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Umbria and Maramures: the power of social entrepreneurship

21 September, 2018 By Editor

The AER Committees are a space for experience exchange, which enable mutual learning and regional policy innovation. During the 2018 Spring plenary of the AER Committee on Social Policy and Public Health, members identified social entrepreneurship as a topic of high interest. This is why the President of the Committee  on Social Policy & Public Health, Mihai Ritivoiu invited Umbria (IT) and Maramures (RO) to share their experience on social entrpreneurship and initiate a discussion among members.

Pioneering social change

A social entrepreneurship does business focusing on a social purpose trying to bring a social change in the society. The Business encyclopedia says that the “social entrepreneurs combine commerce and social issues in a way that improves the lives of people connected to the cause. They don’t measure their success in terms of profit alone – success to social entrepreneurs means that they have improved the world, however they define that.”  Indeed, the main aim of social entrepreneurship is to bring a positive change in the society. After recognizing the social problems, the entrepreneurs achieve their objectives by using market-based strategies. At the European level, the definition of a social enterprise is built along three dimensions: an entrepreneurial dimension (with earned income generated by the sale of goods and services on the market, including through public contracting); a social dimension (the pursuit of an explicit social aim and delivery of products and services with a social connotation); a governance dimension (accountability, participation and transparency).

A diverse reality

Many commercial businesses would consider themselves to have social objectives, but social enterprises are distinctive because their social or environmental purpose remains central to their operation. The following examples show the wide spectrum covered by social entreprises:

  • Meet My Mama is a French foodtech startup that helps women with different cultural backgrounds to share their traditional dishes by cooking in events, organizing caterings or delivering food;
  • Soma Water creates a home water filtration solution that use the proceeds of the sales to bring safe drinking water to over 663 million people who don’t have access to water;
  • CO2 online is a German social enterprise focused on the environmental benefits. This enterprise assists private households in decreasing their consumption of energy and with this lower their CO2 emissions. At the same time, consumers benefit from lower energy bills;
  • Le Mat is a social franchise system of social entrepreneurs operating in tourism, hospitality and local development through the creation of hotels, hostels, and bed and breakfasts, as well as other tourism services. A specific feature of this social franchise is that it allows social franchisees to adapt their model to the local context, in terms of culture, geography, architecture, production of goods and social aspects.

In these examples is highlighted the rich variety of missions carried out by social entrepreneurs. Moreover, companies could have as goal to solve problems, hire people in need or both, open schools in far-flung areas, educate women in need, allow farmers and poor individuals to access low-interest credits, establish plants for waste treatment, plant trees and so on.

Social entrepreneurship: the driving force of regional development

According to OECD European Commission, Social entrepreneurship plays an important role in addressing social, economic, and environmental challenges while fostering inclusive growth, shared prosperity, and social inclusion. In response to the crisis and austerity, social enterprise demonstrates the ability to address societal needs and build social cohesion. Moreover, social entrepreneurship contributes to job creation, especially at local level, as well as to democratic participation and improvement of welfare services delivery.

Discussion at AER plenaries: Umbria and Maramures example of good practices

Nowadays, many questions have risen around social enterprises. Are they efficient? What is their social impact at a regional level? How can a region measure the social impact of a social enterprise? Last but not least, the most common argument is: how do you find the balance between social purpose and the economic success of the enterprise?
These and many other questions will be discussed in Vojvodina thanks to the experience that will be shared by Umbria region (IT) and Maramures (RO). Ms. Anna Ascani -dirigent of the department on social affairs and international relations at Umbria region- will present good practices developed in the last years in her region. She will show the different successes and obstacles that Umbria region is facing. While Mr. Florian Sălăjeanu -president of Asociația Profesională Neguvernamentală de Asistență Socială ASSOC Baia Mare in Maramures (RO)– will deepen the link between the scope of social enterprises and the meaning of social inclusion.

 

Photo Credits: Rawpixel on Unsplash.

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Committee 2 Progress report Autumn 2018

13 September, 2018 By Johanna Pacevicius

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 Committees’ plenaries in Arad, AER members identified joint actions they wanted to implement with fellow regions. Six months 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 autumn 2018 plenary meeting in Novi Sad. It gives an overview of the situation, 6 months after the adoption of the work programme.

Projects

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

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.

  •  Silver Economy Awards (SEED): ongoing

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

This year the Silver Economy Awards 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

  • HOME4LIFE – Certified smart and integrated living environments for ageing well

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 (reserve list)

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

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

  • Social Entrepreneur Key competencies – SEK project

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.

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

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.

  • Together for Cohesion: let’s rEUnite! project

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.

  • Models of Child Health Appraised (MOCHA): ongoing

The MOCHA team is led by the Imperial College London and involves 19 scientific partners from ten European countries and 30 country agents from each European Member State and EEA country. MOCHA appraises the differing models of child health that are used across Europe. The project identified gaps in knowledge, on surveillance of children’s primary care and children’s specific needs in primary care, lack of coordination of care, models of care that are not based on current child health epidemiology, and low prioritisation of children’s needs in e-health strategies. AER is a member of the Advisory Board. AER is benefitting from the connection with the MOCHA experts, which have been invited at AER events (workshop on health innovation ecosystems in Izmir, workshop on social capital for integrated care in Norrbotten) and also shared expertise and advice for the development of the project on youth mental health led by Catalonia and Norrbotten. The project is now in the final year where results will be published. The final conference will take place on 15-16 November in The Hague.

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

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

  • Event: EU funding for Croatian & Albanian regions

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

  • Welcoming unaccompanied migrant children

Committee 2 members decided to share experiences on welcoming unaccompanied migrant children. In this context a Breakfast Briefing is being organised on welcoming unaccompanied migrant children in Novi Sad on 27 September, which will be led by the European Programme for Integration and Migration, an initiative of currently 25 private foundations, has the goal of strengthening the role played by civil society in advocating for constructive approaches to migration in Europe.

  • Exchange of experiences on social entrepreneurship (ongoing)

On the occasion of the Committee 2 plenary meeting in Novi Sad, Vojvodina (RS), members will discuss Social Entrepreneurship: multi-stakeholder collaboration & social cohesion. Good practices from Umbria (IT) and Maramures (RO) will be presented

  • Mutual learning event on the Sharing Economy (ongoing)

Each year Brussels Capital proposes a mutual learning event on a current and transversal topic. On December 4th 2018, Brussels Capital will organise 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, aims to gather experiences from all three AER Committees and regions are welcome to share inputs and regional examples.

  • Leadership programme for policy makers on e-health, integrated care systems and health innovation (planned)

The AER e-health network wants to share good practices on leadership for the deployment of integrated care systems

  • 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

  • Equal access to healthcare (planned)

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 services

 

Advocacy/ Lobbying

  • Cohesion Policy Activities: ongoing

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

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

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

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

  • AER 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

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 Autumn 2018

13 September, 2018 By Johanna Pacevicius

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 Committees’ plenaries in Arad, AER members identified joint actions they wanted to implement with fellow regions. Six months 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 autumn 2018 plenary meeting in Novi Sad. It gives an overview of the situation, 6 months after the adoption of the work programme.

Projects

  • “Road to the Future” (accepted)

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.

  • Bridging the gap project (canceled)

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.

  • Together for Cohesion: let’s rEUnite! project

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.

  •  Silver Economy Awards (SEED): ongoing

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

This year the Silver Economy Awards 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

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.

Contacts have been established with EMAX, a Swedish organisation, which organises innovation camps to identify areas for cooperation.

