OPEN DAYS 2010 Final Programme - European Commission - Europa

Best practice for the Europe 2020 flagship initiative Resource Efficiency
Cities, regions and national governments are increasingly coming under pressure
with the current financial crisis. Stretched between concerns on public spending
limits and the need to support investment in infrastructure and innovation,
sharing best practice in leveraging European Funds to achieve the Europe
2020 objectives is more necessary than ever. The debate will examine how we
can use the experience of successful projects to mobilise European Funds for
the promotion of a resource efficient Europe particularly in the context of the
EU’s regional policy and, furthermore, how we can use these funds to not only
achieve a resource efficient and innovation-friendly Europe but also as a catalyst
for investment.
Innovative partnerships at the service of citizens and the environment:
Best practice in the transport, water and waste sectors
One of Europes three guiding priorities, as outlined in the recent Europe 2020 strategy, is
the building of a resource efficient, sustainable and competitive economy. Europes regions
and cities will be at the forefront of that transition. They will have to keep improving public
services and infrastructure, to incorporate environmental targets in their design and
management whilst being subjected to increasing budget constraints linked to societal
changes and to public deficits. The transition to a greener economy can be facilitated by
having recourse to partnerships between the public and the private sectors. This debate
aims at illustrating how the adoption of such partnership approaches have led to systemic
and technological innovation, whilst leveraging public finances, in the sectors of transport,
waste management and water management. Three regions/cities will explain how they
have put in place solutions that integrate a search for quality services with the highest level
of environmental management. A moderated debate will ensue and involve members of
the European Commission and Parliament as well as high-level figures of the civil society; it
will aim to explore how Europe can foster the development of such partnerships in resultbased
approaches allowing to improve services to the citizens and to innovate in pursuit of
sustainable development.
Smart sustainable cities and regions
The workshop will examine how ICT could contribute to the creation of more
sustainable and cohesive cities and regions, focusing on energy efficiency
(in particular in public buildings and social housing), smart ways of providing
governmental services and digital urban planning. The aim is also to look at the
Green Digital Charter, which commits its signatory cities to deploy 5 large-scale
pilot projects per city before 2015, and report on what progress has been made
since its inception. EUROCITIES will present its perspective on the integrated
concept of sustainable cities, while EUROCITIES members will present existing
initiatives in support of sustainability, propose future potential actions and how
they might collaborate in identifying what works well (and why) and what not
(and why not). During the workshop, a signing ceremony will welcome the
commitment of new set of European cities to the Green Digital Charter.
Workshops
Tuesday 5 October 2010
05A30
14:30 - 17:00
Venue: Committee of the Regions, JDE 53
Organiser: GE
Speakers: Flo Clucas, Member of the
Committee of the Regions, Member of Liverpool
City Council, United Kingdom; Olof Gill, Euractiv,
Belgium; Danuta Hübner, Chair of the Committee
on Regional Development European Parliament,
Poland; Tore Land, Director of Ecomagination
for Europe, Middle East and Africa, GE; Rudolf
Niessler, Director for Policy Coordination DG
Regional Policy, European Commission, Belgium
05A31
14:30 - 17:00
Venue: Committee of the Regions, JDE 51
Organiser: Veolia Environnement
Speakers: Paul Archer, Assistant Chief
Executive, Hampshire County Council, United
Kingdom; Sophie Auconie, Member of the
European Parliament, France; Jean Claude
Banon, Executive Representative to the EU
Institutions, Veolia Environnement; Byron
Davies, President of UDiTE, Federation of
European Local Authority Chief Executives,
United Kingdom; Bert Kersten, Region of
Limburg, Netherlands; Peter Kunert, Mayor
of Querfurt, Saxony-Anhlat, Germany; Vassili
Lelakis, EU Director in the EBRD, European
Commission, Belgium
05A34
14:30 - 17:00
Venue: Centre Borschette, room 1C
Organisers: European Commission, DGs
Information Society and Media Regional Policy
Chair: Paul Bevan, EUROCITIES
Speakers: AnetteHolm, CIO, City of Stockholm,
Sweden; Claire Roumet, CECODHAS, Belgium;
Marie Ann Schreurs, Deputy Mayor City of
Eindhoven, Netherlands; Marit Schweiker, Policy
Officer Council of European Municipalities and
Regions (CEMR), Belgium
OPEN DAYS 2010 – European Week of Regions and Cities 31