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Outermost regions’ work in AER and worry about Guyana

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It is with great worry that the Assembly of European Regions follows the situation in its French outermost member region, Guyana. After two weeks of unrest and the region’s activity put to a standstill, we look upon the start of the negotiations with the French government with trust and confidence.

AER President Hande Özsan Bozatli : « I want to address to the President Rodolphe Alexandre and the people of Guyana the solidarity of the members of AER and the wish that a positive solution to this grave crisis will be found soon. AER will remain an ally of all Spanish, Portuguese and French outermost regions and wants to cooperate more with them ».

These territories are of huge importance for Europe. Leaders in terms of blue growth and innovation, their strategic location opens Europe to the world thanks to their territorial waters and continental borders with some of the South American giants.  

At the occasion of the Outermost regions forum in Brussels this week, AER Secretary General Mathieu Mori met with the Presidents of the AER outermost members Alfred Marie-Jeanne (Martinique-FR); Ary Chalus (Guadeloupe-FR), Miguel Albuquerque (Madeira-PT), Vasco Cordeiro (Azores-PT) and Didier Robert from non member region La Réunion (FR). These encounters were the occasion to congratulate Madeira and the Azores for the opening of their regional office in Brussels and their continuing involvement in AER Eurodyssey programme. The opportunity also to talk about potential topics of further cooperation. A specific topic has been pinpointed with Guadeloupe and a joint event will be organised for the benefit of all outermost AER members and beyond. 

In light of the coming strategy of the European Union- to be released end of the year – the outermost regions reached a common agreement and handed in a memorandum to the President of the European Commission Jean-Claude Juncker and Commissioner for Regional Policy Corina Cretu.

 Pictures

Alfred Marie-Jeanne, President of Martinique (FR)

Miguel Albuquerque, President of Madeira (PT)

Ary Chalus, President of Guadeloupe (FR)

Vasco Cordeiro, President of the Azores (PT)

Didier Robert, President of La Réunion (FR)

 Marc Lemaître, Director General for Regional Policy (European Commission)

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Sport and Eco-Labelled Green Tourism: partners wanted for two different project proposals

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The Sakarya Metropolitan Municipality (Turkey) is currently working on two projects and is looking for partners that could join the consortia.

AER is pleased to share this research with member regions and the entire network, being this a good opportunity to be involved on projects in line with AER priorities and topics.

1) The first project targeting teenagers and refugees will be submitted within Erasmus+ Sport Programme. The project objectives are to foster intercultural dialogue among teenagers, to set up teams together and to encourage them towards sports by offering them opportunities for shared-learning and discover their individual skills.

The activities foresee within this project are the followings:

  • informing and raising awareness about a healthy life
  • disseminating ethical behaviour among sportsmen and sportswomen
  • organising conferences where teenagers will meet their idol athletes (basketball players) like streetball tournaments to provide equal opportunities for the teenagers
  • during these tournaments and events, providing the opportunity for local sports organisations to build stronger dialogue with each other.

The partners searched are:

  • municipalities
  • sports clubs
  • federations
  • local public bodies, etc.

2) The second project, mainly addressed to cities with rivers, will be submitted within the first call of Black Sea Basin Cross Border Cooperation Programme – Priority 1.1 of the first thematic objective: Promote business and entrepreneurship within the Black Sea Basin – Jointly promote business and entrepreneurship in the tourism and cultural sectors.

The project titled  “EU Eco-Labelled Green Tourism Project with Sustainable Tourism and Eco-Friendly Virtual Reality Applications”,  is targeting stakeholders in the tourism sectors such as local entrepreneurs, hotels, art crafters and tourism agencies as well as local farmers, boat owners, etc.

The short-term objectives are:

  • contributing to the development of jointly promoting business and entrepreneurship in the tourism and cultural sectors through partnership with region, by developing innovative eco-friendly virtual reality applications to sustain joint touristic services and cultural actions both during the project itself and afterwards
  • implementing symmetrical activities within the project together with the regions partner in the consortia

The long-term objectives are:

  • sustaining the joint eco-focused touristic and cultural visible impacts among project partners in the Black Sea Basin with EU Eco-Labelled green tourism criteria
  • establishing joint periodic events (joint festivals, virtual fair, etc.) within the partners’ regions

The expected results are stronger cross-border business opportunities in the tourism and cultural sectors in the Black Sea Basin, and tourism routes having green tourism criteria in partners’ regions.

