Get ready for the next European Cooperation Day


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Why a European Cooperation Day? In 2011, several Interreg programmes saw the need to develop a joint communication activity to communicate the outcomes of Interreg to a wider audience. INTERACT offered to create a pilot action on joint Interreg communication in 2012 and all programmes were invited to join. This first European Cooperation Day campaign brought together 70 cooperation programmes and resulted in 281 events across 36 countries in Europe. Since then, the campaign has been going strong. This will be the 4th consecutive European Cooperation Day campaign. This year is also a special occasion as we celebrate the 25 year anniversary of Interreg! Under the motto “Sharing borders, growing closer”, hundreds of local events will be held across Europe in the week leading up to 21 September, reaching out to thousands of people. European Cooperation Day is coordinated by the INTERACT Programme with the support of the European Commission, the European Parliament and the Committee of the Regions.

Highlights from the past European Cooperation Day campaigns include a swimming marathon between Greece and Albania; a classical concert in a cross-border cave between Hungary and Slovakia; a project bus tour for journalists from Latvia and Estonia; film festivals on European cooperation in Spain and Finland; a cross-border football match between Finland and Russia; graffiti art between France and Spain and a race between a Lithuanian horse, a Belarusian tractor, and a Latvian minivan.

To be part of European Cooperation Day 2015, here are some ways you can participate:

  • Organise a local event celebrating the achievements and results of cooperation in Europe. You can find some tips by clicking here.
  • Become a partner of one of the local events to be organised by programmes in your area
  • Disseminate information on the events through your social media, website or other communication tools
  • Engage in the campaign through the mobile application and receive information on when and where events will be taking place
  • Attend one of the local events in your area
  • Join the celebration of Interreg’s 25 year anniversary on 15-16 September in Luxembourg.

A song also has been especially created to celebrate 25 years of Interreg, celebrating the benefits of working together across borders. This tailor-made song has beenused for the promotional video of European Cooperation Day 2015. Enjoy!


 
 
 
 

European cooperation in the field of education and training

EDUCATION AND TRAINING

Each EU country is responsible for its own education and training systems, so EU policy is designed to support national action and help address common challenges.

The European programme for Education and Training, 2014-2020 – ET2020 is the key European-level framework that helps member states to modernise their education and training systems, thus contributing to the overall political priorities set under the Europe 2020 strategy. It provides common strategic objectives for Member States, including a set of principles for achieving these objectives, as well as common working methods with priority areas for each periodic work cycle. ET2020 builds on its predecessor, the Education and Training 2010 – ET 2010 work programme.

In order to ensure the successful implementation of ET 2020, the European Union funds activities that promote learning and education at all levels and for all age groups. Through the strategic framework for education and training, EU countries have identified four common objectives to address these challenges by 2020:

  • Making lifelong learning and mobility a reality

For education and training systems which are more responsive to change and more open to the wider world. In particular, work is needed to ensure the development of national qualifications frameworks based on relevant learning outcomes and their link to the European Qualifications Framework.

  • Improving the quality and efficiency of education and training

High quality education to ensure the acquisition of key competences by everyone on a sustainable basis. High quality teaching, to provide adequate initial teacher education, continuous professional development for teachers and trainers, and to make teaching an attractive career-choice. It is also important to improve the governance and leadership of education and training institutions, and to develop effective quality assurance systems.

  • Promoting equity, social cohesion, and active citizenship

Education and training systems should aim to ensure that all learners complete their education, including, where appropriate, through second-chance education and the provision of more personalised learning. Education should promote intercultural competences, democratic values and respect for fundamental rights.

  • Enhancing creativity and innovation, including entrepreneurship, at all levels of education and training

Creativity constitutes a prime source of innovation, which in turn is acknowledged as one of the key drivers of sustainable economic development. Broader learning communities, involving representatives of civil society and other stakeholders, should be promoted with a view to creating a climate conducive to creativity and better reconciling professional and social needs, as well as individual well-being.

European Development Agency contributes to this effort by sharing best practices, gathering and dissemination of information, advising and supporting our clients and networking.

Source : Council conclusions of 12 May 2009 on a strategic framework for European cooperation in education and training (‘ET 2020’)

Article by Nora Lázaro

Interreg Europe adopted by the European Comission!

