The call for application for municipalities and associations formed by municipalities is open since 19 September 2019 at 13:00 CEST to apply to win a EUR 15,000 voucher to cover the equipment and installation costs of Wi-Fi hotspots in their municipalities. The beneficiaries will be selected on a first-come, first-served basis, while ensuring that all Member States can benefit from a minimum amount of vouchers. 

The President of the European Union's assembly for cities and regions has voiced support for North Macedonia's bid to join the EU. During his visit to Skopje on 17-18 September, Karl-Heinz Lambertz of the European Committee of the Regions (CoR) also urged municipalities in North Macedonia to support the country's accession drive by continuing reforms and exploring further cooperation with cities and regions in Bulgaria and Greece.  

On 17 and 18 September 2019, the region and city of Gabrovo will host an international conference on "Industry 4.0 and the Next Programming Period". This initiative is carried out for the first time in Bulgaria within the framework of the European Union inter-institutional Knowledge Exchange Platform (KEP) and is co-organized by the Directorate-General for Research and Innovation of the European Commission (DG RTD) and the European Committee of the Regions (CoR). High-level speakers at the event will be Tomislav Donchev - Deputy Prime Minister of Bulgaria and Markku Markkula - First Vice-President of the European Committee of the Regions. 

Addressing the challenges and opportunities linked to any major sector always requires a collaborative effort. By joining forces with public transport colleagues, we can consider what is necessary to place urban mobility on top of the agenda. 

More than two million people in Europe are directly employed in the public transport sector. Public transport plays a major role in the life of cities and is also a key factor in the fight against climate change. 

​In an exchange of views with Finland's Minister for Economic Affairs Katri Kulmuni, EU local and regional leaders stressed that Finland's Presidency of the Council of the EU must come up with an ambitious proposal for the EU's next multiannual budget, providing all cities and regions with means to invest in human capital and to tackle the digital divide.  

On the International Democracy Day, the President of the European Committee of the Regions'(CoR) President Karl-Heinz Lambertz has recalled his appeal to launch a new permanent dialogue with citizens together with its regions and cities, and reinstated the urgency to strengthen the role of local and regional governments in the EU decision-making process. Contributing to the European Commission's commitment to strengthening European democracy, the CoR also published a collection of insights from local and regional governments, practitioners and academics on how best to engage citizens in the EU.  

​The City of Turku and the Association of Finnish Local and Regional Authorities are hosting two different meetings of the European Committee of the Regions in Logomo on 12 and 13 September 2019. The European Committee of the Regions is a consultative body consisting of regional and local representatives from all 28 Member States. It is the official voice of cities and regions in the EU. 

The European Union should deepen relations with neighbours on its eastern borders through more localised and targeted engagement, local and regional leaders from the EU and its partner countries have said. In two separate reports adopted on 12 September, they advised the EU to increase its support for small cross-border projects designed to increase community contacts and to establish a public-administration academy for local and regional civil servants from the six Eastern Partnership countries: Ukraine, Belarus, Moldova, Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia.  

As part of the initiative launched by the European Commission, 10 European regions awarded with the label of the European Entrepreneurial Region (EER) are collaborating in order to further develop and inter-connect their startup and scale ​up support ecosystems. 

The European Court of Auditors' (ECA) Special Report on public consultations recommends a better engagement of organisations such as the Committee of the Regions by the European Commission to help improve the outreach of the Commission's public consultations and the dis-semination of information.  

Измерването на социалния напредък на регионално равнище е от решаващо значение, за да се гарантира, че европейските, националните и регионалните инвестиции подкрепят социалните цели на ЕС. Ето защо Европейският комитет на регионите (КР) изготви първия по рода си набор от регионални социални показатели , който показва, че повечето региони на ЕС са постигнали напредък в периода 2014—2018 г., въпреки че в ЕС съществуват значителни регионални различия. 

Анкетата ще бъде насочена върху по-важните споразумения за свободна търговия (тези, които са в сила и тези, които са сключени, но все още не са влезли в сила) и ще продължи до средата на октомври. Резултатите ще бъдат представени на семинар на КР и ЕВРОПАЛАТИ през ноември 2019 г. Резултатите от анкетата ще бъдат включени и в становище на КР, в което ще се разгледат по-общите предизвикателства, пред които е изправена търговската политика на ЕС, и начините, по които публичните власти и МСП биха могли да използват и да се възползват от търговските споразумения.  

The deadline to register your event as a side event of the #EURegionsWeek 2019 expires on 6 September 2019. 

​​In its Annual Subsidiarity Report​ published last month, the European Commission underlined (referring to the European Committee of the Regions), that "The Committee also took concrete steps and actions to implement this ‘Active Subsidiarity’ approach within its consultative and political work. A major example of these efforts is the pilot project for a network of regional hubs to assess the implementation of the European Union’s legislation. 

