13th European Week of Regions and Cities
The Open Days 2015 will be a perfect forum for national and regional managing authorities, final beneficiaries and EU institutions to exchange information and facilitate networking on novel approaches for implementing the funds.
With the headline of 'Europe's regions and cities: partners for investment and growth' 2015 will be structured around three thematic priorities:
- Modernising Europe: The regions in the energy Union and the single digital market
- Regions open for business: SME development, innovation and job creation
- Places and spaces: Urban and rural development; urban-rural integration
EU actions in the urban areas have played a key role in using the potential in cities for innovation and new economic activities, addressing acute problems of social cohesion often arising in deprived urban areas and promoting greater balance in the national and European urban network. This sub-theme will focus on how EU regional and urban programmes can promote more balanced territorial development, how to promote rural competitiveness and reduce the rural-urban drift of population. The special challenge of border cities and border rural hinterlands will be addressed under this theme.
The Open Days are geared towards an audience specifically interested in regional policy:
- members of the Committee of the Regions, members of the European Parliament and national, regional and local politicians;
- European, national, regional and local government officials and experts in the field of managing and evaluating cohesion policy programmes;
- representatives of private companies, financial institutions and European and national associations;
- journalists from European, national, regional and local media;
- master or PhD students, researchers and practitioners in the field of European, regional and urban policy.