The final beneficiaries are:

  • local people
  • local public authorities
  • local municipalities
  • nature parks and protected areas management bodies
  • farmers’ associations
  • national public bodies
  • cross-border and EU countries tour operators

If you are interested in any of these 2 projects, please get in touch with AER Secretariat by 31st March.

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Not your usual plenary meetings

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The AER Committees are the R&D lab of AER where experiences are shared, discussed, transferred to other regions, transformed, brought back in the network and adopted by yet other regions. However, the plenary meetings don’t always do justice to the wealth of ideas and initiatives regions are implementing or want to implement.

Just do it!

Spring is coming, and at AER, spring is Action plan preparation season.

On 22 March at the AER Spring Plenaries in London, members of the three thematic Committees will develop jointly their action plans. 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 AER Action Plan, regions should share their idea at the relevant Committee plenary meeting, explain how they are going to implement their action and get support from other regions.

How this will be done

Participants will be seated around round tables, where each table will work around 1 topic (or set of related topics). They will share their own ideas & develop jointly actions on the different topics the Committees are working on:

Committee 1:

  • Cohesion policy: Task Force on Cohesion post 2020, contribution to the survey, dissemination, awareness raising, lobbying…
  • business SMEs & investments:
    -involvement of regions in the Silver Economy Awards (SEED project)
    -Follow-up on photonics: what should be done next?
    -E-health innovation, innovative SMEs: after the e-health event, what should now be done?
    -The different new models of economy: collaborative, social and solidarity savings, circular, post cop21
    – New forms of tourism economy: e-tourism: renting by private persons (Airbnb, …) solidarity tourism….
    – Smart regions
    – Other proposals
  • rural development: should something specific be developed this year? If so which region would like to take the lead? Lobbying with the European Countryside Movement, other proposals…
  • energy, climate change & the circular economy: suggestions are welcome! Dissemination of the report on energy security, collaboration with the R20, with other stakeholders, projects…
  • transport & mobility: good practice sharing on connectivity, the use of big data, sustainable transports…

Committee 2: Inclusion, social entrepreneurship & inclusive entrepreneurship, digital transformation in health, leadership for change management in health, integrated e-care systems, child healthcare & prevention, follow-up for the MOCHA project, cooperation within EIP-AHA, involvement in the Silver Economy Awards (SEED project)

Committee 3: Cultural heritage (developing a project), culture for inclusion of migrants (handbook), School dropouts (dissemination of the handbook), youth policies, mobility & youth employability, youth wellbeing & inclusion, youth participation, youth entrepreneurship

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:

-Lobbying

-Projects

-Good practice exchange

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

Get involved!

In order to get involved AER members can

  • ask to join the AER Committees online communities in order to already share ideas with other members
  • identify the needs they have in their region which could be addressed via AER
  • define an activity they would like to carry out in the Committees, think about how other members could contribute and benefit from this activity, share the idea at the plenary meeting
  • support other members proposing joint actions via the online communities and at the plenary meetings.

 

photo credits: Jakob Owens @unsplash https://unsplash.com

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Black Sea Basin Programme 2014-2020: 1st call for projects is open!

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Funding opportunities for the Black Sea area have been discussed on occasion of the 6th edition of the AER Black Sea Summit, where we had the pleasure to host experts from the Joint Operational Programme Black Sea Basin 2014-2020 which followed up in sharing within AER the public consultation they lunched  regarding the Draft Guidelines for Grant Applicants.

We are now pleased to share with you the launch of the 1st call for project proposals of the ENI CBC “Black Sea Basin Joint Operational Programme 2014-2020 with the deadline of 31st of May 2017, h 23:59 (GMT+2). Please, have a careful look at the Application Pack.

This call is open for project proposals contributing to all Programme thematic objectives and priorities:

1. Promote business and entrepreneurship within the Black Sea Basin

Priority 1.1. Jointly promote business and entrepreneurship in the tourism and cultural sectors (minimum amount available for a project grant: 500 000 euros, maximum: 1 500 000 euros)

Priority 1.2. Increase cross-border trade opportunities and modernisation in the agricultural and connected sectors (minimum amount available for a project grant: 300 000 euros, maximum: 700 000 euros)

2. Promote coordination of environmental protection and joint reduction of marine litter in the Black Sea Basin

Priority 2.1. Improve joint environmental monitoring (minimum amount available for a project grant: 500 000 euros, maximum: 1 000 000 euros)

Priority 2.2. Promote common awareness-raising and joint actions to reduce river and marine litter (minimum amount available for a project grant: 300 000 euros, maximum: 1 000 000 euros)

The overall indicative amount of ENI funds for the two thematic objectives for the first call is 19,655,625.60 euros.