RegHub took part in the Regional Initiative for Culture and Creativity (RICC) network's Annual Conference on 24 June 2019. 

​The European Commission would like to promote and facilitate the correct application of EU Public Procurement law by local and regional public procurement practitioners in the 28 EU Member States. You are invited to participate to this online survey to help the European Commission understand the type and form of information related to public procurement law, policies and tools you need to perform your work effectively and in compliance with law. 

​On 26 July all 36 contact points of the regional hubs network received their questionnaire for the network's second consultation via EU Survey. The topic is the EU's air quality policy. 

Докладчикът на Европейския комитет на регионите (КР) относно реформата на Общата селскостопанска политика поздрави активистите, които се борят за хуманно отношение към животните, за преминаването на прага от един милион подписа в подкрепа на европейската гражданска инициатива „Край на клетките“. 

През 2019 г. 137 подпрепоръки — т.е. единични препоръки, включени в по широкообхватните препоръки, направени от Комисията — са пряко или косвено насочени към МРВ, или имат териториално въздействие. Броят на тези подпрепоръки е по-висок в сравнение с 2018 г., когато бяха 120. От всички специфични за всяка държава препоръки тези, които според нас са свързани с териториите, представляват 62 %. Тази и други констатации от териториалния анализ на КР за 2019 г. потвърждават, че за изпълнението на специфичните за всяка държава препоръки градовете и регионите в ЕС изпълняват ключова роля и трябва да бъдат включвани като партньори в изготвянето на националните програми за реформи.  

Председателят Ламберц призова новоизбрания председател на ЕК Урсула фон дер Лайен да гради бъдещето на ЕС заедно с градовете и регионите 

Възможността чрез европейските структурни и инвестиционни (ЕСИ) фондове за периода 2021—27 г. да бъдат намалени пропуските и да се разпространява устойчив и приобщаващ растеж в целия ЕС все още е поставена под въпрос от предвидените бюджетни съкращения и централизация. На 10 юли в Европейския комитет на регионите (КР) партньорите в #CohesionAlliance — широк алианс на равнището на ЕС в подкрепа на силна политика на сближаване след 2020 г. — обсъдиха начините за преодоляване на тази заплаха в дебат с новоизбраните членове на Европейския парламент. 

Narrowing the innovation and digital divides in Europe was in the spotlight on 11 July, when the European Committee of the Regions' Commission for Social Policy, Employment, Culture, Education and Research (SEDEC) met in Brussels. Members adopted an opinion drafted by Eamon Dooley (IE/Renew Europe), a member of Offaly County Council, on the future of research infrastructure and the European Research Area. 

Leading members of the European Committee of the Regions (CoR) met the Federation of Local Authorities in Israel on 2 July during a brief visit to Tel Aviv intended to strengthen cooperation. 

Regional development strategies and better communicating EU cohesion policy were the main topics addressed by local and regional representatives during of the 10 July meeting of the Commission for Territorial Cohesion Policy and the EU Budget (COTER) of the European Committee of the Regions (CoR).  

Нуждите на европейските въгледобивни региони в контекста на енергийния преход на ЕС бяха начело в дневния ред на Комисията по икономическа политика (ECON) на Европейския комитет на регионите (КР) на 9 юли в Брюксел. В становище , изготвено от Марк Шпайх, държавен секретар по федерални, европейски и международни въпроси на Северен Рейн-Вестфалия, членовете на комисия ECON призовават за корекции на правилата за държавните помощи и за допълнително финансиране на засегнатите региони в рамките на политиката на сближаване за периода 2021—2027 г. 

Opening of EURegionsWeek 2019 registration scheduled on 8 July 2019. 

On 26 June the trainees of the European Committee of the Regions (CoR) awarded the winners of the [Y]Factor photo competition "Capturing [Y]our Europe". The goal of the competition was to promote young artistic talents from across Europe and to empower young people to present their unique perspective. The winning pictures by Pavla Vaňková (CZ) and Stefano Scagliarini (IT) were exhibited in the European Parliament in Brussels from 26 to 28 June. 

Finland takes over the Presidency of the Council of the European Union at a defining moment for the EU. The Union turns over a new leaf in light of the results of the European election: there will be new leaders at the helm of the EU institutions who will deal with major issues such as the next EU budget, as well as take responsibility for defining the content for the next EU programme period. This is a time for renewal. 

The city of Ramallah and the Association of Palestinian Local Authorities on 30 June hosted a meeting of the executive board of the Euro-Mediterranean Regional and Local Assembly (ARLEM), to discuss how cities and regions can collaborate to achieve the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals. Local and regional leaders, working together in the context of the Union for the Mediterranean, also considered ways to develop the blue economy in the Mediterranean and to deepen integration and economic relations between local and regional authorities throughout the Mediterranean.