  • Mutual learning event on the Sharing Economy (ongoing)

Each year Brussels Capital proposes a mutual learning event on a current and transversal topic. On December 4th 2018, Brussels Capital will organise 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, aims to gather experiences from all three AER Committees and regions are welcome to share inputs and regional examples.

  • Youth Mental Health (planned)

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 (canceled)

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.

 

Advocacy/ Lobbying

  • Cohesion Policy Activities: ongoing

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

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

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

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

  • AER 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

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.

 

Photo by Providence Doucet on Unsplash
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Breakfast debate in Vojvodina: Youth on the move

23 August, 2018 By Editor

On the occasion of the Autumn plenaries in Vojvodina, a Breakfast Debate will be organised on 27 September on “welcoming unaccompanied migrant children” .

Youth on the move: a current topic

The topic of this Breakfast Debate has been chosen based on exchanges held at the previous plenary meeting in Arad, where several regions expressed their interest in sharing experiences around the unaccompanied migrant children.  According to the European Commission, in recent years the number of children in migration arriving in the European Union -many of whom are unaccompanied- has increased in a dramatic way.

A child-rights perspective

The proposal by the President of the AER Committee on Social Policy and Public health Mihai Ritivoiu is to take a child rights perspective for this Breakfast Debate, as all AER members are signatories of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child.

For this reason, AER invited the  European Programme for Integration and Migration (EPIM) to lead the Breakfast Debate.  This collaborative fund has considerable experience in supporting civil society projects in the fields of migration and integration. Hearing from their experience, learning about good and bad practices in Europe, will help move the conversation forward. It will also be an opportunity for regions to share their own experiences too and engage in mutual learning.

The European Programme for Integration and Migration

EPIM is an initiative by the Network of European Foundations. As a collaborative fund, EPIM links the resources and expertise of foundations to strengthen the role of civil society in building inclusive communities and in developing humane and sustainable responses to migration, based on Europe’s commitment to universal human rights and social justice.

EPIM supports civil society in building effective pan-European coalitions and in shaping pan-European solutions by promoting a constructive interplay between policies and practices at all levels. This is done in domains such as:

  • promoting alternatives to immigration detention,
  • contributing to the development of humane and effective asylum systems;
  • enhancing community cohesion,
  • enabling mobile EU citizens to exercise their free movement rights; and
  • working with children and youth on the move for their protection and empowerment.

Under its Thematic Fund on long-term prospects and protection of children and youth on the move in Europe, EPIM supports civil society organisations and public bodies -or authorities- seeking to address gaps in policy and practice and the struggle for communities to provide adequate protection as well as long-term perspectives for the life of children and youth on the move in Europe.

The projects EPIM supports seek to strengthen the approach of alternative models of care embedded in the communities and supporting inclusion on an individualised level which is widely recognised as the most beneficial for all children. They also seek systemic impact at policy-level for more comprehensive frameworks addressing children in migration in agendas at national, EU and global level.

Here a brief video that synthesizes how EPIM works:

Mutual learning at the core of better policymaking

AER members exchange experiences to learn from each other and improve regional policies. Mutual learning is at the core of AER’s actions, since its creation and is what makes the network special. While AER members have exchanged about migration long before the Syrian crisis, the topic has received increased atention since 2015

  • The December 2015 AER Autumn Bureau focused on “Facing the Migration & Refugee Challenges”. This led to the sharing of experiences from regions along one of the migration routes and the exchange of diverging point of views. Members adopted a declaration stating the need for adequate support and re-affirming the willingness of AER to support its members in this.
  • In April 2016 the Committees’ Spring Plenary in Timis (RO) focused on “Communication & actions in times of crisis”. The events aimed at sharing experiences and helping policy makers to fight populist rhetorics, while implementing fair and effective policies.
  • In November 2016, in Izmir (TR) the Autumn plenary meetings were an opportunity to further pursue exchanges on topics as varied as migrant entrepreneurship and the health of refugees
  • In 2017 AER, together with the European Association of Service Providers for Persons with Disabilities and 10 other partners, developped a project on the Access to services for Migrants with Disabilities: the AMiD project
  • In January 2018 AER organised an event together with Friends of Europe on the Syrian Refugee Crisis, which led to a series of Policy Insights and Recommendations
  • In March 2018 AER published a handbook with good practices on “Culture for the Inclusion of Refugees and Migrants”, in which are shared AER’s members’ experiences in the use of culture to increase the inclusion of refugees and new arrivals in their regions. This collection of best practices aims to inspire readers and motivate regions to continue exchanging experiences on this important topic.
  • On the occasion of the 2018 Bureau and General Assembly  in Lillehammer (Oppland, NO) a Task Force on migration,  to identify further policy messages and convene advocacy efforts.

The Breakfast Debate on welcoming unaccompanied children serves the same purpose: learning from peers in wider Europe and inspiring policy making in the regions.

Yes, but money

AER strives to facilitate exchanges which provide its members with ideas to inspire and tools to implement. The Breakfast Debate will therefore also provide insights on opportunities for projects both via The European Programme for Integration and Migration and European Union programmes.

The European Commission has  for instance recently opened a call for projects on “Care for migrant minors, including unaccompanied minors“. The objective of the call is to finance projects focusing on the exchange of good practices and provision of the necessary training so as to support the implementation, expansion, improvement of alternative care systems (such as family-based care, or foster care, or supervised independent housing arrangements) or of effective alternatives to detention. The deadline for the submission is 31 January 2019. The Breakfast Debate will be an opportunity to discuss potential partnerships too.

 

Photo Credit: Annie Spratt on Unsplash

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Autumn plenaries : message from the Election Committee

22 August, 2018 By Editor

During the 2018 Autumn Plenaries in Vojvodina, elections will be held. With views to the preparation of these elections, the Election Committee wishes to inform AER members about open positions.

The AER Election Committee

The Election Committee actively informs and encourages members to apply for positions within AER. It inventories and prepares for the elections at both the General Assembly and the Committees.

Its members are :

Chair : Brian Greenslade, Devon (UK)

Monica Gundahl, Värmland (SE)

Gloria Vitaly, Oppland (NO)

Natalija Martincevic, Varazdin (HR)

Message regarding the elections at the Autumn plenaries

Looking forward to seeing colleagues in Novi Sad where there will be elections for the following positions.

Committee 1

Chair of the Working Group on Transport currently Martin Tollén

Chair of the Working Group on Investment, Business and SME’s currently Jean-Luc Vanraes.

Chair of the Task Force on Cohesion Policy currently Michiel Rijsberman.

Vice-President for Economic Development and Mobility

More information about Committee 1 Presidium members and ongoing mandates

Committee 2

Representative for the Equal Opportunities Group, 1 female, vacant

Vice President for Inclusion & Social entrepreneurship, vacant

More information about Committee 2 Presidium members and ongoing mandates

Committee 3

Chair of the Sub Committee on Youth currently Marta Vilalta.

More information about Committee 3 Presidium and ongoing mandates

During our meeting in Novi Sad I will hold a meeting of the Elections Committee to start planning for the large batch of elections next year. Will contact Election Committee members separately about timing for this.

I will be making a short presentation about upcoming elections during our meeting in Novi Sad.

All best.

Brian Greenslade

by Brian Greenslade, Chair of the Election Committee

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Cultural heritage for jobs: incredible stories at AER Summer Academy

31 May, 2018 By Editor

On the occasion of the 2018 Summer Academy in Maramures, which will be about cultural heritage for regional attractiveness, Flevoland (NL) will facilitate a  workshop on “Turning cultural heritage into jobs”. The workshop will revolve around the idea that stakeholder engagement is key to strengthening a region’s outreach.