The ENI grant shall be maximum 92% of the total eligible costs of the Project (per each Lead/Project partner). The rate of national co-financing shall be at least 8% of the total eligible costs of the Project, calculated per Lead/Project partner budgets in the project.

We encourage you to get in touch with AER Secretariat in case you wish to share your project idea, look for partners, get in touch with other regions working on this call.

 

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Interreg MED second call: opening on 30th January

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The Interreg MED 2014-2020 is the transnational European Cooperation Programme for the Mediterranean area, aimed to promote sustainable growth in the Mediterranean area by fostering innovative concepts and practices and a reasonable use of resources and by supporting social integration through an integrated and territorially based cooperation approach.

The second call for project proposals will open on 30th January 2017 at 12:00 (Paris Time) and close on 31 March 2017 at 12:00 (Paris time). The call will be restricted on different levels.

  1. First, only three types of projects will be allowed: 
  • “Testing” projects (M2)
  • “Capitalising” projects (M3)
  • “Integrated” projects: “studying” (M1) + “testing” (M2)+ “capitalising” (M3)

No other types of projects will be allowed. For detailed explanation about the Interreg MED project typology and architecture, please read Chapter 2 of the Programme Manual.

2. Second, applicants will be able to apply for one specific objective only and applications are not open to all specific objectives:

  • For “Testing” (M2) and “Capitalising” projects (M3), the following specific objectives are open:
    Specific objective 1.1 “To increase transnational activity of innovative clusters and networks of key sectors of the MED area”
    Specific objectives 3.1 “To enhance the development of a sustainable and responsible coastal and maritime tourism in the MEd area” and 3.2 “To maintain biodiversity and natural ecosystem through strengthening the management and networking of protected areas”
  • For “Integrated” projects, the following specific objectives are open:
    Specific objective 1.1 (same as above)
    Specific objective 2.3 “To increase capacity to use existing low carbon transport systems and multimodal connections among them”
    Specific objective 3.1 and 3.2 (same as above)

Project proposals will have to be submitted electronically using the online monitoring tool, SYNERGIE CTE which will open on 30th January 2017 at 12.00.

The detailed Terms of Reference as well as some specific guidelines for “Integrated” projects will be available at a later stage. However, in the meantime, it is useful to read the following documents:

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Are you interested to develop a project on education & skills for young innovators?

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We are happy to share with you a project proposal from a key stakeholder of our member region Umbria (IT) who is looking for a partner to lead the project and to work with them!

This idea was presented to the AER Secretariat by Agenzia Umbria Ricerche – AUR as the Research Agency of Umbria Region for social, economical and territorial affairs. AUR has a solid background in the drafting and implementation of EU projects co-funded both by Structural Funds and EU programmes in the areas of youth entrepreneurship, mobility schemes industry, tourism and cultural heritage, research and innovation, etc.

The project is developed within Horizon 2020 – Europe in a changing world – Inclusive, innovative and reflective Societies, Topic “Education and skills: empowering Europe’s young innovators” (CO-CREATION-01-2017).

This call aims to improve learning and teaching in innovation-related skills for young boys and girls at the age of primary and secondary education through the design and piloting of new innovative ways of skills education, including technologies, processes and relations. Building upon existing initiatives in Europe, the consortia (which shall include entrepreneurial partners, and may include partners from civil society and the social economy) shall develop new approaches and innovative models for skills education targeted at young people.

Taking advantage of previous experiences such as Enterprise Business Game and Leonardo Toi-Start App project, AUR developed a possible model to support the dissemination of culture business, teaching and transmission of entrepreneurial skills, even from a gender perspective, which is based on the enhancement of expert experience and proven expertise over the years both in Italy and in the context of stable and active European networks. These experiences can actually be integrated into a support model to the development of entrepreneurial skills transferable at European level, being efficient (in terms of cost-benefit ratio) and effective (in terms of expected results report, results obtained and impact on a large scale), as well as versatile and with high adaptability to different contexts.

AUR has the background experience on the topic of this call as well as the project idea to fit into it, what now they are looking for is actually a lead partner that could drive – together with them – the development and drafting of the project proposal.

