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RSA Europe at the 2024 EU Regions Week

Image - RSA Europe at the 2024 EU Regions Week

The 22nd European Week of Regions and Cities (#EURegionsWeek) took place from the 7-11 October, 2024. The RSA and RSA Europe were, as in previous years, actively involved in the programme and were well represented at the event.

EU Regions Week is the biggest annual Brussels-based event dedicated to cohesion policy. It has grown to become a vital platform to discuss common challenges for Europe’s regions and cities, by bringing together a diverse community of speakers and participants. This year, there were 156 sessions with over 500 speakers, attracting more than 7,000 participants from all over Europe.

Three sessions involved the RSA and/or RSAE as sponsors or partners:

‘The end of the trade-offs? Competing and converging for European Democracy’

This RSAE, ERSA and AESOP session was chaired by Professor Louise Kempton. Speakers were Dr Franziska Sielker, TU Wien, Austria; Professor Dimitris Ballas, University of Groningen, the Netherlands and Professor Andrés Rodríguez-Pose, London School of Economics, UK.

The workshop engaged with academic and policy debates in relation to the EU’s long-standing balancing act of encouraging and facilitating competitiveness across its regions and at the same time promoting social and territorial cohesion.  It explored ways in which regions can compete at the same time converge and considered the possible impacts of convergence and competitiveness policies in relation to geographies of happiness, discontent, ‘left-behind’ people and places and the implications for European democracy.

More photos of the session can be found here https://www.flickr.com/photos/euregionsweek/albums/72177720321092331/

‘How to reconcile Growth and Convergence. Exploring the neglected dilemma of Cohesion Policy’

This session featured Professor Ida Musialkowska, Poznan University, Poland and Professor Ugo Fratesi, Politecnico de Milano, Italy. It was chaired by Serafin Pazos-Vidal, European Association for Innovation in Local Development.

The session asked whether cohesion policy can promote overall growth while also delivering regional convergence, and where the balance might lie between the two. Work was presented from the RSA #CPnet and the JRC REMO team.

‘Good management of EU Cohesion policy for a strong EU democracy’

The Auvergne Rhône-Alpes Region in its capacity as Managing Authority of the Regional ERDF and ESF programme organised a “#EURegionsWeek close to you” workshop in cooperation with the RSA and RSA Europe. Moderator Fabian Gal reports that the workshop’s aims were to contribute to explaining the causes of administrative complexity of EU cohesion policy implementation and to explore concrete measures and actions that local and regional authorities can take to enhance the effective management of EU Cohesion policy. The outcomes of this workshop significantly contributed to the ongoing debate on the future of EU Cohesion Policy.

RSA Chief Executive Alan Kinder attended the week in his capacity as RSAE General Manager, and RSA Europe Director John Bachtler attended in a professional capacity to moderate a workshop on the future of Cohesion Policy on behalf of the Polish Ministry of Funds & Regional Development.

Although the main event is over, there are still opportunities to get involved, and there is still opportunity to participate in local “Close-to-You” events which are running until 28 November. You can find the programme details here: EURegionsWeek close to you 2024 | European Week of Regions and Cities (europa.eu).

If you missed any #EURegionsWeek high-level sessions last week, you can watch them here: 2024 Sessions | European Week of Regions and Cities. Find the #EURegions Week photo gallery at European Week of Regions and Cities’s albums | Flickr.

 

Alex Holmes

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