Storytelling to empower stakeholders

The workshop will show how to use the potential of cultural heritage in a region to create initiatives and jobs. Storytelling in this respect is a powerful tool for stakeholder empowerment. The workshop will detail the storytelling techniques that have allowed the region of Flevoland (NL) to brand its region and incentivise new activities, initiatives and jobs on its territory.

The Story of Flevoland

Using storytelling makes it possible to present the unique selling points of a region. The Flevoland-based Windesheim Business School, the Flevoland Department of Economics and the Flevoland Touristic Board will guide the AER Summer Academy participants through the different steps of Flevoland’s unique experience and share how they are using storytelling and stakeholder empowerment to make it possible for cultural heritage to truly boost regional attractiveness. The digitalisation of cultural heritage and the increase in online opportunities, including touristic attractions such as the tulips, or the UNESCO World Heritage former island of Schokland makes it for instance possible to reach a worldwide audience. Plus, interactive online activities allow for the development of new economic initiatives in the region.

Dream, Decide, Do

The workshop will feature an interactive session (in groups of 4-6 persons) where all will deal with the following question: How could you turn cultural heritage into jobs using online strategy?
The session is divided in 3 stages:

  • The DREAM stage encourages participants to figure out which are the possibilities for developing the job creation and which ideas do they have and want to share;
  • during the DECIDE stage, participants will decide which are the 3 best ideas, motivate the decision and find a way how to support job creation;
  • finally, the last stage is DO: participants are asked to describe how the ideas could be realised, which is the role of regional government and how to involve other stakeholders.

At the end the experts will present the results and a conclusion.

The experts

The workshop is led by different experts among which there are 3 representatives of the Council of Flevoland (NL): Mr. Eduard Plate (expert on regional and city economics); Ms. Margriet Papma (expert on communication); Theo Vulink (expert on agricultural innovation).

Registrations open!

If you want to participate in this workshop and in many others, just check the Summer Academy practical information and then fill in the registration form available at the AER event page for the 2018 Summer Academy in Maramures (RO).

Check every detail of the event by clicking on the link below!

2018 AER Summer Academy in Maramures

Photo Credits: Jared Sluyter, Unsplash

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Committee 1 Annual Report June 2017 – May 2018

7 May, 2018 By Johanna Pacevicius

The General Assembly is the highest authority of AER and convenes representatives of all its full members at least once a year. The General Assembly adopts among other things, the annual reports of the Thematic Committees.

This report is the compilation of actions developped and implemented within Committee 1 between the 2017 General Assembly in Sankt Pölten, Lower Austria (AT) and the 2018 General Assembly in Lillehammer, Oppland (NO).

Activities are organised in 3 categories:

  • Projects
  • Good practice sharing
  • Advocacy/ Lobbying

The AER Action plan, which brings together all the activities carried out within AER, is constantly updated.

  • Silver Economy Awards (SEED): ongoing

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

This year the Silver Economy Awards replace the traditional AER Regional Innovation Award. The first Awards Ceremony took place on May 2018 in Brussels under the moral patronage from Commissioner Mariya Gabriel.

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

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

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

  • Citizens for Cohesion. 351 times closer to Europe: cancelled

Building on the work previously done by AER on cohesion policy, the regions of Catalonia (ES), South Ostrobothnia (FI), Trentino (IT) and West Slovenia, together with AER Cohesion Policy Task Force lead on a project on awareness raising. While the project received a very good evaluation it was not accepted.

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

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

  • Development of an environment project based on the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs): in progress

YRN representatives met with AER Coordinator for European Projects & Private Partnerships Agnese Pantaloni to learn about project development steps and potential funding opportunities. The YRN will work on the definition of an EU project. The AER Secretariat Project Unit will explore calls for projects if there is still interest in developping such a project.

  • MULTIPLE, MULTI-layer Governance PoLicy-making for the Environment: cancelled

MULTIPLE aimed to build an ecosystem of policy-support tools and methods for a more effective, efficient policy making in the field of environmental policies. Its aim was to support the entire policy cycle from issue identification to policy implementation, monitoring and evaluation by the use of open data systems. The project was not accepted.

  • Migrant Entrepreneur Support Scheme Against Gap of Economic System: cancelled

This project proposal aimed to share approaches and lessons learnt for migrant entrepreneurship support schemes. Migrant entrepreneurship had been raised in specific during the 2016 Spring plenary meetings in Timis. The proposal brought together public administrations, business support organizations, non-profit organisations and NGOs, educational institutions and other organisations active in the field across cities, regions and countries. The project was not accepted.

  • From local to global: Connecting the Dots in the EU’s 2030 energy transition: cancelled

The theme of this project proposal was to contribute to a coherent energy transition across the EU and support progress towards a low-carbon economy in light of the EU’s 2030 climate and energy targets and policy framework. The consortium was led by EURACTIV.

The AER Secretariat collected letters of support from member regions: Abruzzo (IT), Catalonia (SP), Gelderland (NL), Trentino (IT). The aim was to highlight, compare and contrast Member States’ initiatives to achieve the EU’s 2030 climate and energy targets, supporting the energy transition as well as the transition towards a competitive and low-carbon economy, by sharing information on best practice at the local level (regions, cities, towns) and the connection with global agreements. The project was submitted under the LIFE+ programme but was not accepted.

  • RAINBOW project – Raising Awareness INitiative for a Beautiful Open World: cancelled

RAINBOW aimed to transform the 2030 Agendas into policies and to launch concrete actions at local level, in order to improve the management of the territories, whilst continuing innovating and learning from one another. It focused on interdependencies between developing countries and the European Union, with focus on the neighbouring areas. ALDA was the initiator of the project. The project was not accepted

 

  • Committees Autumn Plenaries in Nancy: finished

This Autumn’s committees’ plenary took place in Nancy (FR) from the 12th to the 14th of September. The events featured a debate on culture in the digital age, a workshop on the value of data, a workshop on transport & mobility, a workshop on life-cycle approaches and the Committees Plenary meetings.

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

  • Committees Spring Plenaries in Arad: finished

The 2018 Spring Committees’ Plenaries took place in Arad (RO) on 20-22 March. The events featured a debate on innovation ecosystems, a workshop on integrated care systems, a lounge meeting on equal opportunities, a meeting of the working group on transports, a Breakfast Briefing on implementing democracy in regional policy making, a presentation of the social inclusion policies in Arad, a meeting of the Summer Academy Organising Committee and the Committees Plenary meetings.

The Committees’ Plenaries were an opportunity to develop the Committees’ work programmes.

  • INTERREG Europe Policy Learning Platform (IEPLP): finished

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

  • Study visit on the Energy transition: finished

The main focus of the study visit, which took place from 17-19 April, was the Gelders’ Energy agreement (GEA). This collaboration between local and regional industries, governments and NGOs’ in the province of Gelderland, Netherlands, has 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. See the event page.

  • Event on a current transversal topic: finished

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

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

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

  • Follow up on photonics: finished

On the occasion of the Timis Spring Plenaries Professor Hugo Thienpont presented the ACTPHAST programme on photonics innovation for SMEs. The information and opportunities regarding this European programme were further disseminated via the AER website. The ACTPHAST programme for photonics. See the results as at September 2017.

  • Conference on biomass: finished

In London AER members agreed to collaborate for the organisation of a conference on Biomass in Vojvodina. The objective was to share practices and expert lectures to show the practical possibilities of production and usage of biomass in Europe, with a preview insight in the production in Vojvodina. The event also aimed to awaken the interest of individual agricultural farms, agricultural cooperatives and clusters and regional and local governments.