If you like the idea of being involved in this interesting activity, together with AUR and with the support of AER please get in touch with AER Secretariat! We would be very happy to share this with you, get your valuable inputs and start working together on it being the framework and content already at a good stage but open to you contributions!

Being the deadline of this call on 2nd February 2017, please inform us about your expression of interest before 23rd December!

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Shedding light on the European Fund for Strategic Investments

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In the framework of series of events on “Investing in the future: new perspectives for the regions” AER organised a conference on the European Fund for Strategic Investments (EFSI) on 30 November. The event was kindly hosted by Mr Filip Dierckx, Vice-Chairman of the Board, BNP Paribas Fortis and opened by AER President Dr Hande Özsan Bozatli. We were honoured to welcome the Vice-President of the European Commission, Mr Jyrki Katainen, responsible for Jobs, Growth, Investment and Competitiveness and Mr Matthijs van Miltenburg, Member of the European Parliament.

The objective of the session was to provide regions with a comprehensive picture of the otherwise distant and complex EFSI.

MEP van Miltenburg, who referred to himself as a “constructive liberal”, used his intervention as an “early warning” to share some concerns on EFSI 2.0 in a spirit of making it a success. Active as a regional politician in AER before his election to the European Parliament, he recognises the role of regions as motors for jobs and growth creation and the importance of having right instruments, funds and grants to best achive these results. Among some of the concerns regarding EFSI is the question of whether it provides true leverage for the structural funds and the issue of transparency. “Tonight I hope to get answers on these points so that I can go back to the parliament and convince the sceptics to vote in favour of EFSI” concluded Mr van Miltenburg.

Vice-President Katainen addressed the regional and local leaders with his regional politician background; he shared 3 tips on what he would do if he were to implement EFSI in his region. (1) Make sure all banks in the region are informed that EFSI can be used for SME financing. (2) Use the resources of the european investment advisory hub. (3) Combining structural funds with EFSI financing for maximum leverage. Mr Katainen also provided success stories that show that the EFSI is not only for huge infrastructure projects but also for SMEs. He referred to a project in Ile-de-France (FR) to improve the energy efficiency of residential buildings; in this case, the EFSI provides long-term, low rate loans to apartment owners who will see their energy bill drop dramatically after the refurbishment. The Vice-President is also actively encouraging the Greek authorities to adopt a similar structure for entrepreneurs in the tourism sector that are currently unable to contract bank loans. Mr Katainen confirmed that EFSI would grow in the next 5 years. He concluded by addressing the transparency concern and confirmed that every project financed by EFSI is on the website.

Ms Florentine Hopmeier from DG ECFIN followed on the words of the Commissioner with a detailed presentation on “the investment plan for Europe”.

All information, pictures and presentation from the information session are available here.

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Culture as a driver of economic growth in the regions of the EU

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On 13 October, as part of the the 14th edition of the European Week of Regions and Cities (EWRC) in Brussels, the workshop, “Culture and creative industries in the Regional Smart Specialisation Strategies (R3S): how are regions handling it?” was held. It fell under the Sustained and sustainable economic growth theme of EWRC.

The workshop analysed how EU regions can support culture and creative industries (CCI) through the use of structural funds. It also discussed, in a broader sense, other EU initiatives that benefit creativity on the regional level, including Creative Europe, European Capitals of Culture, and other projects funded under the INTERREG programme and the EU Investment Plan. The chair was Mr. Walter Zampieri; and the speakers included Mr. Patrick Cocquet, Mr. Carlo Corazza, Mr. Vincent Lepage, Ms. Marta Marin, and Ms. Elena Mengotti. The main, overarching theme was that of CCIs and the way in which they could work alongside digital technologies, as drivers of innovation, for the benefit of the local and regional economy.

According to Ms. Elena Mengotti, Directorate for Culture, Sports and Solidarity of the Fruili Venezia Guilia Autonomous Region, the growth share of the CCI sector in her region has already spilled over into tourism, with the help of the information and communications technology (ICT) sector and the digital infrastructure. She underlined that CCI has a very high potential to contribute to the economy of her region.

Mr. Vincent Lepage, Director of the Directorate of Economic Policy of the Wallonia Creative District, echoed his agreement to Ms. Elena Mengotti’s statement, affirming that in order for regions to grow economically in this day and age, the digital and creative sectors must converge and be part of a coherent strategy in the national and regional policy. He developed this further by asserting that CCI should be spread to all sectors of the Walloon society and economy, as they have a very high potential to foster growth in other industries in the economy.

