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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AER, a tool to further democracy in Europe

28 March, 2018 By Mathieu Mori

Nina Björby (Västerbotten, SE), AER Vice President for democracy facilitated a breakfast discussion on democracy in practice.

After describing her portfolio within AER, Ms Björby proposed a definition of what democracy is or rather what it is not : when you do not trust the police, the tax administration or your justice system, when there is little investment in culture, then there is a problem with your democracy. (Presentation here)

The European Union has been a great promoter of democracy in Europe and organisations like AER are as important, because they allow subnational leaders, in a space of trust, free of partisan divides, to exchange and learn from each others.

Magnus Berntsson (Västra Götaland, SE), AER President, stressed that AER has accompanied many regions and countries to the path to EU accession over the last 33 years. With 30% of non EU members, AER is still the network with the largest share of non EU members which gives it a duty to continue this democracy strengthening work.

Mihai Ritivoiu, President of the AER committee on social policy and public health, stressed how his own region (Timis, RO) works towards better protection of children, elderly and persons with disability. Massive investment in policies impacting these populations has helped improve their quality of life. Beside regional public policies, international cooperation has also helped Timis, for instance via a cooperation with the Swedish region of Västra Götaland on increasing the children dental care.

Gloria Vitaly (Oppland, NO), President of Youth Regional Network concluded the session by stressing how important it was to have youth involved in political life. Young people, especially young girls, are not represented enough in European political life. With further polarisation of political ideas, leading to a more divided Europe and a more violent political life, young people do not seem to find their place in the local, regional, national or European assemblies that determine their future.

AER plays its part by having young people contribute to its work via the Youth Regional Network which we strongly encourage you to join.

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

28 March, 2018 By Editor

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Contact

President of Committee 2 for Social Policy and Public Health

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AER’s Equal Opportunities Group: inspiring work for regions

28 March, 2018 By Luca Magri

Day 2 of the Spring Plenaries 2018 ended with the update on the AER Equal Opportunities group activities and the inspiring sharing of examples of why equal opportunities matters for our network and for a more inclusive society.

Kenneth Johannesson (Värmland, SE), stepping in for Andrew Gibson (Hampshire, UK), Vice-President for Equal Opportunities, started by giving an overview of the composition of the AER Equal Opportunities group. Members of the group belong to the three Committees, one woman and one man for each one. It is important to stress that there is still one vacancy for a female on the Committee 2. The idea is to assure that equal opportunities is mainstreamed inside the work of each Committee. This is implemented tailoring a specific topic for each Committee:

Committee 1, focus on to what extent there is still a gender pay inequality
Committee 2, focus on factors determining equality of health across regions
Committee 3, focus on tackling obesity often as a consequence of poor wellbeing

WHAT EQUAL OPPORTUNITIES IS ABOUT

It was useful to remind the audience what is meant by equal opportunities. The AER group agreed on the following common definition:

women and men have the same power to shape the society and their lives. This calls for the same possibilities, rights and obligations in all areas of life.

That being said, it is also important to make concrete examples of the impact of equal opportunities in our society. Everyone knows the #MeToo campaign by Alyssa Milano, hashtag that became a global campaign to question sexual harrasement and open up a space for women to share their stories.

That’s not all. Kenneth Johannesson explained also that equal opportunities can be seen from both a quality and quantity point of view. The gender salary gap and the women presence in the public debate are examples of quantitative figures while quantitive data deals more with opportunities for personal development and responsibilities.

EQUAL OPPORTUNITIES MATTERS FOR POLITICS

Why does the concept and practice of equal opportunities matter? For several reasons. The #MeToo campaign is an ongoing and great example bringing forward the message that a more equal vision of women and men decreases the rate of violence toward women, and represent an intrinsic human right.

What about politics? The Swedish Social Democrat Party made a short survey to get a better picture of gender participation in Sweden politics. Even if the new national government has an equal gender spread of ministers, the presence of women in the parliament is set at 43%, and is lower in city councils, where women represent less than a third of elected officials.

