Youth Manifesto to shape European Cooperation Policy

A group of young Europeans has contributed to the publication of the “Manifesto for Young People by Young People to Shape the European Cooperation Policy” in October 2020, on the occasion of the 30 years of Interreg, which is the EU’s flagship scheme for cooperation across borders at the regional and national level, to the benefit of all EU citizens. The Manifesto is the result of a truly democratic and bottom-up process to involve young people in shaping the future of EU cohesion policy and especially of Interreg and the Macro-Regional Strategies (MRS).  

Following targeted surveys, polls and online group discussions with young people from all over Europe, the Manifesto presents five areas of concerns for European youth especially linked to:

1) education and training opportunities;

2) employment and job market;

3) digitalisation;

4) climate change;

5) citizens’ engagement.  

12 concrete recommendations are presented mainly addressing decision-makers and administrations at the EU, national, regional and local level to show what they can do to best address young people’s requests.   

A core group of young people and organisations interested in European cooperation and/or citizens’, and especially young people’s, engagement, as well as European Commission’s staff, hold regular informal exchanges to best disseminate the Manifesto and ensure its proper follow up with the implementation of the 12 recommendations. 

The Manifesto is in the hands of anyone interested in improving EU cohesion policy and especially its cooperation dimension. Being it for a young person, a politician or someone working in a local, regional or national administration, the Manifesto is a great tool to show that young people’s ideas can only improve the way we build a better, fairer and stronger EU for all. As such, young people’s voices must be heard! 

All Interreg and Macro Regional Strategies actors are invited to implement the 12 recommendations and to further promote the Manifesto with their network!

• Citizens have no say in EU politics?! That belongs to the past with the #EuropeanHomeParliaments.
  To participate, you invite your friends or family to talk about a political topic – this time #EUSolidarity. This can take place online or at your homes or a public place. The citizen movement @PulseofEurope provides material to facilitate the debate. After you finished talking, you are asked to collect some key results, which you punch in on the platform. Find out more on homeparliaments.eu or watch the video here.
  
  Follow #HomeParliaments and #EuropeanHomeParliaments to find out what European politicians including Commission president Ursula von der Leyen, Polish Łukasz Kohut and many others do with the results of your discussions.

“We are happy to support a great project by the pro-European citizens’ movement Pulse of Europe e.V. With the European HomeParliaments citizens from different countries in Europe are able to participate in EU politics from their kitchen tables, cafés or their living rooms. After
successful implementation in the years 2018 and 2019, they now enter the 3rd round. Until 2 November 2020, all interested citizens have the opportunity to organise private round tables on the “future of European solidarity”. This can take place at home, in a café, via video call with the family, friends or acquaintances. The results of the private round table discussions will then be passed on directly to EU policy makers. They take a stand on the wishes and suggestions of the HomeParliamentarian s thus feeding into their political actions! Among others, EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and other EU politicians from five different
countries will participate. To hold your own European HomeParliament, all you need is an interest in European politics, about two hours of time and the fun of a lively discussion. Anyone who is interested in taking
part simply registers online as a host of a HomeParliament. You will then be provided with all the necessary materials for preparation.
Do you want to become part in the first broad grassroots participation project in Europe? Then click here to see more information .”

On 31st March 2020 European Parliament Think Tank published a briefing that has been drafted at the request of a member of the Committee of the Regions, under the Cooperation Agreement between Parliament and the Committee. The document has been prepared by the EPRS – European Parliamentary Research Service. Author: Christiaan van Lierop; Members’ Research Service PE 649.355 – March 2020.

Summary

The main objective of the territorial agenda is to strengthen territorial cohesion, an EU principle that seeks to ensure the balanced development of the EU and reduce its regional disparities. Agreed in May 2011 and the culmination of a process begun many years earlier with the European Spatial Development Perspective, the Territorial Agenda 2020 is currently being revised with a view to establishing a continued role for this initiative within the EU’s new cohesion policy framework beyond 2020. Aimed at ensuring the implementation of the Europe 2020 strategy in line with the principle of territorial cohesion, the Territorial Agenda 2020 strives to promote the integration of the territorial dimension across many different policies.

To deliver on this ambition, it has established an action- oriented political framework based around six territorial priorities and a series of implementation mechanisms to make EU territorial cohesion a reality. However, with the territorial agenda a low political priority in past years, implementation has remained weak, while the process itself has been beset by challenges, such as fragile intergovernmental cooperation and a low level of awareness. This situation has been compounded by the complex and abstract nature of the territorial agenda, making it difficult to communicate its aims and objectives. Set up in 2018 during the Austrian Presidency, an intergovernmental taskforce is currently leading the work on the renewal of the territorial agenda, the aim being to conclude the process under the German Presidency, with the signing of a 2030 territorial agenda in December 2020.