Ms. Marta Marin, Delegate of the Basque Country to the EU, also confirmed the joint value of the CCI and technological sector. She asserted that despite the economic crisis that has affected the region, it still manages to take part in the global economy. In fact, the region does so thanks to the entrepreneurial skills it has acquired from the already-existing network of the technological sector, which provides a comparative advantage for the region, along with the innovation lent from the CCI.

Indeed, it seems that these speakers all agree on the coupling of the CCI sector with the digital/technological sector. However, an audience member, who is a member of the EU Committee of the Regions, raised the matter of pigeon-holing culture into an economic paradigm of accelerated globalisation in the case of linkage with other sectors, which would thereby dilute its value, especially at the local level. In response, Mr. Ray Yeates, a City Arts officer at the Dublin City Council, argued that a silo on culture is almost impossible to maintain on the local level in this day and age, given that the essence and significance of culture on the local level is connected to the national and international level.

In fact, Mr. Walter Zampieri argued that the conflict between culture, industry, and economy is a false one. According to him, since one can only reach excellence in cultural activity through inclusion in other industries that compose a local or regional authority’s economy, it is indispensable to create a strategy for culture and creativity to achieve a more global role. He also mentioned that the role of public authorities, and especially that of local and regional authorities, is to ensure the convergence of cultural and economic activity.

The speakers advocated for the inclusion of cultural activities as part of the traditional industries of the economy, which through smart specialisation, could lead to sustained and sustainable economic growth for the regions that have learned to prioritise culture. They are hopeful that the linkage of culture with other sectors on the part of local and regional authorities could contribute to the revival of the local and regional economy across the European continent.

Culture is an important issue for the regions, and AER has worked on it in the past, especially with a focus on the transversal aspect of it. AER has called for contribution and action in the fields of Culture & inclusion and Migration & culture, respectively. In addition, AER has also published a handbook on Culture & health.

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Building new ties with the French regions

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On 10 and 11 October, a delegation from the Assembly of European Regions (AER) traveled to France to meet with four regions which are currently not members of AER: Bretagne, Pays de la Loire, Normandy and Ile-de-France. This field visit took place in the framework of this year’s territorial reform in France, that reduced – by merging – the number of metropolitan regions from 22 to 13, while giving them more competences, notably in the field of economy, employment and transport, three key topics for AER. As a result of this reform, coupled with the regional elections of 2015 and many new majorities arising, the AER Executive Board decided to put a strong focus on France this year, and build new ties with the regions. The AER delegation was led by the AER Vice-President for Institutional Affairs and Leader of Hampshire County Council (UK) M. Roy Perry, accompanied by member of the AER Executive Board and regional councillor from Grand Est (FR) M. Christian Debève, and the AER coordinator for membership and institutional relations M. Alexandre Brecx.

AER is very proud to count seven French regions among its active members (Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, Bourgogne-Franche-Comté, Corse, Grand Est, Guadeloupe, Guyane, Martinique) and ambitions to strengthen this presence in the months to come.

Bretagne

AER Vice-President Roy Perry had a lively working lunch in Rennes with M. Jacques Le Vagueresse, Director of European and International affairs of Bretagne. They extensively discussed about the consequences of the Brexit for the European regions. Bretagne is indeed very much connected to the United Kingdom, be it in terms of economy, tourism, maritime issues – but also in terms of history and culture. They both expressed clear wishes and commitments to maintain strong binds over the English Channel and to keep interregional cooperation alive. The rise of extremisms and populisms in Europe was also at the heart of the meeting, and Mr. Le Vagueresse stressed the responsibility of the regions to communicate more and better about Europe to the citizens. Among other things, they identified various areas of common interest for regional development, exchange of practices and connections with the European institutions to voice the interests of regions.

Pays de la Loire

The second visit of the trip of AER Vice-President Roy Perry led him to Nantes in the Région Pays de la Loire, where he was welcomed by M. François Pinte, 1st Vice-President, Mrs. Vanessa Charbonneau, Vice-President for European affairs, and M. Stéphane Labonne, Director of European policies. After presenting the work and activities of the Assembly of European Regions, Mr. Perry shared experiences as a former Member of the European Parliament. He also gave some very concrete examples of interregional cooperation which were built thanks to AER, and underlined how his County benefited from the AER membership. The representatives of Pays de la Loire showed their interest in cooperation with the European regions and in enhancing their presence on the European stage. They also shared the new European strategy of the region “A more useful Europe for a more efficient Region“ with the AER delegation, which will serve as a basis for further discussions.