Partners this year were the OECD Mission in Serbia and the Central European Initiative, with expert lectures from representatives from World Bioenergy Association, State Ministries in Serbia, University in Novi Sad, the Environment Agency Austria, GIZ (Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit) and KfW (German government-owned development bank, Kreditanstalt für Wiederaufbau).

  • Cooperation with the World Sustainable Energy Day: finished

On the occasion of the AER Committees plenary meetings in London, members highlighted their interest in participating to the World Sustainable Energy Days in a meaningful way. A delegation of AER representatives from across Europe was able to attend the World Sustainable Energy days for free on behalf of AER.

  • Workshop on Public procurement for green innovation: finished

This workshop was advertised in the AER network by Oppland and was organised in the framework of the INTERREG Sweden-Norway the Bioeconomy Region project involving 4 AER members: Hedmark, Värmland, Østfold and Oppland. It aimed to address the following questions:
• How can innovative public procurement accelerate take-up of green technologies and stimulate innovation?
• How is innovative public procurement adopted in regional and local authorities to implement bioeconomy?
• How are public authorities cooperating with clusters, SMEs, industry and companies?
• What are the greatest challenges to implementing large scale innovative public procurement?
The AER Secretariat provided support with the identification of potential speakers and connected them with the organisers.

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

The AER Secretariat is disseminating 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 exchanges with other regions.

  • Awareness raising on sustainable mobility: ongoing

AER is continuing to highlight regional good practices on sustainable mobility. In this context an AER article was published in the Autumn 2017 edition of Revolve Magazine.

AER Chair of the working group Martin Tollen contributed to the Smart Airports event in Germany

  • Meeting of the AER working group on transports and mobility in Nancy: finished

Good practices from the host region were  presented on smart mobility and policies aimed at supporting green innovation in the field of transports. Discussion about regulatory framework, challenges for regions and opportunities for cooperation

  • Digitalisation of transports: ongoing

Promote the digitalisation of transports networks both in urban and rural areas (see below as well)

  • Promotion of knowledge about innovative technologies in transports: ongoing

The sharing of knowledge is being carried out via:

–Workshop on the digitalisation of transports & information about the European Strategy on Cooperative Intelligent Transport Systems (C-ITS), a milestone on the path towards cooperative, connected and automated mobility (COM(2016) 766)
–cooperation with Revolve Media to highlight regional good practices in the field of transport and provide visibility to active AER members
–contribution on new mobilities & artificial intelligence at the AER event on Nov 30th “Artificial Intelligence: are regions up to the challenge?”
–New Mobility Services of the European Innovation Partnership on Smart Cities & Communities: involvement in the European Innovation Partnership on Sustainable Cities and Communities: within the the Action Cluster Sustainable Urban Mobility, AER is involved in the New Mobility Services initiative. AER Chairman of the Working Group on Transports and Mobility, Martin Tollén attended the first meeting of this Action Cluster.

The New Mobility Services initiative is a cooperation between private and public partners (quadruple helix type of cooperation, brings together companies, NGOs, research centers & universities, and policy makers). The purpose is to establish strategic partnerships between industry and European cities & regions to develop the urban systems and infrastructures of tomorrow. It is mainly focused on urban mobility. It is open for all European regions and cities to join or to send their stakeholders

AER AT THE EUROPEAN WEEK OF CITIES AND REGIONS

  • Workshop on climate and energy transition: finished

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

  • Workshop on the Silver Economy: finished

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

  • Workshop of the INTERREG Europe Policy Learning Platform: finished

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

 

  • Cohesion Policy Activities: ongoing

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

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

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

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

Following the publication of the 2021-2027 Multiannual Financial Framework on May 2nd, AER’s reaction can be found here

  • AER Report on Regionalisation: ongoing

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

  • COP23 Local and Regional governments Leaders´ Summit: finished

AER was a partner to the Climate Summit of Local and Regional Leadersat the UN climate change conference (COP23) held from 6 to 17 November in Bonn, Germany, under the Presidency of Fiji. The event gathered more than 330 political leaders and 1000 delegates. At the Summit, local and regional leaders adopted the Bonn-Fiji Commitment to Deliver the Paris Agreement at All Levels, a pledge that signals their commitment to bring forward a critical shift in global development.

AER also contributed to a number of other events, including:
-8th Annual Sustainable Innovation Forum, organised by UNEP and Climate Action.
-World Climate Summit 2017, organised by R20 and BlueOrchard, in collaboration with World Climate.
-Side Event
 “Mountains in motion: Climate Action in the Alps, the Carpathians and the Pyrenees”, co-organised by the Region of Abruzzo.

  • R20 Summit: finished

In presence of AER and R20 President, Magnus Berntsson, R20 founding chair, Arnold Schwarzenegger and all key people playing a part in climate change (private partners, NGOs, officials). R20 is a winning alliance for AER, but where do we stand?

  • 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 negociations. AER is now providing members with privileged access to a training on the SOURCE system which allows stakeholders to access funding for their climate action.

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

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

  • ERDF Funding for Regional Airports & State Aid for regional airports: ongoing

AER members get regular updates from the Working Group on transports and mobility’s Regional Airports expert Roger Estefors at meetings of the group. The Nancy meeting featured an update on the topic too.

  • Sustainable biofuels: finished

AER member regions have been exchanging experiences on the topic of sustainable energy for many years and developped different projects on the topic, such as for instance the MORE4NRG and R4GG projects or the global engagement with the R20

The region of Oppland is very active in AER on the topics of energy and the circular economy. In 2016 the YRN Spring Plenary was hosted by Oppland and delegates visited a recycling plant which produces biogas was also featured in the Autumn 2017 edition of Revolve Magazine as an outstanding regional good practice.
Description of the action. The region of Oppland proposed to exchange experiences on the topic of 2nd generation sustainable biofuels, for example from waste and forest resources.

  • Legislation on biogas: finished

The AER secretariat connected regions which were interested in initiating a lobbying action. Regions had diverging priorities, the connection therefore did not result in a joint action.

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Committees develop their 2018-2019 work programme

2 April, 2018 By Johanna Pacevicius

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

Committee for Economy & Regional Policy

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

Innovation & SMEs :

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

Rural development

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

Energy

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

Transport and Mobility

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

Cohesion Policy

-follow-up activities

Committee for Social Policy & Public Health

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

Social inclusion

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

E-health & health innovation

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

Equal access to health

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

Committee for Culture, Education & Youth

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

Youth

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

Education

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

Youth mental health

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

Culture

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

AER Action Plan

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

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COSME: a new call for proposals on supporting migrant entrepreneurs!

21 March, 2018 By Editor

Migration is a high topic of concern for AER members regions that has been approached in different ways, among which EU projects. To this extent, AER is involved as partner in a two-year project AmiD, which supports an efficient management of the reception and integration of asylum seekers and migrants with disabilities in the EU. Having in mind the opportunities given by EU funding programmes, AER continues its work of monitoring EU calls for proposals that could support the development of new actions in this direction.

Therefore, we would like to share with you a new call for project proposals launched by COSME programme.

What is it about?

“Entrepreneurial capacity building for young migrants” is a call aimed at supporting the creation, the improvement and the wider distribution of support schemes for migrant entrepreneurs, with a focus on training courses and mentoring schemes for migrant entrepreneurs and would-be entrepreneurs.

The call for proposal identifies 4 Work Packages (WP):

  • WP1: Identification of potential migrant entrepreneurs
  • WP2: Education and training
  • WP3: Mentoring schemes for migrant entrepreneurs
  • WP4: Cross-border cooperation and best practice exchange

The aim of the activities to develop within the WPs is to help migrants to become self-employed and build a successful enterprise .