A draft version of the territorial agenda was published in December 2019, underpinned by two overarching priorities, a ‘just Europe’ and a ‘green Europe’, establishing a clear link with the European Commission’s current priorities and its strategy for sustainable growth, the European Green Deal. While thisstructure could well help embed the territorial agenda more firmly within the EU’s policy- making system, increasing its relevance and improving its visibility, the ongoing coronavirus crisis looks set to overshadow these discussions in the coming months.

You can read the full document here:

https://www.europarl.europa.eu/RegData/etudes/BRIE/2020/649355/EPRS_BRI(2020)649355_EN.pdf

The meeting will take place in:

Brussels, Belgium

Skåne European Office

Rue du Luxembourg 3

1000 Bruxelles

„Nordic House”

Planned agenda of the meeting:

Dear Partners and Friends,

On behalf of the Interreg South Baltic Programme Joint Secretariat Team, we are forwarding an invitation to their Workshop Session on The European Week of Regions and Cities 2019!

JS are organizing this workshop together with the Interreg Italy-France (Maritime) Programme, which will give all of us the opportunity to exchange across our regions.

What we offer you in our workshop

Smaller regions and cities with the support of Cooperation Programmes have co-developed joint solutions together with strong innovation-oriented actors such as universities, incubators or science and technology parks in cross-border cooperation.

After achieving many valuable results we are not at the end of this journey. In group work, all participants of the workshop will identify future challenges in their home regions. All participants will be invited to join the discussions and contribute their own experiences, future challenges and possible ideas.

The results from the discussions will be presented to the Programming Committee creating the next Programme Period 2021-2027 of the Interreg South Baltic Programme.

Please find more information and the workshop’s program here on our website.

Please find the program as well attached to this email.

Registration available here.

Important! Create your EU Login before registering! (Click on EU Login in the upper right corner of the EURegionsWeek’s website.)
As there are limited seats on the Workshop Session, we recommend registering as soon as possible! We recommend making travel arrangements as soon as possible, as prices are rising.

We recommend registering as well for other sessions, as this year’s program of the EURegionsWeek is very interesting!

For more information contact the JS Team!

Joint Secretariat  |  Interreg South Baltic Programme 2014 – 2020

Al. Grunwaldzka 186  |  80-266 Gdańsk, Poland

Tel: +48 58 746 38 55 |  Fax: +48 58 761 00 30

Email: southbaltic@southbaltic.eu | www.southbaltic.eu

“Boosting growth and cohesion in EU border regions” is the title of the communication that EU Commission adopted in Brussels on 20th September 2017.

The communication is the result of two years long research and dialogue with local authorities across borders and various stakeholders. The aim of the communication is to reduce administrative and legal obstacles of cross-border interaction smoothing cooperation and cohesion among EU internal border-regions. These regions cover the 40% of EU territory accounting for 150 million people.

Since 1990 Interreg program has been supporting cross-border cooperation financing projects and initiatives to improve connectivity and cohesion, boost economic growth and undertake a path of trust through people to people projects. Despite positive results difficulties still persist: lack of information; complicated administrative procedures; lack of coordination; different tax regimes; different living standards.

In order to tackle them, the Commission has developed a “Border Focal Point” aiming at providing key actors with support to address cross-border issues, sharing experiences and good practices, ensuring that the Commission will take into due account the cross-border regional dimension in its future key actions. Within this framework, the Commission intends to address 10 key actions: deepening cooperation and exchanges; improving the legislative process; enabling cross-border public administration; providing reliable and understandable information and assistance; supporting cross-border employment; promoting border multi-lingualism; facilitating cross-border accessibility; promoting greater pooling of health-care facilities; considering the legal and financial framework for cross-border cooperation; building evidence of cross-border interaction to inform decision-making.

As EU internal border regions contribute significantly to the wealth of Europe, evidence shows that by reducing administrative and legal discontinuities much can be gained. This is the reason why EU Commission will continue to contribute to the progress of border regions funding programmes to boost their development.

Last week one of the ERB team members, Damian Ciachorowski participated in the European Youth Conference in Kosice organised by the Slovak Presidency of the Council of the European Union. The 4-day event gathered around 150 members of the National Youth Board, the Ministries and European Commission representatives. They were deciding about the recommendations in the field of the Youth Affairs in the frame of the structured dialogue of Danish-Slovak-Maltese Trio Presidency. (more…)