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Yesterday evening, the Commission announced the winners of the 2019 RegioStars awards, Europe’s awards for the most outstanding Cohesion Policy projects. The projects competed in five categories. For “Promoting digital transformation” (1st category) the award went to Energy Cells GR, a cross-border cooperation project between Germany, Belgium, France, and Luxembourg for sustainable energy consumption and innovative renewable energy production in the Greater Region. CobBauge, from the UK, was...

Only 15 % of the population in Denmark has heard about EU co-founded projects in their region. This means the Danes by far are the EU-citizens with lowest awareness of these local projects even though they are aimed to improve the areas in which they live. This was one of the points made by Marc Lemaitre, Directorate General for Regional and Urban Policy, when he presented conclusions from the EU-Commission’s survey Citizens' awareness and perception of EU Regional policy from June 2019 during...

Global climate change is something I think about every day. Not a single day goes without a feeling of anxiety about the future. Almost everyday, headlines are screaming about climate change, or a friend tells me a personal experience about it. The experiences can be about the rain which never comes, or the floods, which are becoming worse, or a stormier sea. And these are the headlines and experiences that young citizens must grow up with nowadays. To ease my personal anxiety I'm doing...

Lisbon should be used as a beacon for cities in Europe as it shows that sustainability and economic development are not adversaries. Green investment and development into sustainable options are more affordable to construct and maintain. Speaking on the Lisbon experience was Duarte Mata, Advisor of Deputy Mayor's Office from Lisbon. As Europe is moving towards a new radical vision for sustainable development and policy, goals have been set by President-elect for the European Commission, Ursula...

It is often thought that the action of the European Union ends within its own borders and that positive effects are limited exclusively to the 28 member states. The IPA (Instrument for Pre-Accession Assistance) proves the opposite. This tool has the goal of developing and transforming individual sectors, bringing them to the average EU standard. Today’s workshop called “EU beyond billboards – how IPA cooperation is changing people’s lives” aims to show four project examples that have brought...

It has been 216 years since the huge disaster in the island of Madeira occurred. Because of huge flood almost 1000 people died. Very similar situation also occurred in 2010 on the island. However, the citizens of Madeira did not had the support of the European Union 216 years ago that they had in 2010. Natercia Xavier, citizen of Madeira and a participant of EU Regions Week, said that this support is extremely important, though creating a resilient region is not only about building...

One of EU’s main goals is to break down borders and enhance territorial cohesion. However, the borders are still very much there and still constitute a great stumbling block for people who want to work with common challenges, such as clean energy transition in cross-border areas. During the session “No country is an island: Cross-border strategies for a clean energy transition” this issue became extra clear. With rising concern about climate change and a growing demand for clean energy, cross...

2007 was a big year in both Romanian and Bulgarian history. On the 1st of January the two Eastern-European countries joined the rows of the European Union which marked the beginning of the transition from post-communism era to a democracy-liberal one. Now, 12 years later, Romania and Bulgaria have changed significantly, but are still considered the worst two among their bigger brothers and sisters in Europe. Problematic and slow-developing economy, lowest wages in the EU, demographic crisis and...

The 8 finalists of the Interreg Project Slam 2019 appeared on stage at EURegionsWeek on 8 October. They were competing for the prizes at this years’ Project Slam, which challenges projects to present the results of their work in an innovative way. The first innovative element was a video competition on social media, where the 8 video’s contestants could better explain the results and benefits of Interreg projects on the ground. This year again, the Interreg Project Slam was a huge success that...

How do we measure which regions are doing well? And what do we mean by “doing well”? Cohesion policy, which aims to ensure investment in less fortunate communities and reduce disparities between rich and poor, uses GDP per capita to decide where to throw its considerable financial weight. Although useful and straightforward, this measure only considers wealth, ignoring attractiveness and inequality. The Regional Competitive Index (RCI) aims to capture in data the ability of a region to offer an...