News

Interview with Karl-Heinz Lambertz, President of the CoR, European Committee of the Reg i ons. Mr. Lambertz, the integration of migrants into the labour market, as well as the topic of migration in general, many citizens in Europe consider more the central state respectively the respective national governments of the affected states to be obliged to solve these challenges. But shouldn't the issue of integrating migrants into the labour market be more in the hands of local and regional...

The Creative hub in Namur has big plans. In a month the hub will move to a new building, which is ten times bigger than the existing one. Moreover, the whole city of Namur has such high ambitions. The town situated just 40 minutes from Brussels, aims to show how life can be concentrated not only in capitals. Namur has benefited from the European Structural Funds for a period from 2014 to 2020. The priorities of this program are focused on innovation, low carbon emissions, as well as on economy...

This week, Cohesion Policy finally received the visibility it rightfully deserves. In spite of the fact that it makes up about one-third of the Union’s spending, it is unlikely that you as an humble citizen are fully aware of how its efforts affect your personal life. Luckily, moderator and staff member of the European Parliament Maria Alexandra Henriques can provide us with a bite-size description: “Cohesion Policy is basically the thing that makes everyone’s life better.” Telling Our Stories...

17 countries, 30 regions and eight young people, that's the "Road Trip Project", which is staged annually by the EU and was presented during the European Regions Week in Brussels. In two teams of four participants, those between 19 and 27 years of travel explored up to 10 European countries and visited local initiatives supported by the EU. The 22-year-old student Selina Oberpriller from Regensburg tells us what impressions she has particularly influenced. On August 29, the time had come...

No, don’t get all skeptical. Well, not yet. If you acknowledge it or not, this is a fact. Every day, through media, public opinion, interests, and motivations of people, consciences are influenced, misguided or diverted, even beyond the boundaries of their own wills and senses. And the democratic monolith we know today as the European Union is no exception. Is disinformation such a big deal? Looking in these days, this issue appears with even more intensity than ever. But you would ask: Isn’t...

Migration brings various positive aspects. Therefore, it is important to help migrants and refugees to integrate into our societies by giving them proper education amongst other things. This was the panel’s message during the ‘ Migrant and Refugee Integration in Small Territories: A Win-Win Opportunity’ session on Thursday morning during the European Regions Week. In his speech, the President of the European Committee of the Regions, Karl-Heinz Lambertz, confirmed that Europe is not the...

The European Committee of the Regions (CoR) invited 100 Young Elected Politicians (YEP) from the local and regional level to take part in the European Week of Regions and Cities 2019. The selected group was gender balanced and included young politicians with different political backgrounds from 26 Member States. Their programme covered attendance at #EURegionsWeek key sessions, discussions with high-level EU politicians, meetings with political groups represented in the European Committee of the...

In the closing session, three European Commission senior officials and the Vice-President of the European Committee of the Regions, each prompted by a 30 second audio-visual feed-back from this week's edition, have provided their own take-away message on each of the following four themes: Marc Lemaître, Director General of Regional and Urban Policy, Europe closer to Cities Markku Markkula, Vice-President of the Committee of the Regions, Future of Europe is Regions and Cities Veronica Manfredi...

What happens when eight young people from different parts of Europe meet for the first time with the aim to start the adventure of their life? The Roadtrip project funded by the European Commission's Directorate-General for Regional and Urban Policy gathered eight charismatic individuals from around the EU and offered them a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. The group ventured out on a one month-long trip from the 29th of August to the 29th of September 2019 with the aim of exploring the variety...

Globally, about ⅓ of food produced is wasted each year (FAO) while every day, 821 million people across the globe suffer from hunger (UN, 2017 Report). In Europe, only about 173 kg of food per inhabitant is wasted every year. How can the EU act towards reducing food waste ? How local and regional authorities can turn food waste from public institutions, businesses, and households into a resource for the whole society? These were the questions that were addressed by the representatives of ESPON...