Kenneth Johannesson said that in the County Council of his region, Varmland (SE), there are around 40% of women but that there are only 2 women among the 18 leading politicians!

EQUAL OPPORTUNITIES FOR OUR SOCIETIES

Society is not just politics. To have a broader picture, looking closer at the health care system gives again a picture in black and white. A survey from the SALAR, Swedish Association of Local Authorities and Regions (2014) highlights first that in medicine the “norm” is man for health care system as research. That is regardless the higher risk of side effects and inappropriate combination of doses that women face. For a number of different diseases, from dialysis to alzheimer, the survey reveals medical unjustified differences in examination and treatments for women and men.

Violence against women is unfortunately a common issue. Kenneth Johannesson shared the experience of Varmland County (SE), where a handbook was prepared to increase the cooperation between the local police, the prosecutor, the correctional, the county, the municipality, the social insurance, the county government to address the problem.

Violence starts from a difference of power in a relationship. Statistics shows a difference regarding gender and violence: women are more exposed a domestic and psychologic violence while for men is more a question of violence in public spaces.

WHAT REGIONS CAN DO BETTER

Regional authorities can do a lot to change the situation. Support actions as prevention and protection, better cooperation among the different bodies as Varmland County (SE) handbook or simply giving more visibility to the problem are in full capacity of regional bodies.

Because the problem is still important, Kenneth Johannesson stressed some of the points to be improved from a regional perspective. Start having a better understanding of the causes: it is more relational or power structure? The prevention of use of ANDT, alcohol or drugs or tobacco is linked to violence and it should taken into account while adopting policies. And work on the abuser, to motivate for change for example with phone line for anger management, in some cases for the perpetrator in order to change behaviour.

Results of an effective equal opportunities policy could come with remarkable savings in the regional budget with potential re-allocation of resources for effective societal development or even tax reduction.

In case you want to know more about the presentation or the AER Equal Opportunities group, please contact Kenneth Johannesson and check this link.

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

28 March, 2018 By Johanna Pacevicius

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

Sharing

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

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

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

Learning

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

Economy and regional development
Social policy and public health
Culture, education and youth

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

Building together

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

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

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Multilevel and Open Innovation Ecosystems discussed during Spring Committee Plenaries in Arad

27 March, 2018 By Elin Berglie

On the occasion of the AER Spring plenaries in Arad, the main topic was, multilevel and open innovation ecosystems. This interesting and complex subject was moderated by Dr Sandra Evans, University of Tübingen, DE.

Dr Evans highlighted the paradigm shift we are facing today, from closed innovation, linear subcontracts, to open innovation, clusters to the world of today open innovation 2.0, with ecosystems. The value chains are becoming more interregional in the Multi-level Quadruple Helix Open Innovation Ecosystem , where a wider spectrum of stakeholders are necessary. An openness and engagement from everyone is essential.

This opening was followed by a presentation by the President of Arad County Council, Iustin Cionca. 2018 marks 100 years since the formation of the modern Romanian state at the end of Word War 1. They celebrate the unification and the progress and reconstruction of the national identity. The Romanian modern state promote a peaceful integration of the Roma population in an eco-system. Romania is a model for integration of minorities, as an example all minorities are represented in the Parliament. Arad County is involved in multilevel cooperation to support the development of such innovation ecosystems. They collaborate with neighbouring regions in Serbia and Hungary which have an impact on over 5 million inhabitants.

Gheorghe Falcă, Mayor of the city of Arad, RO, continued to display how Arad is working with a multi stake holder approach. They have built an economic hub Arad-Timisoara. With EU funding, the two cities, have together built a highway connecting the two counties. The shared vision and shared strategy has led them to drive the hub forward, in terms of economic development, economic activity and also in regards to inclusion of the minorities.

The welcoming session was then transformed into a cocktail debate on the same topic, innovation ecosystems, with examples from Catalonia and Gelderland.