Normandy

Priollaud Debeve PerryFor the third meeting of the trip, M. Roy Perry was joined by M. Christian Debeve. They paid a visit to M. François-Xavier Priollaud, Vice-President in charge of European and international affairs for Région Normandie, in the Parisian office of the Régions de France. Normandy is a “new region“ from the reform, made up of Lower and Upper Normandy. The delegation exchanged on the new structure and new competences hold by the regional council, and more generally about the state of decentralisation in Europe, a very important topic for AER. M. Priollaud then introduced the region’s European and international strategy to the AER delegation. He stressed in particular the importance of keeping strong links with the South of England, a message well heard and shared by M. Perry, Leader of Hampshire County Council. Building on the history of the region and its ties with Europe, they extensively discussed about the contribution of Normandy to the process of peace and democracy, a topic at the very heart of the AER priorities.

Île-de-France

img_4075For its final meeting with the French regions, the AER delegation met with M. James Chéron, President of the committee for European affairs in the regional assembly of Ile-de-France. M. Chéron addressed the issue of the UK referendum with M. Perry, expressing their fears about the coming months and years, and the long negotiation process ahead. After an informative discussion about the structures and missions of AER, they got back the very long history of Ile-de-France within the network, and the key role it has played over the last decade. M. Chéron gave some insights on how the regional council is now working, its main driving forces and how it envisages its presence in the European arena. This very useful meeting was an important opportunity to re-create links with the region, and launch ideas for future cooperations. As stated by M. Chéron: “exchange, share, build, mutualise, succeed!“

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Guide on EU funding for the tourism sector – updated version

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AER continues to monitor funding opportunities for the tourism sector, being a key factor for the economic and social development of European regions. In fact, the tourism sector represents the third largest EU economic sector and contributes to nearly 10% to the EU Gross Domestic Product and employs around 17 million people.

Following our previous article, AER would like to inform its members and partners about the updated version of the Guide on EU funding for the tourism sector for the 2014-2020 programming period which was released by the European Commission (last update on 05/08/2016).

The Guide gathers information on sources of EU funding of interest to the European tourism industry from both private and public sector. This new version comes with updated hyperlinks, the latest information on financial instruments and additional examples of recently selected projects.

The guide is available for download in the following languages:

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A more efficient implementation of environmental policies through the regions

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“It is useless to come with directives, regulations and strategies if they are not implemented“: Karmenu Vella, Commissioner for Environment, Maritime Affairs and Fisheries, opened the meeting with the delegation led by AER Vice-President Magnus Berntsson on 20 May 2016 in a frank and honest way, stressing the importance for the European Commission to cooperate with the regions for an efficient implementation of the environmental policies.

Magnus Berntsson took the opportunity of this meeting to introduce the keynote discussion on the topic of the Arctic that AER will hold in the framework of its 2016 General Assembly on 23 June in Nordland (NO). M. Vella presented the European Commission’s communication on “an integrated European Union policy for the Arctic” and expressed the crucial need to find global solutions and to take global actions in this area. The Arctic region indeed “represents a huge potential in terms of economic opportunities, which can only be sustainable by taking our environmental responsibilities” added the Commissioner. This potential was also raised by M. Berntsson, highlighting a.o. the blue growth and the green tourism.

Blue growth was at the heart of the discussions with a number of concrete examples given by the members of the AER delegation. Following the presentation made by the Commissioner on blue growth economy and the potentiality for outermost region (OR), Cyrielle Cuirassier, representing the outermost region of Guadeloupe (FR), took the opportunity to ask for the state of the art (technical level) regarding the task force to be launched. In line with the presentation made by the Commissioner, she reminded him about the specificities of the archipelago of Guadeloupe (art.349), and brought specific data such as the youth unemployment rate (Eurostat), and the added value of Guadeloupe as an OR in accordance with the communication of the EU commission (2012). Commissioner Vella promised to strengthen the dialogue on these topics with Commissioner Cretu, in charge of the outermost regions. Magnus Berntsson emphasized the need for common standards in the education system related to maritime professions, also to attract young people.

On top of the need to safeguard the oceans with sustainable fisheries and aquaculture, the Commission emphasized on the potential of energy (including innovative forms such as wave energy) that represent the oceans, and the question of global governance it raises to face these new challenges.

