Building Europe in partnership

In just five years, the European week of regions and cities Open Days has become an event not to be missed.

Through a series of seminars and workshops, regions and cities illustrate how they can create growth and jobs thanks to the EU’s cohesion and structural funds policy.

This forum, initiated by the Committee of the Regions and DG Regio, has won a faithful following of more than 5,000 local, regional, national and European decision-makers who demonstrate best practices on economic development, social integration, regional cooperation, active partnerships between local government and businesses, and promoting clusters of excellence involving research centres and universities.

This autumn, the EU agenda highlights many opportunities to move forward on key issues including territorial cohesion, the future of the cohesion and structural funds policy, the revision of the financing of the EU budget to meet the challenges of globalisation and climate change and of course the preparations for the European elections in June 2009.

Europe’s regions and cities have an active role to play in these debates and Open Days offers them an ideal setting to demonstrate the importance of a multi-level approach to governance. Furthermore, the continued pursuit for a strong and effective cohesion policy will guarantee sustainable development and stimulate research and innovative projects, while enriching human capital and offering a rich variety of collaborative projects between regions.

A total of 145 debates, seminars and workshops will take place in Brussels between 6 and 9 October 2008. These sessions have been organised by a wide-range of partners including EU institutions, business organisations, banks and financial institutions and international and civil society organisations. During the week, the Committee of the Regions will be the political arena for thousands of regional and local politicians working for regional development.

In the Investors Café, participants are offered the opportunity to exchange experiences and ideas and to create further opportunities to work together. Around 200 regional journalists from all over Europe will have the possibility to find out how their region or city cooperates on a wide range of issues including economic development, climate change and health care and how they engage in European affairs in Brussels.

European policies are not only relevant to the two square kilometres surrounding the EU institutions in Brussels, however. They are also relevant to Europe’s vibrant regions and cities. This is why we have made the decentralised part of this year’s European week of regions and cities more important than ever before.

Throughout October, 233 local events in 30 countries will be organised by partner regions of Open Days and branded under the logo of ‘Europe in my Region/City’. The aim of these events is to ‘go local’ and raise awareness of European policies, in particular the EU cohesion policy, amongst the wider public. Participating regions and cities were encouraged to involve MEPs and Committee of the Regions members in these events.

The representations of the European commission in each of the member states, together with the offices of the Europe Direct network, have also been involved in the organisation of these events. Most of the initiatives take the form of seminars or conferences, exhibitions, public debates and media events. Examples include youth debates, sports and cultural activities, media briefings, scientific meetings, a European road show, a special edition of a newspaper focused on European issues and an award ceremony.

The majority of events focus on regional innovation, research and business development. Furthermore, approximately one quarter of the local events address sustainable development, climate change and renewable energy. Other events have been organised across borders and promote the exchange of best practices among regions.

In addition, a series of events highlights the projects across Europe supported by the structural and cohesion funds (See pages 63-65 for examples of two Open Days events in the regions).

Globalisation, climate change and demographic change increasingly affect the development of regions and cities altering the traditional economic status quo within Europe. Tomorrow’s EU cohesion and structural funds policy must aim at improving the use of resources in all European regions as well as innovation capacity, entrepreneurship, sustainability, employment and accessibility.

Moreover, it should continue to allocate European, national, regional and private resources favouring the delivery of ‘European public goods’ by leveraging strong partnerships at all levels of government.

The regions and cities of Europe play a critical role in enhancing dialogue between citizens and EU institutions, raising public awareness and exchanging best practices. A Europe, which is united by shared values, committed to improving the quality of life of citizens and open to sustainable economic development has to ensure that all levels of government are partners in decision-making.

That is our vision for Europe’s future and it is what we are working hard to achieve.