AER’s Vice President Albert Castellanos, Catalonia, gave an example on how Catalonia is embracing the multi stakeholder ecosystem. Catalonia’s strategic objective is to consolidate the region as a European knowledge hub and link technological and creative capacities to existing and emerging sectors in the territory. They work in various levels regarding this, below are some of the examples:

Reinventing public services so that they provide a more efficient and effective response to societal needs.

Reinventing the concept of community and develop new forms of cooperation among people and organisations in order to build collective intelligence that can generate effective responses to the complex problems that face our society.

Reinventing business models so that they are more closely aligned to the needs of people.

Vivian Stribos, Gelderland, NL, presented the Gelder Energy Agreement, as an example from Gelderland. Gelder Energy Agreement is a multi-stakeholder cooperation with a bottom-up approach for the energy transition. The shared goal is to make the province energy-neutral by 2050. Local and regional industries, governments and NGOs’ in the province of Gelderland, Netherlands, have pledged for the province to become energy-neutral by 2050. It facilitates a co-creative process where initiatives, actors, and energy are integrated into society.

The Province of Gelderland invites all AER members to take part in a study-visit the 17-19 April, to get to know this unique multi-stakeholder collaboration for an energy-neutral Province. For more information and registration, please read more here.

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

27 March, 2018 By Vania Freitas

E-health workshop

Agneta Granström (Norrbotten, SE), Chair of the AER E-Health Network, opened the workshop by providing a brief update on the activities of the Network. Highlighting the group’s key successes in bringing e-health to the forefront of the European agenda and fostering interregional cooperation in this field, Agneta mentioned the H2020 SEED project and its Silver Economy Awards to innovative solutions in improving the quality of life of the ageing population, and the MOCHA (Models of Child Health Appraised) project to appraise the differing models of child health used across Europe. Delegates also had the opportunity to hear about the development of a new EU project on leadership for the development of e-health in Europe (presentation here).

Sandra Evans, from the University of Tübingen presented the Mach 5 project on Mutual Learning Partnerships Driving Social Innovation on Healthy Living Eastward across 5 European Countries. Sandra shared the key activities and lessons learned during the project, which established dynamic trans-regional clusters and multi-stakeholder ecosystems and expanded the European learning community on ICT for active and healthy ageing (presentation here).

Diane Whitehouse, from EHTEL (European Health Telematics Association), talked about the deployment of integrated care systems. Diana presented AER members with SCIROCCO, a 12 dimension-maturity model developed by the Action Group on Integrated Care of the European Innovation Partnership on Active and Healthy Ageing. Diana encouraged wider testing and application of the this on-line self-assessment tool that facilitates the successful scaling up and transfer of good practices in integrated care across European regions (presentation here). AER members offered insights into regional health and care systems in Värmland (SE), Trento (IT) and Prahova (RO).

Working Group on Transport and Mobility

Martin Tollén (Region Östergötland, SE), Chair of the AER Working Group on Transports and Mobility moderated this discussion.

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. Sergiu explained how the region has improved cross-border mobility through the construction and modernization of roads with cross-border impact, using Cohesion Policy funds. The Vice President of the Arad County Council described how these investments promoted the cross-border labour mobility between Hungarian and Romanian territories and enabled Romania to make further progress on its accession to Schengen Area (Presentation available here).

Vivian Stribos (Gelderland, NL) then presented the Rhine-Alpine Corridor EGTC (European Grouping on Territorial Cooperation), which was created to strengthen and coordinate the integrated development of the Corridor from a regional and local perspective for an innovative, green and smart Corridor. Vivan challenged the Working Group to build mutual learning between regions from the nine core network corridors. AER members expressed interest in exploring the potential value of platform for exchange (Presentation available here).

The Chair of the Working Group, Martin Tollén, updated members on the New Mobility Services initiative of the Action Cluster Sustainable Urban Mobility of the European Innovation Partnership on Smart Cities and Communities (EIP-SCC). Bringing cities and regions together with other stakeholders to show-case innovative mobility solutions and support their replication, the Action Cluster on Sustainable Urban Mobility launched this initiative to help better integrate and manage urban transport, contributing to the development of collective systems for seamless multi-modal mobility, and create an open and collaborative marketplace for new mobility services in Europe.

