepreneurship & the stakes for regions

Plenary meeting of the Committee on Culture, Education and Youth

Speech by Aleksandra Djankovic

The new AER Civil Servants Exchange programme, by Larisa Križan Breljak

Emax, youth innovation camp, by Janis Lancereau

General Presentation, by Radimir Čačić

Workshop on Using the SDGs as a policy framework

The SDGs to achieve Climate Goals in Serbia, by Miloslav Tadic

Localising the SDGs in Oppland, NO, by Hakon Noren

Environmental Work in Värmland, SE: a political affair, by Eva Hallström

Workshop on sustainable urban mobility

The New Mobilities Initiative of the EIP-SCC, by Martin Tollén

Sustainable Urban Mobility in Serbia, by Miloslav Tadic

General Presentation, by Martin Tollén

Background article on New Mobilities & AER’s work in the field

Breakfast Debate “Welcoming unaccompanied migrant children”

Background article on youth on the move

Workshop on waste management in rural areas

Waste Management in Vojvodina, by Svetlana Marušić

The integrated waste management project in Dolj, RO, by Olimpia Neagoe

General presentation, by Olimpia Neagoe

Summer Academy Organising Committee meeting

Background article on the Summer Academy Organising Committee meeting

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