Practical information

The programme offers a maximum co-financing rate of 85% of the total project budget. 4 projects are planned to be financed, with a maximum budget for each project of 556.250€.

Projects should last 24 months maximum. The start date is fixed on the 1st of November, 2018.

Applicants must be established in one of the 28 EU countries.

The deadline for application is set on the 24 May 2018.

For further information, please check the call for proposal.

If you have a project idea or if you are interested to get engaged in projects aimed at supporting entrepreneurial capacity building for young migrants, please do not hesitate to contact the AER Secretariat.

Finance of European Projects

Luca Magri

Mobile: +32 2 400 10 53
E-mail: l.magri(at)aer.eu
Skype ID: beinclusive.lmagri
Languages: it, en, fr, es

Articles by Luca

  • EU Funding
  • Finance and budgeting for European
    projects
  • Administration for European projects

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AER in Arad, Romania for Spring Committee Plenaries

19 March, 2018 By Editor

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

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

Day 1 (20 March)

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

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

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

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

Shinebright

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

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

Political Priorities

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

AER Programmes

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

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

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

Autumn Committee Plenaries

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

Innovation Ecosystems

Multilevel and Open Innovation Ecosystems discussed during Spring Committee Plenaries

Day 2 (21 March)

Committee 3 plenary

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

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

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

Committee 1 plenary

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

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

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

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

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

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

E-health workshop

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

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

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

Committee 2 plenary

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

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

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

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

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

Working Group on Transport and Mobility

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

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

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

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

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

You can find more information here.

Evening Lounge Meeting on Equal Opportunities

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

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

Members then tackled the following questions:

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

AER’s Equal Opportunities Group: inspiring work for regions

Day 3 (22 March)

Breakfast debate:Democracy in practice

AER, a tool to further democracy in Europe

Workshop on inclusion

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

You can find more information here.

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

Extras…

Contributing the work programmes

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

Event page

Visit the event page here.

Contact:

Communications & Events

Erica Lee

Tel: +32 2 400 10 85
E-mail: e.lee(at)aer.eu
Languages: en, de, nl, fr, ga, pl,

  • Communications
  • Event Management
  • Partnerships

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Applications for elections in AER Committees

14 March, 2018 By Editor

The AER Election Committee have been gathering and pre-screening applications for open positions within the Committees.  The members of the Election Committee are: Brian Greenslade, Devon (UK) (Chair), Gloria Vitaly, Oppland (NO), Johan Edstav, Uppsala (SE)

The elections will take place at the AER Spring Committee Plenaries in Arad on the 21st of March. Each Committee will elect the Chairs of the Working Groups or Subcommittees, as well as the 2 representatives for Equal Opportunities. Committee 3 will also elect their President. The election of the Committee President will be confirmed by the AER General Assembly in Oppland.

Applications approved by the Election Committee

The list of approved applications can be found below:

Committee 1 for Economy & Regional development

  • Vice-President for Economic Development and Mobility: Radimir Čačić, Varazdin (HR) (View CV here)
  • One female and one male representative for the Equal Opportunities Group: No application received
  • Chair of the working group on Energy and Climate Change: Eva Hallström, Värmland (SE)  (View CV here)
  • Chair of the working group on Rural Development: No application received

Committee 2 for Social policy & Public health

  • One female representative for the Equal Opportunities Group: No application received
  • Vice President for Inclusion & Social entrepreneurship: No application received

Committee 3 for Culture, Education & Youth

  • President (the current holder, Dag Rønning, Hedmark (NO) has stepped down): Radimir Čačić, Varazdin (CR) (View CV here)
  • Chair of the Sub-Committee on Education and Training: Simon Johnsen, Nordland (NO) (View CV here)

That’s not all…

Applications are still welcome, so please do not hesitate to contact Kurt-Åke Hammarstedt, Seconded Officer to the Election Committee.

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Committee 1 Progress Report Spring 2018

7 March, 2018 By Johanna Pacevicius

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. Progress is evaluated, achievements are celebrated and experiences shared.

Evaluating progress

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

  • Projects
  • Good practice sharing
  • Advocacy/ Lobbying

The below progress report was compiled for the Spring 2018 plenary meeting in Arad. It gives an overview of the situation, a year after the adoption of the work programme. The 2018 Committee 1 work programme will be jointly developed and adopted on March 21st at the Committee 1 Plenary meeting. Activities which are still ongoing will be integrated in the 2018 work programme too if still relevant for the Committee.

Projects

  • Silver Economy Awards (SEED): ongoing

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

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

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

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

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

  • Citizens for Cohesion. 351 times closer to Europe: cancelled

Building on the work previously done by AER on cohesion policy (l), the regions of Catalonia (ES), South Ostrobothnia (FI), Trentino (IT) and West Slovenia, together with AER Cohesion Policy Task Force lead on a project on awareness raising. While the project received a very good evaluation it was not accepted.

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

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

  • Development of an environment project based on the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs): in progress

YRN representatives met with AER Coordinator for European Projects & Private Partnerships Agnese Pantaloni to learn about project development steps and potential funding opportunities. The YRN will work on the definition of an EU project. The AER Secretariat Project Unit will explore calls for projects if there is still interest in developping such a project.

  • MULTIPLE, MULTI-layer Governance PoLicy-making for the Environment: cancelled

MULTIPLE aimed to build an ecosystem of policy-support tools and methods for a more effective, efficient policy making in the field of environmental policies. Its aim was to support the entire policy cycle from issue identification to policy implementation, monitoring and evaluation by the use of open data systems. The project was not accepted.

  • Migrant Entrepreneur Support Scheme Against Gap of Economic System: cancelled

This project proposal aimed to share approaches and lessons learnt for migrant entrepreneurship support schemes. Migrant entrepreneurship had been raised in specific during the 2016 Spring plenary meetings in Timis. The proposal brought together public administrations, business support organizations, non-profit organisations and NGOs, educational institutions and other organisations active in the field across cities, regions and countries. The project was not accepted.

  • From local to global: Connecting the Dots in the EU’s 2030 energy transition: cancelled

The theme of this project proposal was to contribute to a coherent energy transition across the EU and support progress towards a low-carbon economy in light of the EU’s 2030 climate and energy targets and policy framework. The consortium was led by EURACTIV.

The AER Secretariat collected letters of support from member regions: Abruzzo (IT), Catalonia (SP), Gelderland (NL), Trentino (IT). The aim was to highlight, compare and contrast Member States’ initiatives to achieve the EU’s 2030 climate and energy targets, supporting the energy transition as well as the transition towards a competitive and low-carbon economy, by sharing information on best practice at the local level (regions, cities, towns) and the connection with global agreements. The project was submitted under the LIFE+ programme but was not accepted.

  • RAINBOW project – Raising Awareness INitiative for a Beautiful Open World: cancelled

RAINBOW aimed to transform the 2030 Agendas into policies and to launch concrete actions at local level, in order to improve the management of the territories, whilst continuing innovating and learning from one another. It focused on interdependencies between developing countries and the European Union, with focus on the neighbouring areas. ALDA was the initiator of the project. The project was not accepted

 

Good Practice Sharing

  • Committees Autumn Plenaries in Nancy: finished

This Autumn’s committees’ plenary took place in Nancy, France, from the 12th to the 14th of September. The events will feature a debate on culture in the digital age, a workshop on the value of data, a workshop on transport & mobility, a workshop on life-cycle approaches and the Committees Plenary meetings.

