Council of European Municipalities and Regions (CEMR)
European section of United Cities and Local Governments


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Local and Regional Dialogues on Cohesion Policy

Local and regional dialogues - 22.03.2018

European Structural and Investment (ESI) Funds help support cross-border cooperation, local investments and local youth entrepreneurship, first local dialogues say
The local dialogues train on cohesion policy has started its journey across Europe: 60 events planned, already 8 took place. Here we share the main conclusions of the first four events: a multiregional event in the city of The Hague on 9 November 2017 (the Netherland); three local events in the City of Vienna on 2 February, in the City of Eisenstadt on 23 February (Austria), and in the town of Monselice on 21 February (Italy).
Local governments’ representatives, civil society organisations, students from universities and schools have attended the events; as well, several projects funded with ESI funds have been presented.
 
Among major conclusions and key recommendations:
 
  • ESI (or Structural) funds are vital for cross border cooperation as they allow working and learning together public and private sectors, across national borders, and they should be kept for this purpose (The Hague, first dialogue)
  • Certain developments and investments will never get off the ground without a financial contribution from the EU (The Hague, first dialogue)
  • The City of Vienna is not well represented when it comes to Cohesion Policy: one main demand for the future of the cohesion policy is to also focus on urban areas which have many societal and environmental challenges (Vienna, second dialogue).
  • In general, information or public reference to EU-funded projects is missing towards citizens. The EU, with the Member States and Regions, should invest more in communication to citizens and awareness-raising (Vienna and Eisenstadt, second and third dialogues)
  • Young people showed high interest on how to access the funds as individuals for small projects (Monselice, fourth dialogue).
  • The audience appreciated the storytelling of local youth entrepreneurial start-up projects thanks to European Regional Development Fund. It was appreciated in particular the testimonial of the young councilor of Legnago (town in province of Verona, Veneto Region ) who is preparing a re-development project for the environmental landscape requalification of the great Veronese valleys(Monselice, fourth dialogue).
 
To stay tuned, please visit CEMR dedicated webpage to the project.
The reports of past event are available here.
Follow and contribute to the Twitter debate with the #EUinmyregion hashtag, and discover the dialogues as if you were there thanks to our video playlist.
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