The European Commission awarded projects from Sweden, Poland, Austria, and two transnational partnerships the RegioStars 2012 Awards. The projects are included in five prize categories for good practice in regional development to projects with EU co-investment.

Five EU-funded projects have been awarded by the European Commission with the RegioStars 2012 Awards. The winners are from different European regions. In category one, Smart Growth, the winner is Eco World Styria from the Austrian region fo Styria. In category two, Sustainable Growth, the winner is GRaBS ('Green and Blue Space Adaptation for Urban Areas and Eco-towns') - European Territorial Cooperation (ETC) from 14 different regions. In category 3, Inclusive Growth, the winner is 'Older people for Older people' (O4O) – ETC which is also a collaborative project. For category 4, CityStar, the winner is SÖM 'South East Malmö', from the Swedish region of Malmö. Finally, in the last category, Informing the public, the winner is “Regional operational programme for Podlaskie Voivodeship 2007-2013” from the Podlaskie region of Poland.

According to the Commission, the objective of the RegioStars Awards is to identify good practices in regional development and to highlight original and innovative projects which could be attractive and inspiring to other regions. The RegioStars awards form part of the Commission's Regions for Economic Change initiative, which aims to highlight good practice in urban and regional development.

On this occasion, the European Commission received a record 107 applications since March 2012 when the period for candidatures opened, of which 24 were chosen as finalists. All EU regions were invited to submit projects which had received funding from the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) or the Cohesion Fund after 1st January 2000.