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

  • INTERREG Europe Policy Learning Platform (IEPLP): finished

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

  • Study visit on the Energy transition: planned

The main focus of the study visit, which will take place from 17-19 April, will be the Gelders’ Energy agreement (GEA). This collaboration between local and regional industries, governments and NGOs’ in the province of Gelderland, Netherlands, has 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. See the event page.

  • Event on a current transversal topic: finished

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

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

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

  • Follow up on photonics: finished

On the occasion of the Timis Spring Plenaries Professor Hugo Thienpont presented the ACTPHAST programme on photonics innovation for SMEs. The information and opportunities regarding this European programme were further disseminated via the AER website. The ACTPHAST programme for photonics. See the results as at September 2017.

  • Conference on biomass: finished

In London AER members agreed to collaborate for the organisation of a conference on Biomass in Vojvodina. The objective was to share practices and expert lectures to show the practical possibilities of production and usage of biomass in Europe, with a preview insight in the production in Vojvodina. The event also aimed to awaken the interest of individual agricultural farms, agricultural cooperatives and clusters and regional and local governments.

Partners this year were the OECD Mission in Serbia and the Central European Initiative, with expert lectures from representatives from World Bioenergy Association, State Ministries in Serbia, University in Novi Sad, the Environment Agency Austria, GIZ (Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit) and KfW (German government-owned development bank, Kreditanstalt für Wiederaufbau).

  • Cooperation with the World Sustainable Energy Day: finished

On the occasion of the AER Committees plenary meetings in London, members highlighted their interest in participating to the World Sustainable Energy Days in a meaningful way. A delegation of AER representatives from across Europe was able to attend the World Sustainable Energy days for free on behalf of AER.

  • Workshop on Public procurement for green innovation: finished

This workshop was advertised in the AER network by Oppland and was organised in the framework of the INTERREG Sweden-Norway the Bioeconomy Region project involving 4 AER members: Hedmark, Värmland, Østfold and Oppland. It aimed to address the following questions:
• How can innovative public procurement accelerate take-up of green technologies and stimulate innovation?
• How is innovative public procurement adopted in regional and local authorities to implement bioeconomy?
• How are public authorities cooperating with clusters, SMEs, industry and companies?
• What are the greatest challenges to implementing large scale innovative public procurement?
The AER Secretariat provided support with the identification of potential speakers and connected them with the organisers.

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

The AER Secretariat is disseminating 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.

  • AER event on EFSI: finished

AER organised a conference on sustainable financing for regions, which presented political issues related to impact investments, green investments and long term investments. These strategic aspects of regional development are not mere tools but are part of a regional development plan, which looks at private funding to leverage public resources.  AER series on investments – Episode 1, AER series on investments – Episode 2

  • Nudging: finished

The “Towards New Urban Mobility” paper presented on the occasion of the AER Breakfast Briefing on Urban mobility in London adresses the ways in which policies are set up to change behaviour. This report argues that policy interventions sensitive to group attitudes are more likely to result in behavioural change towards transport alternatives. This includes understanding which transport alternatives are more acceptable to each group and how best to target communication.

  • Awareness raising on sustainable mobility: ongoing

AER is continuing to highlight regional good practices on sustainable mobility. In this context an AER article was published in the Autumn 2017 edition of Revolve Magazine.

AER Chair of the working group Martin Tollen contributed to the Smart Airports event in Germany

  • Meeting of the AER working group on transports and mobility in Nancy: finished

Good practices from the host region were  presented on smart mobility and policies aimed at supporting green innovation in the field of transports. Discussion about regulatory framework, challenges for regions and opportunities for cooperation

  • Digitalisation of transports: ongoing

Promote the digitalisation of transports networks both in urban and rural areas (see below as well)

  • Promotion of knowledge about innovative technologies: ongoing

The sharing of knowledge is being carried out via:

–Workshop on the digitalisation of transports & information about the European Strategy on Cooperative Intelligent Transport Systems (C-ITS), a milestone on the path towards cooperative, connected and automated mobility (COM(2016) 766)
–cooperation with Revolve Media to highlight regional good practices in the field of transport and provide visibility to active AER members
–contribution on new mobilities & artificial intelligence at the AER event on Nov 30th “Artificial Intelligence: are regions up to the challenge?”
–New Mobility Services of the European Innovation Partnership on Smart Cities & Communities: involvement in the European Innovation Partnership on Sustainable Cities and Communities: within the New Mobility Services initiative, AER is involved in the Action Cluster Sustainable Urban Mobility. AER Chairman of the Working Group on Transports and Mobility, Martin Tollén attended the first meeting of this Action Cluster.

The New Mobility Services initiative is a cooperation between private and public partners (quadruple helix type of cooperation, brings together companies, NGOs, research centers & universities, and policy makers). The purpose is to establish strategic partnerships between industry and European cities & regions to develop the urban systems and infrastructures of tomorrow. It is mainly focused on urban mobility. It is open for all European regions and cities to join or to send their stakeholders

AER AT THE EUROPEAN WEEK OF CITIES AND REGIONS

  • Workshop on climate and energy transition: finished

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

  • Workshop on the Silver Economy: finished

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

  • Workshop of the INTERREG Europe Policy Learning Platform: finished

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

 

Advocacy/ Lobbying

  • Cohesion Policy Activities: ongoing

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

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

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

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

  • AER Report on Regionalisation: ongoing

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

  • COP23 Local and Regional governments Leaders´ Summit: finished

AER was a partner to the Climate Summit of Local and Regional Leadersat the UN climate change conference (COP23) held from 6 to 17 November in Bonn, Germany, under the Presidency of Fiji. The event gathered more than 330 political leaders and 1000 delegates. At the Summit, local and regional leaders adopted the Bonn-Fiji Commitment to Deliver the Paris Agreement at All Levels, a pledge that signals their commitment to bring forward a critical shift in global development.

AER also contributed to a number of other events, including:
-8th Annual Sustainable Innovation Forum, organised by UNEP and Climate Action.
-World Climate Summit 2017, organised by R20 and BlueOrchard, in collaboration with World Climate.
-Side Event
 “Mountains in motion: Climate Action in the Alps, the Carpathians and the Pyrenees”, co-organised by the Region of Abruzzo.

  • R20 Summit: finished

In presence of AER and R20 President, Magnus Berntsson, R20 founding chair, Arnold Schwarzenegger and all key people playing a part in climate change (private partners, NGOs, officials). R20 is a winning alliance for AER, but where do we stand?

  • 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 negociations. AER is now providing members with privileged access to a training on the SOURCE system which allows stakeholders to access funding for their climate action.

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

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

  • ERDF Funding for Regional Airports & State Aid for regional airports: ongoing

AER members get regular updates from the Working Group on transports and mobility’s Regional Airports expert Roger Estefors at meetings of the group. The Nancy meeting will feature an update on the topic too.

  • Sustainable biofuels: finished

AER member regions have been exchanging experiences on the topic of sustainable energy for many years and developped different projects on the topic, such as for instance the MORE4NRG and R4GG projects or the global engagement with the R20

The region of Oppland is very active in AER on the topics of energy and the circular economy. In 2016 the YRN Spring Plenary was hosted by Oppland and delegates visited a recycling plant which produces biogas was also featured in the Autumn 2017 edition of Revolve Magazine as an outstanding regional good practice.
Description of the action. The region of Oppland proposed to exchange experiences on the topic of 2nd generation sustainable biofuels, for example from waste and forest resources.

  • Legislation on biogas: finished

The AER secretariat connected regions which were interested in initiating a lobbying action. Regions had diverging priorities, the connection therefore did not result in a joint action.

