UDITE HOSTS A SUCCESSFUL EUROPEAN WEEK OF REGIONS AND CITIES PARTNER EVENT

Last updated: 20 Dec 2021
Every year, the EU Committee of the Regions in conjunction with the European Commission (DG REGIO) organises the European Week of Regions and Cities.


Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, this event was organised fully online.  UDiTE integrated in its congress a workshop on the theme: 'Navigating the EU maze to finance recovery: 2021-27 funding for ecological transition'.

Simon Pascoe moderated an online workshop that included a keynote speech from Committee of the Regions and Pays de la Loire regional councillor , Christophe Clergeau Frédéric Vallier the Secretary General of the Council of European Municipalities and Regions (CEMR), Nicolas Brookes , Executive Director of Conference of Peripheral & Maritime Regions (CPMR), Guillaume Meynet, Deputy Director of European Affairs for Veolia and Xavier Boivert the Director General of Mordelles in Brittany. 

The meeting highlighted a number of important developments with the on the funding side with the arrival of the 2021-27 EU Structural and Investment Funds in all of our regions flanked by the EU recovery plan equipped with new funding that the EU is funding for the first time by issuing bonds on the markets.  The overriding importance of the funds being used for the ecological transformation was underlined, by some excellent case studies from our business partner Veolia, that will be key to local authorities delivering the grass roots impacts in the context of the Green Deal and the Fit for 55 packages recently adopted by the EU.

Looking ahead speakers reflected of the important initiatives that will take place during the 6 month rotating French presidency of the the EU including an EU Summit of Regions and Cities in April and the conclusion of the Conference on the Future of the European Union. In a second session, UDiTE was delighted to welcome Dorothée Allain-Dupré, Head of Regional Development and Multi-level Governance Division Centre for Entrepreneurship, SMEs, Regions and Cities from the OECD who spoke about their new OECD  Regional Recovery Platform that has since been launched on their website. 

You can watch this workshop again and download the presentations on our Congress 2021 webpage.