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The EU sets up an initiative to help 41 cities develop and implement digital policies, facing the big societal challenges of today The very near future seems to be just like the present: based on digitalization. It can be said that Europe has good results in terms of digitization: 58% of European households have ultra-fast connectivity and 4G mobile networks covers 91% of the EU population. However, 43% of Europeans still lack basic digital capabilities. There are cities in Europe that need...

More than two thousand young people applied, but just eight lucky chosen ones –aged between 18 and 30– had the opportunity of being part of the new Road Trip Project. They traveled through four different routes: Danube, Baltic, Atlantic, and Mediterranean, discovering cultures, telling stories and meeting with people... Another way to get to know the continent through this new initiative of the European Commission. Louis, who did the Mediterranean route, is grateful that he had a chance of...

The Interact programme took the initiative to pursue the Luxemburgish tradition of a project slam for Interreg projects. In this new edition on the occasion of the #EURegionsWeek 2018, the following 6 finalists were retained further to their entries along the 3 categories "Climate change adaptation", "Inclusive Growth including migrants’ integration" and "Cultural Heritage": DRIM (co-financed under Interreg Transnational Cooperation programme Danube, ARCHIVE (co-financed under Interreg Cross...

Already 2 days have passed since the #EURegionsWeek started but still many exciting activities are happening. The third day of the Week will have a focus on the latest updates from urban agenda, announcing the winners of the Urban Innovative Actions. During the afternoon the "Interreg Talks: 6 projects, 1 slam" will also take place. The purpose of this session is to present the high impact of Interreg projects in an entertaining and easy way. The day will end with the screening of five short...

During the 2018 EU regions week, health officials and professionals came together to discuss the challenges and reforms for the future of health in Europe. Despite the fact that several European countries provide decent healthcare to its citizens (source:WHO), the EU still faces potential healthcare problems. On the positive side, Europeans are now living longer than ever before. If we go back to 2002, the average EU person lived only until 77.7 years, which increased to 81 years in 2016. This...

The high-level event "Energy Union in motion - Cohesion Policy supporting coal regions in transition" stressed the contribution of Cohesion Policy to promoting clean energy, accelerating the transition towards a low-carbon economy and fighting climate change. Vice-President of the European Commission for the Energy Union Maroš Šefčovič and the European Commissioner for Regional Policy Corina Creţu exchanged with representatives of the seven Member States (Czech Republic, Germany, Greece, Poland...

The President of the European Committee of the Regions (CoR), Karl-Heinz Lambertz, delivered today his second speech on the State of the EU Regions "The cities and regions need the European Union. The European Union needs its cities and regions" during a special debate with European Parliament President Antonio Tajani on the future of Europe. "To weaken our cities and regions is to weaken our Union. This must not be part of our blueprint for the future. Quite the opposite: by strengthening our...

The Opening Session has focused on the main topics of the 2018 EU Regions Week. This interactive session touched on important topics regarding youth, cities, regions and cohesion. Let’s analyse it. Communication starts with a smile The opening Session was run in six languages (German, English, Spanish, French, Italian and Polish). EU citizens, who do not speak fluent English, could choose a different language. By having these choices, the organisers made sure the conference is accessible and...

First highlight of the second day of the #EURegionsWeek is the "State of the European Union: the View of its Regions and Cities" addressed by the President of the European Committee of the Regions (CoR), Karl-Heinz Lambertz at 15:00. It will coincide with the adoption of the CoR opinion on the future of Europe. Among others, the President will address the question on how regional and local leaders can help to make the European Union democratically more accountable and regain citizens' trust in...

The #EURegionsWeek 2018 was officially inaugurated on Monday afternoon with an Opening Session including Jean-Claude Juncker, President of the European Commission, Corina Crețu, Commissioner for regional policy, Karl-Heinz Lambertz, President of the European Committee of the Regions and Pavel Telička Vice-President of the European Parliament. The panellists were discussing the main topics of the #EURegionsWeek in an interactive way, with interventions made by European Committee of the Regions...