Roger Esteferos (Senior Expert, SE), elaborated on the state aid to State Aid to Regional Airports, providing an update on the situation (Presentation available here).

Workshop on inclusion

Highlights of this workshop include an insightful presentation from Erika Stark, General Manager of the Directorate of Child Protection and Social Assistance of Arad region (RO), who explained how the regional social services came together with the NGO sector and the communities themselves to reach out to those at risk of poverty and social exclusion. Erika shared the region’s strategy and programmes aimed at preventing and reintegrating those already experiencing social exclusion, presenting the initiatives targeted at the most vulnerable and socially excluded, in particular children and young people and people with disabilities. Erika talked about the work of the Arad region with children in care and the support provided to young people leaving care to make the transition to adulthood, as well as the employment and skills programmes developed for people with disabilities.

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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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AER Handbook on Culture for Inclusion

14 March, 2018 By Editor

The AER Handbook of good practices on Culture for the inclusion of migrants and refugees has just been published! This work, which was initiated by Nina Björby, Chair of the AER Subcommittee on Culture with the help of her seconded officer Micaela Löwenhöök gathers good practices from all over Europe and aims to serve as an inspiration and a basis for collaboration.

The impulse for the compilation of good practices came in the autumn of 2015, when the world was faced with a sudden influx of refugees fleeing the war in Syria. For many regions this was a situation not seen in decades. At the same time extreme right parties, and even ultra nationalists and Nazi ideas are gaining ground around Europe, using migration as an argument to push forth their ideas. The idea of the handbook was initiated based on the idea that many regions have successfully used culture to include migrants and refugees and that these stories need to be told and inspire others to build a stronger Europe.

Nina Björby explains “Culture is one of the strongest tools to make people from all backgrounds get together and see beyond culture, religion and socioeconomic conditions. I think we need to stop talking about integration and instead talk about inclusion”.

This handbook brings together good practices from the following AER members: Gävleborg, Västerbotten, Norland, Jämtland Härjedalen, Landstinget Västernorrland, Fiuli Venezia Giulia, Grand Est, North Brabant, Brussels Capital Region, Zurich Canton, Vienna Stadt, Vestfold, Brașov County, State of Tyrol, and Timis.

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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 3 Progress Report Spring 2018

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

Evaluating progress

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

Projects
Good practice sharing
Advocacy/ Lobbying

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

Projects

Involvement of YRN in AER projects: ongoing

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

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

Project development, Youth Mental Health: ongoing

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

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

Silver Economy Awards (SEED): ongoing

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

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

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

Youth Caravan: cancelled

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

Project development, Cultural Heritage: planned

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

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

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

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

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

Committees Autumn Plenaries in Nancy: finished

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

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

INTERREG Europe Policy Learning Platform (IEPLP): finished

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

Event on a current transversal topic: finished

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

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

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

Cultural heritage: ongoing

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

AER Most Youth Friendly European Region: finished

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

Awareness-raising & engagement about Eurodyssey: ongoing

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

Par/Tea, culture and inclusion: cancelled

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

Culture & Health: cancelled

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

Compilation of good practices on school dropouts: finished

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

Awareness raising on YRN activities: ongoing

Awareness raising on YRN activities is carried out through:

