The successful European Entrepreneurial Region (EER) scheme, which celebrated its 10th anniversary this year, has been modernised and renewed for upcoming five years. Each of the annual calls for applications between 2021 and 2025 will have a lead theme, which is linked with the EU policy agenda and relevant to regional and local level. The EER 2021 label will be dedicated to promoting entrepreneurship for a green and sustainable future and will be open for applications from EU regions and cities until 31 March 2020.

Fourth industrial revolution – also known as Industry 4.0 – is transforming rapidly our societies: while it offers opportunities for start-up companies and small businesses to provide innovative products and services to the whole world, it is also a source of many concerns such as fear of robotisation and precarious forms of new employment. A seminar organised within the Knowledge Exchange Platform on June 28 gathered policymakers and experts from local, regional and European level in Brussels to discuss how to approach these social challenges and to make sure that everyone in Europe benefits from the ongoing transformation.

Regional and local leaders call for a coordinated European approach to ensure that European industry remains innovative and competitive in the future. In an opinion drawn up by Jeannette Baljeu (NL/Renew Europe), the European Committee of the Regions (CoR) stresses the key role of regional and local authorities in establishing large-scale industrial cooperation that goes beyond ad-hoc initiatives and contributes to strengthening European value chains. Overall, a more holistic, multi-sectoral approach should be adopted that seeks to identify and harness local strengths and capabilities.

The Commission for Economic Policy (ECON) of the European Committee of the Regions (CoR) assembled over 60 elected politicians from across the EU in the Lithuanian town of Druskininkai. Participants discussed the revision of the EU's tax policy, the need to foster European industry's global competitiveness and the challenges and opportunities that the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) represent at the local and regional level. Ahead of the European elections in May and with rising concerns over political fragmentation and the outcome of Brexit, cities and regions still stand as change agents that connect global challenges with local realities in order to deliver a better Europe for all citizens.