Making the link between maritime affairs and environment, all the parties around the table agreed on the urgent need to take actions regarding the use of plastics and its consequences on the oceans and shores. Again, the Commissioner called for a global response as “marine litter is a global problem: all possible waste end up in the oceans that we share globally” he said.

The topic of circular economy, especially green public procurement, was also discussed by the delegation. Giving an example of best practice from his home region of Västra Götaland (SE), M. Berntsson asked for a clearer definition and proved that “green public procurements and tenders can be used as incentives and to create new markets”. 

Commissioner Vella praised the work of AER in the field of circular economy, and more specifically the ongoing Regional Innovation Award which will be presented in December 2016 in Brussels.

To close the meeting, Mitar Vasiljevic exposed to the Commissioner the main elements addressed by the region of Vojvodina (RS) regarding environmental policies, and called the Commission for a greater support from the main funding programmes of the EU to the candidate countries, such as LIFE+.

Quoting the work done during the COP21, AER and the team of Commissioner Vella will keep on working together in the next months and years to achieve their common goals: a better implementation of the environmental policies in Europe and globally.

Meeting pictures

Commissioner Vella Magnus Berntsson

Karmenu Vella

Commissioner Karmenu Vella discovers the AER’s map of regions presented by AER Vice-President Magnus Berntsson

meeting Vella

 

Vella Berntsson

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Why the Arctic matters

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On 23 June, the region of Nordland (NO) invites you to a keynote discussion on “Development in the high North: the Arctic” in the framework of the AER General Assembly and Spring Bureau.

The timing of the debate coincides with the European Commission’s joint Communication to the European Parliament and the Council on “An integrated European Union policy for the Arctic”, published on 27 April 2016, which reflects on the strategic importance of the region for its 4 million inhabitants but also for Europe and the rest of the world; the Arctic is rich in providing fish, minerals, oil and gas to other parts of the world and is a key regulator of climate change.

The region is recognised as an example of constructive international cooperation and is also a strategic component of the EU’s foreign policy playing a key role in terms of regional and global security.

Increased human development in the Arctic will inevitably impact global weather patterns, oceans, ecosystems and local biodiversity. The Arctic’s role in climate change has been recognised as pivotal and the EU has a duty to protect the region, to strengthen the ecosystems resilience as a means to implement the global agreements of the COP21. Further development should be managed sustainably, respecting the regions, its resources, its inhabitants and livelihood and protecting the fragile environment.

The Communication outlines proposals for the EU’s enhanced action and engagement in three priority areas:

  1. climate change and safeguarding the Arctic environment: research, adaptation and mitigation strategies and protecting the environment are key answers to this point.
  2. sustainable development: innovative technologies, the European Arctic stakeholder forum, investment, space technologies, safe and secure maritime activities are identified in the communication to answer this point.
  3. international cooperation: international organisations and fora, dialogue with Arctic indigenous peoples, fisheries management and scientific cooperation are required to guarantee this point.

The key note discussions in Bodø will concentrate on different themes, seen both from a more central European Perspective, from a Nordic and from an Indigenous People’s Perspective. The following themes will be addressed:

  • Economic development and community building
  • Blue growth –seafood industry and more
  • Green Tourism
  • Minerals
  • Technology, infrastructure and better logistic
  • Safety and Emergency Preparedness
  • Climate and Energy questions

The speakers represent EU, the Norwegian Government, the University sector, the Regional political level and the Indigenous peoples.

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Participate for free in the first development conference in Mus Region (TR)

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The Eastern Turkish region of Mus invites you to participate in its very first « Social Development » conference hosted by the Mus Alparslan University from 28-30 September 2016. The conference is open to all disciplines related to tourism, industry, energy, education and agriculture along with their sub-disciplines.
A special call is made for agricultural topics (horticulture, plant protection, crop science, soil science and plant nutrition, agricultural biotechnology, animal science etc.)

Should you wish to participate, speak and/or submit papers on all these topics please visit and register on the conference’s website.

Please bear in mind that no participation fee will be charged from both domestic and foreigner participants. Also, accommodation and meals of all participants during the conference will be covered.

