European Union News - Regional Policy

The Committee of the Regions' plenary session, to be held on 5 and 7 October, in parallel with the OPEN DAYS - European Week of Regions and Cities, will reflect the main themes in current EU institutional and political affairs. The session's main theme will be the battle against the effects of climate change and preparations at regional and municipal level for the Copenhagen summit.

From today until Thursday, Brussels is the center of European regional policy through the OPEN DAYS 2009, the biggest event of the EU regional policy in the year, which will bring together more than 7,000 policy-makers, professionals and officials from academia, business and civil society at European, national and regional levels. The innovation and development as engines of growth will be a key point in the seminars and events being held in the Belgian capital.

Brussels will become the capital of the regions and cities with the organisation of “Open Days 2009 - European Week of Regions and Cities” where over 7,000 European, national and regional policy-makers, practitioners and representatives of business, civil society and academia will participate in 125 seminars and other events in Brussels.

EU Affairs ministers and representatives from the European Commission, the European Parliament and the European Investment Bank will meet at Stockholm City Hall to discuss the EU Baltic Sea Strategy as pilot project for future macro-regional strategies.

The EP has called for a rapid release of EU aid funds to help victims of this summer's devastating forest fires in Southern Europe, especially in Greece. MEPs also want more cross-border European action in the fight against such disasters. Furthermore, they criticise some Member States for not having done enough to prevent the fires.

Five new calls for proposals have been published in order to develop European observation network for territorial development and cohesion, an initiative to study the conditions for the development of areas of the EU.

On October 9th, a conference will be held in Brussels where experts will discuss about "Improving the deployment of innovative broadband networks in European regions”. This event, addressed to all stakeholders, will bring together members from industry and academia, as well as European institutions, in order to provide a strategic overview of the existing opportunities for fast deployment of advanced access infrastructures, particularly broadband and next generation ICT networks.

In the framework of the ESPON 2013 programme, calls for proposals and expression of interest will be launched on 16 September 2009. ESPON is an initiative that aims to study the conditions for the development of several areas in the EU. The calls will reflect priorities 1 to 4 of the programme.
 

These amendments will facilitate the implementation of the 455 programs of the cohesion policy for 2007-2013. The Commision will invest 347,000 million EUR, representing over one third of the EU budget. This is intended to accelerate the flow of investment to the project and the people most affected by the crisis in the regions of Europe.

The European Commission, on a proposal from Vice-President Tajani, has just renewed the mandates of six coordinators in the trans-European transport networks (TEN-T) sector. With this decision, the Commission confirms the European coordinator solution which has proved to be both effective and decisive for Priority Projects where progress has met with difficulties.

The Commission has issued a call for proposals to develop the pilot project by the European Parliament that seeks to promote integration of Roma across the European Union.

In Strasbourg the Prime Minister of the Czech Republic, Jan Fischer, has reported to MEPs on his country's six-month presidency of the European Union, in which the main challenges had been "the three Es": economy, energy policy and the EU's role in the world.