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The essential guide to contributing to the work programmes

1 March, 2018 By Johanna Pacevicius

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

Rule nº1: everything is possible

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

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

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

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

Rule nº2: everything is possible

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

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

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

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

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

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

How this will be done

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

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

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

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

  • Advocacy/ Lobbying
  • Projects
  • Good practice exchange

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

How to prepare?

In order to get involved AER members can

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

What is a Committee?

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

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AER members share knowledge to improve situation for refugees in their regions

5 February, 2018 By Editor

On 24 and 25 January 2018, AER co-organised several events focusing on local and regional responses to the Syrian refugee crisis in Brussels. AER would like to thank its honorary President, Dr. Hande Özsan Bozatli, who was instrumental in making these events happen. Dr Bozatli has always been a strong supporter of the Turkish-Europe dialogue. These series of events proves it once more. The Press release and background can be found HERE.

This article focuses on the experiences and best practices shared by the regions over the two days.

Best Practices – Västra Götaland (SE), Catalonia (ES) and the Netherlands

With control over the healthcare sector and certain dimensions of regional development, the AER President’s region, Västra Götaland (SE), had success integrating refugees into the labour market and socially. Recognising the need to de-institutionalise their labour market, Västra Götaland invested in programmes to accelerate the process of credential recognition for highly skilled Syrian refugees such as those arriving with medical degrees obtained in Syria.

Prior to the labour market reforms, it could take 6-9 years for professionals to undergo the re-training needed for them to enter the regional labour market. It now takes approximately two to three years before migrants acquire the certificates needed to continue working in their field. Additionally, Västra Götaland expedited the process refugees needed to go through before joining the Swedish education system. With going to local schools faster and parents participating in the labour market quicker, migrants were better able to socially integrate into communities.

Throughout the events it became clear that similar practices could be implemented elsewhere in Europe due to labour market demands. As Europe is beginning to experience large scale demographic change due to a rapidly ageing population demands for high skill workers in the public service sector will increase. Mr. Berntsson claimed that integrating refugees and migrants with professional qualifications into the labour market faster will help alleviate pressure on social services. He believes that a more flexible, de-institutionalised labour market like the one introduced in Västra Götaland will assist many EU countries in getting refugees into the labour market.

Mr. Berntsson also stated that Västra Götaland, who saw a 2 percent increase in their population with the arrival of the Syrian refugees, could not have managed to integrate the newcomers without the volunteer efforts of the local citizens. Similarly, according to Dutch MEP Ms. Piri the Netherlands had 60, 000 volunteers enlist to help Syrian refugees, translating into one volunteer for every refugee. Both claimed that having an active citizenry is vital to the resettlement of refugees with local governments unable to cope on their own.

Additionally, as stated by Catalonia (ES) Migration Secretary Mr. Amorós, his region has experienced success with a social mentorship programme to help integrate migrants and refugees into society. In the experience of Mr. Amorós, while refugees may come as temporary guests the reality is that many end up staying, meaning regions must focus on the inclusion of refugees in society. A relatively new project, the programme pairs refugees and locals who spend a minimum of one hour per week together to help refugees learn the language and adapt to local culture.

Best Practices- Gaziantep (TR)

Continuing AER’s involvement with Turkish regions, Dr. Bozatli reached out to Turkish regions Gaziantep and Adana to share their expertise in dealing with refugees, who graciously accepted Dr. Bozatli’s invitation. In each event, Gaziantep shared best practices which have allowed them to successfully host millions of refugees for over 5 years. Upon arrival, ensuring that the refugees’ basic needs were met by providing them with food, water, and shelter helped to prevent the spread of disease. When refugees began to leave camps and move to urban areas, Gaziantep established several priority areas including the provision of housing, healthcare, and education. Adequately meeting the refugees needs in each of these areas was aided by Turkey’s decision to treat refugees as nearly full citizens rather than as temporary guests.

After enrolling young children in schools and integrating current students into school systems, refugees in Gaziantep now have a higher rate of enrolment than they did in Syria. In Syria 80 percent of children would have been enrolled in schools while in Gaziantep 90 percent are now enrolled. Ms. Sahin claims that keeping children enrolled in schools has decreased their vulnerability to radicalization and has helped them feel like members of their local communities.

Gaziantep also invested in numerous infrastructure projects such as new waste management, waterworks, and transportation systems to cope with the rise in demand. Further complicating the matter for Gaziantep was a surge in housing prices because of increases in demand. Aside from building more units, the government ensured that 10 percent of all houses and jobs were available to Gaziantep citizens first, ensuring that their local population were not disadvantaged by the arrival of refugees. This has helped to reduce social tensions created by the arrival of refugees. Moreover, from the beginning the Gaziantep government has preached patience with a message of tolerance and inclusion, encouraging the local population to accept the refugees as regular citizens.

Best Practices- Adana (TR)

The sixth largest city in Turkey with a population of 1.8 million, there are officially 150, 000 refugees constituting nearly 8 percent of the local population. However, unofficially it is estimated that there are 300, 000 Syrian refugees in the Adana province, bringing numerous challenges for Adana to navigate.

In Adana, the arrival of thousands of refugees triggered increases in rent and scarcity of affordable housing. With 85 percent of migrants working in the agricultural sector, certain companies have exploited undocumented refugees for whom they pay low wages with no benefits. When adults have struggled to find employment, some have been forced to send their children to work resulting in sporadic instances of child labour.

The influx of migrants has also placed strain on local infrastructure, exacerbated by a cash strapped government. Keeping children in school has also been a challenge for Adana due to families’ need for a basic income and the remote location in which some refugees live.

Despite the challenges they face, Adana has managed to provide humanitarian support such as clothes, food, healthcare, and water to not only those residing in Adana but also to refugees stranded along the Turkey-Syria border. Furthermore, in cooperation with the University of Adana the municipality has established training centers for refugees to increase the number of trainers able to boost the vocational and skill development of other refugees. This programme has filled existing gaps in the provision of professional language learning opportunities, particularly for young adults. For refugees living on the outskirts of the city, the municipality has signed cooperation agreements with civil society organisations who provide services, including language training.

The presentations from the Turkish delegations can be found here.

Best Practices-Timis (RO)

Following the event, AER received insights into how Timis has dealt with the migration crisis, courtesy of its representative Mr. Mihai Ritivoiu, President of the AER committee on social policy and public health. In 2017, according to the Timis Border Territorial Inspectorate, there were nearly 2600 cases of illegal migration from its border with Serbia. The rapid influx of migrants forced the Timis Border Territorial Inspectorate to take special measures, allocating additional funds to stabilise the situation. Partly because of the measures taken, there was a 72 percent decrease in cases of illegal migration in the last quarter of 2017.

With an increase of 300-400 percent in illegal border crossings, the number of asylum applications has increased from 60 per month to approximately 300 per month. Those who were granted a form of protection from the Romania state received identity and travel documents. Issued for an unlimited period, the identity documents allowed asylum seekers to be smoothly integrated into the health care and labour market systems. Additionally, to integrate migrants, Timis collaborated with NGOs to offer serives desgined to help migrants acquire language skills and cultural understanding. Future plans in Timis involve setting up a specialized center for foreign minors, given that in 2017 many of those who entered the country were families with 3-4 children.

AER’s Work on Refugees and Migrants

Throughout the events, Mr. Berntsson and Dr. Özsan Bozatli had the chance to present the experiences of AER in the area of refugees and migrants. At the peak of the migration crisis, the topic of AER’s Bureau meeting in Brussels in December 2015, was “facing the migration challenge”. The bureau was a resounding success, bringing together regions from Turkey, Greece, and Italy who were receiving the largest numbers of refugees in Europe at the time, to share their experiences.