All information can be found on the conference website which is constantly being updated: http://unidap.alparslan.edu.tr/

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Partner Search for a project within the 3rd Health Programme

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The Government of the Balearic Islands (E) is looking for partners to join a project proposal that will be submitted within the 3rd Programme of Community Actions in the Field of Health (2014-2020), Topic « Gathering knowledge and exchanging best practices on measures reducing underage drinking and heavy episodic drinking » (Call PJ-02-2016, deadline 2nd June 2016 h 17:00 CET).

This project aims to study and determine the alcohol-related trauma in summer destinations along the Mediterranean coast, connecting the dots followed by the young European tourists going on holidays which often involves heavy drinking as main ingredient, that suffer an alcohol-related major trauma. That means getting to know their reasons in order to be able to establish preventive measures in their countries of origin and at their destinations as well. The project wants to explore which kind of trauma are more frequent after alcohol consumption in order to improve the care to these patients and to prevent it from happening. Moreover it wants to get knowledge about how is the come back to normal life into their countries after suffering alcohol-related major trauma, that will help in launching actions to improve their integration and quality of life.

The project duration will be between 30 and 36 months and the EU grant is 60% of the total estimated budget (consequently, the remaining part of the total eligible expenses entered in the budget must be financed from sources other than the EU grant).

The partners willing to join should have the following profile:

– National or Regional Ministry of Health

– National or Regional Ministry of Tourism

– Hospitals

– Universities, Research Centres, etc

– Local Authorities

– Others

And should come from the following countries: Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Malta, Sweden, United Kingdom.

If you wish to ask for additional information as well as to join this project proposal, please contact Mrs Agnese Pantaloni.

The deadline to express your potential interest in being partner of this proposal is April 20th.

 

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Launch of a trilateral Interreg Cooperation in the Balkans

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The official launch of the trilateral Programme of Crossborder Cooperation between Croatia, Montenegro and Bosnia and Herzegovina marked by the Interreg Conference, has been launched on March the 10th at the Croatian city of Split.
The Programme foresees funding of 67 milion €, for crossborder projects (with €57 million coming from the European Regional Development Fund and the Instrument for Pre-Accession Assistance/IPA) in an area covering 87,000 square kilometres with a population of 5.5 million. EU Commissioner for Regional Policy Corina Creţu said:

“Our cross-border programmes provide concrete measures to improve the quality of life and offer new economic opportunities and jobs to people living in the border regions of the European Union and its neighbours. These programmes are an opportunity for regions to find common solutions to shared challenges.”

The programme will also help reach the objectives of the South East Europe 2020 Strategy, of the EU macro-regional Strategy for the Danube Region and of the EU Strategy for the Adriatic and Ionian Region.

The “Interreg-IPA CBC Croatia-Bosnia and Herzegovina-Montenegro” programme includes 12 NUTS III regions in Croatia, 10 municipalities in Montenegro, and the Brčko District of BiH alongside 109 municipalities in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

The five main priorities of the programme are:

  1. Improving the quality of services in public health and social care in the programme area;
  2. Protecting the environment, improving risk prevention, flood and fire prevention,and promoting energy efficiency;
  3. Contributing to the development of tourism and to the preservation of the region’s cultural and natural heritage;
  4. Enhancing the economic competitiveness of the region;
  5.  Providing technical assistance to increase the efficiency of the management and implementation of the Programme.

Olja Georis of the Croatian Regional Development Agency (also Head of Managing Authority) called on the Croatian, Bosnian and Montenegrin representatives at the conference to submit joint cross-border cooperation projects for EU financing, saying cooperation was necessary to use the funds as well as possible. She recalled that a call was published on 9th of March  for the submission of draft projects that would receive €25 million of the €67 million envisaged by the programme. She said contracting is planned to begin early next year.

Assistant Regional Development and EU Funds Minister (HR) Marija Vuckovic said the ministry’s role was to back the partners in the realisation of this cross-border project, notably in Croatian border areas. The representative of Bosnia and Herzegovina in the Coordination Board (from the Direcorate of European Integration of Council of Ministers of BiH) Mrs. Nada Bojanić emphasized that BiH stakeholders are prepared for the implementation of the Programme and that it will hopefuly lead to the spreading of the crossborder impact and also highlited excellent cooperation with all counterparts especially with Croatian who offered to share their recent experience in negotiations with EU, which is important for Bosnia and Herzegovina since it is on its European integration path.

The conference was attended by more than 200 national, regional, local and other relevant stakeholders from all three countries participating in the Programme.

Download the presentations delivered at the conference:


The 1st Call for Proposal can be also downloaded here:

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