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

Training on European regional affairs: ongoing

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

Committee 2 Progress Report Spring 2018

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

Evaluating progress

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

Projects
Good practice sharing
Advocacy/ Lobbying

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

Projects

Brokerage event in Partnership with ERRIN on health innovation: finished

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

Project development, Youth Mental Health: ongoing

Silver Economy Awards (SEED): ongoing

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

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

Models of Child Health Appraised (MOCHA): ongoing

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

Active and Healthy Ageing Network AHA-NET: cancelled

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

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

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

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

AMID project for the inclusion of migrants with disabilities: ongoing

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

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

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

Project development, Social inclusion of vulnerable groups: ongoing

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

Project development, Combatting isolation and social exclusion: ongoing

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

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

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

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

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

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

Project development, Equal Health: cancelled

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

DIGIT-ABLE project: planned

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

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

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

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

Committees Autumn Plenaries in Nancy: finished

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

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

INTERREG Europe Policy Learning Platform (IEPLP): finished

Event on a current transversal topic: finished

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

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

Follow up on ALEC: ongoing

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

Healthcare without harm: tbc

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

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

Equal opportunities: tbc

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

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

AER AT THE EUROPEAN WEEK OF CITIES AND REGIONS

Workshop on climate and energy transition: finished

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

Workshop on the Silver Economy: finished

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

Workshop of the INTERREG Europe Policy Learning Platform: finished

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

Advocacy/ Lobbying

Cohesion Policy Activities: ongoing

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

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

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

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

AER Report on Regionalisation: ongoing

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

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

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

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

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

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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

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

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, 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

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

Supporting innovation, attracting innovators
The Health Revolution
Culture In a Digital World
Skills and Competences: racing with machines
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

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

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.

AER Report on Regionalisation: ongoing

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

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.

Follow AER!

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:

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.
Explain how other regions will benefit: visibility? contacts? new collaborations? benefits for other regional stakeholders…
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…
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:

Economy and regional development
Social policy and public health
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.

Follow AER!

Committee for Economy & Regional Policy

Innovation & SMEs :

Rural development

Energy

Transport and Mobility

Cohesion Policy

Committee for Social Policy & Public Health

Social inclusion

E-health & health innovation

Equal access to health

Committee for Culture, Education & Youth

Youth

Education

Youth mental health

Culture

AER Action Plan

Contact

WHAT EQUAL OPPORTUNITIES IS ABOUT

EQUAL OPPORTUNITIES MATTERS FOR POLITICS

EQUAL OPPORTUNITIES FOR OUR SOCIETIES

WHAT REGIONS CAN DO BETTER

Sharing

Learning

Building together

E-health workshop

Working Group on Transport and Mobility

Workshop on inclusion

Day 1 (20 March)

Shinebright

Political Priorities

AER Programmes

Autumn Committee Plenaries

Innovation Ecosystems

Day 2 (21 March)

Committee 3 plenary

Committee 1 plenary

E-health workshop

Committee 2 plenary

Working Group on Transport and Mobility

Evening Lounge Meeting on Equal Opportunities

Day 3 (22 March)

Breakfast debate:Democracy in practice

Workshop on inclusion

Extras…

Contributing the work programmes

Event page

Contact:

Communications & Events

Erica Lee

Applications approved by the Election Committee

Committee 1 for Economy & Regional development

Committee 2 for Social policy & Public health

Committee 3 for Culture, Education & Youth

That’s not all…

Evaluating progress

Projects

Involvement of YRN in AER projects: ongoing

Project development, Youth Mental Health: ongoing

Silver Economy Awards (SEED): ongoing

Youth Caravan: cancelled

Project development, Cultural Heritage: planned

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

Good Practice Sharing

Committees Autumn Plenaries in Nancy: finished

INTERREG Europe Policy Learning Platform (IEPLP): finished

Event on a current transversal topic: finished

Cultural heritage: ongoing

AER Most Youth Friendly European Region: finished

Awareness-raising & engagement about Eurodyssey: ongoing

Par/Tea, culture and inclusion: cancelled

Culture & Health: cancelled

Compilation of good practices on school dropouts: finished

Awareness raising on YRN activities: ongoing

Training on European regional affairs: ongoing

Evaluating progress

Projects

Brokerage event in Partnership with ERRIN on health innovation: finished

Project development, Youth Mental Health: ongoing

Silver Economy Awards (SEED): ongoing

Models of Child Health Appraised (MOCHA): ongoing