The following year, at AER’s spring committee meetings in Timis the topic was “communication and action in times of crisis”, giving an opportunity for all three AER committees to discuss how migration affected areas as diverse as innovation, health care, culture, and entrepreneurship.

Alongside its member regions, AER has also had the opportunity to implement the European project Access to Services for Migrants with Disabilities (AMID) where work is still ongoing. The AMID project is designed to create a common approach among European Local Authorities concerning the reception and integration of migrants and refugees with a focus on disabilities. The project will result in the creation of a Specific Needs Assessment (SNA) Tool to be circulated among Local Authorities, NGOs and EU agencies. This SNA tool will enable these actors to take disabilities into account while assessing asylum seekers, creating the basis for a standard approach to this topic at the EU level.

For those interested, more photos of the events are available on Friends of Europe’s Flickr album.

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Call for nominations: AER General Assembly and Committees 2018

26 January, 2018 By Editor

Per AER Statute and Procedures, the AER Election Committee will inventory and prepare for the elections at the General Assembly and the Committees. The time-table is as follows:

AER Spring Committe Plenaries, 20 March 2018

  • Call for nominations: 23 January 2018
  • Candidate’s applications: The Election Committee will accept applicants until 23 February 2018  
  • Candidate’s portfolios distributed: 6 March 2018

AER General Assembly, 22 May 2018

  • Call for nominations: 27 March 2018
  • Candidate’s applications: 10 April 2018
  • Candidate’s portfolios distributed: 8 May 2018

The AER secretariat will not be in a position to answer questions relating to the election process. All applications and questions relating to the elections should be addressed to:
Kurt Ake Hammarstedt, +46 70 527 83 50

Elections at the General Assembly

The Election Committee will nominate candidates for the elections at the General Assembly by listing all nominees from the AER Members and nominate one candidate for each position. If necessary, the Election Committee may nominate candidates of its own.

The Executive Board

The members of the Executive Board have a term of two years. The current members were elected in 2017, so the positions are up for elections at the General Assembly 2019.

The Bureau

The Bureau consists of the members of the Executive Board and two representatives per State represented within the AER. They have a term of two years and may be re-elected for a second consecutive mandate. Upon proposal by the Regions within a State, they can serve a third consecutive term.

The members of the Bureau and their substitutes are suggested by the Regions of the different states represented in AER and ratified by the General Assembly. The AER Election Committee will present the nominations at the General Assembly, without further processing.

The Monitoring and Evaluation Group

The members of the Monitoring and Evaluation Group have a term of three years. The current members were elected in 2016, so the positions are up for elections at the General Assembly 2019.

The Election Committee

The members of the Election Committee have a mandate for one year, so the positions are up for elections at the General Assembly 2018. The current members are:

  • Brian Greenslade, Devon (UK) (Chair)
  • Gloria Vitaly, Oppland (NO)
  • Johan Edstav, Uppsala (SE)

Each member of the Election Committee must be nominated by an AER member and hold a regional political mandate, in accordance with AER Statute 1.8.

Elections at the Committees

Per AER Statute 9.3, the Committees may prepare, decide and implement initiatives in the framework of their assignments, including assigning ad hoc Working Groups and Task Forces to assist in their activities. Each Committee is chaired by a President with a term of two years, renewable once. The committee Presidents are also members of the Executive Board.

The Committee Presidium consists of the President and the Vice-Presidents of the committee and will take a joint responsibility for the planning of the committee’s activities.

Please note that delegates in all bodies of AER must hold a regional political mandate, in accordance with AER Statute 1.8. They may give due written authorization for a representative.

The Election Committee will nominate candidates for the elections at the Committees by listing all nominees from the AER Members and nominate one candidate for each position. If necessary, the Election Committee may nominate candidates of its own.

At the Committee Spring Plenaries 2018 the following positions are up for elections:

Committee 1 for Economy & Regional development

  • Vice-President for Economic Development and Mobility
  • One female and one male representative for the Equal Opportunities Group
  • Chair of the working group on Energy and Climate Change
  • Chair of the working group on Rural Development

Committee 2 for Social policy & Public health

  • One female representative for the Equal Opportunities Group (her role should be to share a vision for the Committee and provide the necessary impulse for action, advise the Committee President on Equal Opportunities issues as well as insure info flow towards Equal Opportunities Group from Committee 2)
  • Vice President for Inclusion & Social entrepreneurship (the Committee 2 Vice Presidents advise the Committee 2 President on policy and strategy and support him to represent AER and speak at external events)

Committee 3 for Culture, Education & Youth

  • President (the current holder, Dag Rønning, Hedmark (NO) has stepped down)
  • Chair of the Sub-Committee on Education and Training

AER Statute and Procedures about nominations

Per AER Statute and Procedures, the following is applicable to nominations to the General Assembly and the Committees:

In general

Statute 1.5: The bodies of AER are:

  1. a) The governing bodies: The General Assembly and the Executive Board;
  2. b) The Bureau for political discussion, debate and decision making as basis for lobbying and advocacy;
  3. c) The Thematic Committees for exchange and dissemination of best practise and running of programmes and projects.

The composition of all AER bodies should respect a geographical and gender balance.

Statute 1.7: The working language of AER is English.

Statute 1.8: Delegates in all bodies of AER must hold a regional political mandate. They may give due written authorization for a representative. In case of absence or should a delegate’s regional mandate be lost, the Executive Board is, after a period of a maximum of six months, charged to assign a substitute until the next General Assembly.

Statute 1.9: All votes in all AER bodies are by simple majority, defined as more than 50% of those present and voting, unless otherwise specified in the present statute. All elections are carried out by secret ballot, unless a unanimous decision to the contrary is made by the body in question. Other decisions are taken through a vote by show of hands, unless a member requests otherwise. In the event of a tied vote, on issues other than elections, the President of the body in question has the casting vote.

Statute 1.10: Common practice of political assemblies shall be applied to all AER meetings. Decisions are, in principle and whenever possible, adopted by consensus of opinion. The consensus should be understood as being the absence of any objection formulated and submitted by a member which may constitute an obstacle to the decision in question.

The General Assembly

Statute 4.3: Each Full member of AER, after paying the membership dues, has one vote at the General Assembly. The vote will be expressed

  1. a) Directly by one of the representatives of the member region present;
  2. b) By proxy from one absent region to one region present.

Procedures 4.1: Proposals to be presented at the General Assembly, can be submitted up to the evening before the start of the Executive Board meeting preceding the General Assembly.

Procedures 4.1.1:  The Executive Board will give its opinion on the proposals to the General Assembly.

The Committees

Statute 9.5: Each Committee is chaired by a President, elected by the General Assembly on proposal by the committee itself and with a term of 2 years, renewable once. The President is responsible for the committee’s smooth running.

Procedures 11.2: Each Committee President’s region is charged to appoint a seconded officer to act as committee secretariat in liaison with the secretariat and, ideally, at the AER office in Brussels. The seconded officer is responsible for:

  • Co-organise events and projects in collaboration with the secretariat;
  • Manage the content of the meetings;
  • Draft speeches and policy contributions

Procedures 11.3: The Committee Presidium consists of the President and the Vice-Presidents of the committee and will take a joint responsibility for the planning of the committee’s activities.

Contact person

The Election Committee is in charge of the organisation of the election process. Mr Brian Greenslade, President of the Election Committee has appointed Mr Kurt Ake Hammarstedt as the contact person. Therefore, all applications and questions relating to the elections should be addressed to:

Kurt Ake Hammarstedt
+46 70 527 83 50

The AER secretariat will not be in a position to answer questions relating to the election process.Follow AER!

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