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The EU goal of a smarter Europe is restricted by the regional disparities that exist in Adult Education opportunities, as outlined in the policy paper "Mind the Gap: Education Inequality across EU Regions". Some EU regions report 30% of their citizens aged 16-65 are involved in formal adult education, whereas other regions report figures as low as 3%. This disparity requires a strategic approach for the regions and local authorities to formulate policies and programmes that align with national...

Following the Paris Agreement, the EU has committed to reducing annual greenhouse gas emissions by 40% over 1990 levels by the year 2030, and by at least 80% by 2050. Cutting back coal-fired power generation is an important element in this context, and this will have tangible economic and social effects on Europe's coal-producing regions. Lignite and coal are currently mined in 41 NUTS-2 regions, and there are coal-fired power stations in 103 NUTS-2 regions. The structural change initiated by...

The policymakers came together on Wednesday 9 October for the “ Education and Training Institutions bringing research and innovation closer to citizens and communities” session held within the EU regions Week. They discussed what can be done to make the educational institutions closer to the citizens. T he discussions centred on Skills and Smart Specialization Policy Report, human capital, different forms of mobility and place-based curriculum. Speaking to participants at the session, John...

What you just read is true: everyone in Europe wants to be like this small-southern Italian city. Pride of Place is an innovative initiative that wants to spread the Matera miracle to other places in Europe. Two years ago, The Guardian published an article titled: The miracle of Matera: from city of poverty and squalor to hip hub for cave-dwellers. But what happened in Matera isn’t just a miracle… This city suffered from a problem that lots of countries in Europe (and around the world) are...

A debate about “The adaptive re-use of our built heritage for a greener Europe” was led on Wednesday morning, in the bossom of the European Regions Week. Too often people attention is focused on big world-wide issues forgetting that a change must be made first in our daily places. Cristine Clotet Ollé, architect for the Government of Catalonia, Eugen Panescu, member of the Architects' Council of Europe, Antonia Gravagnuolo, researcher at IRISS, Valerio Barberis, Deputy Mayor of Urban planning...

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...