Six crystal glass awards towering on the stage, no one there to raise them in sign of victory. Understandably enough, the current Covid-19 situation urged the transition to an all-digital edition of the RegioStars Awards, which took place last Wednesday. The physical absence didn’t discourage the 25 finalists - 25 EU-funded projects who distinguished themselves for their innovative approach in regional development - connected from their headquarters with Brussels' Gold Hall, everyone cheering and waving European and national flags on the tiny slots on the screen.
2020 RegioStars Awards Ceremony at Gold Hall © EU/UE
The best EU Cohesion Policy projects are awarded every year since 2008 by an impartial jury. This year the categories are “Smart Growth: Industrial transition for a smart Europe”, “Sustainable Growth: Circular Economy for a Green Europe”, “Inclusive Growth: Skills & Education for a digital Europe”, “Urban Development: Citizens engagement for cohesive European Cities” and “30 Years of Interreg: Youth empowerment for cooperation across borders”, as the topic of the year. A say has been given to the public as well, who could vote for the Public Choice Award.
The 2020 edition registered the highest numbers of entries ever - 206 - showing “the growing value of this competition which puts EU cohesion policy best practices in the spotlight and rewards committed project beneficiaries for their excellent implementation of EU funding on the ground”, as suggested by the Commissioner for Cohesion and Reforms, Elisa Ferreira.
Commissioner Elisa Ferreira opening the 2020 RegioStars Awards © EU/UE
On a people-less stage, the winners are cheering digitally nonetheless. Let’s discover who they are.
Announced by the Commissioner for Economy Paolo Gentiloni, the winner for the Smart Growth category is ESA BIC. Based in Portugal, this project promotes the space economy and the European Space Agency incubation program, supporting entrepreneurship intending to use space technologies to enhance non-space markets here on Earth. With less than €200.000 of fundings, ESA BIC Portugal managed to create more than 11 million in investments.
The Sustainable Growth award, announced by the Commissioner for Environment and Oceans Virginius Sinkevičius, goes to Take the Cool Food challenge. This project sees the UK and France partnering up, challenging people to change their food habits to have positive impacts on carbon emissions. The project saw the reduction of carbon emission by 400 tons, the equivalent to almost 400 return journeys Paris-New York, just by promoting plant-based, seasonal and local food consumption. Striking the balance between being beneficial for the economy and improving the quality of the environment, communities engaged really well because, according to the founder, “people really want to do something for the environment but feel their contribution is not enough and this project showed how we can collectively work really well”.
Growth would be incomplete without Inclusive Growth. The winner for this category, awarded by the Commissioner for Jobs and Social Rights Nicolas Schmit, is E-SCHOOLS, a pilot project based in Croatia that promotes the digitalisation of school and learning. Started in 2015, it has enabled half a million students and 50.000 teachers to learn and teach remotely, connecting schools to ultra-fast internet and highly equipped computer technologies allowing interactive learning. Essential to the response to the Covid crisis, now all Croatian schools are included in the second phase of the project that aims to full digital maturity in schools by 2022.
The 25 finalists digitally attending the ceremony © EU/UE
For the Urban Development category, the winner announced by the European Commission Vice-President for Values and Transparency Věra Jourová is the project SHICC - Sustainable Housing for Inclusive and Cohesive Cities. Bridging France, Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands, Ireland and the UK, the mission is to tackle the lack of affordable houses in major cities in Europe. The creation of a new model separating the ownership of the land from the ownership of the walls helped further affordable housing by and for communities and sparked enthusiasm around this new way of housing.
For the topic of the year, the “30 Years of INTERREG” awards, announced by the Commissioner for Innovation, Research, Culture, Education and Youth Mariya Gabriel, goes to ENERGY@SCHOOL. The cross-border project saw the collaboration between Italy, Austria, Croatia, Germany, Slovenia, Hungary and Poland in training senior and junior energy guardians and helping to implement energy-smart schools. With the aim to raise awareness among European students on the issue of energy saving to make schools, as well as households, more efficient, this project is a reminder that no one is ever too small to make a difference.
DG Regio's Director General Marc Lemaître on stage © EU/UE
The Public Choice Awards, announced by the European Commission Chief Spokesperson Eric Mamer, was granted with 8300 votes to Time is now for change, a project seeing the collaboration between Poland and Lithuania to help young people experiencing social exclusion get an active role in society, promoting a virtuous circle of mutual enrichment for more than 100 people every year. “Youth can be motivated to change and can change and through cross-border partners we can learn so much” commented the manager of the project.
This digital edition of RegioStars Awards has been all about the power of collaboration and empowerment. Although the Covid crisis is still ongoing and the challenges towards a green and digital future still lie ahead, local people with good ideas implementing projects that can be an example and an inspiration for others are the solution, the secret of the success of Cohesion Policy. In the words of the Commissioner for Cohesion Policy Elisa Ferreira, “Will you be that inspiration? Will you be those examples?”.
By Marta Silvia Viganò (Italy)