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The new interregional cooperation programme – Interreg Europe – has been officially approved by the European Commission on 11th June 2015 in Brussels. The Interreg Europe programme financed by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) aims to improve the implementation of regional development policies and programmes, in particular programmes for Investment for Growth and Jobs and European Territorial Cooperation (ETC) programmes. There are four great topics:

  • Research and Innovation
  • Competitiveness of SMEs
  • Low Carbon economy
  • Environment and resource efficiency

By co-financing projects and four thematic platforms it allows regional and local public authorities and other players of regional relevance across Europe to exchange practices and ideas on the way public policies work, and thereby find solutions to improve their strategies for their own citizens.

The programme is financed by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF). The total budget for the programme is EUR 359 million. There are 30 Countries are participating in the programme: 28 EU Member States plus Switzerland and Norway.

The Interreg Europe is continuation of INTERREG IVC (2007-2013). EU support for interregional cooperation has existed for around 20 years. Several features have been introduced in the new programming period to ensure that EU funds are used more effectively:

  1. Greater emphasis on improving programmes that are part of the European Union’s Cohesion policy
  2. Capturing the project results: the more focused the topics, the greater the chances of producing effective results
  3. Public administrations are the primary target group of Interreg Europe
  4. Stakeholder group per participating region will have to be established

We recomend to read the INTERREG_EUROPE_leaflet, where you can easily  find all information about the programme.

Horizon 2020 launches the Projects & Results Service

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Horizon 2020 is the financial instrument implementing the Innovation Union, a Europe2020 flagshipinitiative aimed at securing Europe’s global competitiveness. Horizon 2020 is open to everyone, with a simple structure that reduces red tape and time so participants can focus on what is really important. This approach makes sure new projects get off the ground quickly – and achieve results faster.

It has just lunched the Projects & Results Service for information on EU-funded research projects and project results. There, you can search and access all the European Commission’s information in the lifecycle of each project: the grant details, funding and participants, the projects’ own Report Summaries, the latest multilingual Results in Brief and links to specific publications and other documents.

A great tool for project management and inspiration!

#Be Active, a call to action to get Europeans moving!


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Engagement in sport and physical activity is at an all-time low: 59% of Europeans never or seldom exercise or play sport (Eurobarometer). Participation in sport and physical activity is stagnating, and in some EU Member States, even declining. It’s not just people’s health and well-being that suffers; it’s our society and economy as a whole. Increased spending on health care, a loss of productivity in the workplace and reduced employability are just a few of the negative knock-on effects.

The #Be Active! European Week of Sport, 7-13 September 2015, aims to promote sport and physicalactivity across Europe. The Week is for everyone, regardless of age, background or fitness level. With a focus on grassroots initiatives, it will inspire Europeans to #BeActive on a regular basis and create opportunities in peoples’ everyday lives to exercise more. The Week is structured around four Focus Days:

  • Education environment
  • Workplace
  • Outdoors
  • Sport Clubs and Fitness Centres.

The European Week of Sport as a whole is composed of projects co-financed by the European Commission, as well as events organised by the Week’s European partners, national coordinators, ministries, civil society organisations, local authorities and the private sector. Because we all have a role to play in creating a culture that values sport and physical activity, any individual or organisation can also develop and register an event with the European Week of Sport, There are plenty of projects across Europe putting their own ideas into action.  Here you will find a map of the already submitted activities ans some tips to inspire you to get involved.

A #BeActive society is a healthy, happy and inclusive one.

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Article by Nora Lázaro

Europe for Citizens – EU grants

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The Europe for Citizens programme for the period 2014-2020 funds European remembrance and democratic engagement and civic participation projecs. It aims

  • To contribute to citizens’ understanding of the EU, its history and diversity
  • To foster European citizenship and to improve conditions for civic and democratic participation at EU level
  • To raise awareness of remembrance, common history and values
  • To encourage democratic participation of citizens at EU level, by developing citizens’ understanding of the EU policy making-process and, by promoting opportunities for societal and intercultural engagement and volunteering at EU level

It has the status of a call for proposals and the program has just announced the projects selected to be funded. Among the public bodies or non-profit organisations that have applied, 33 projects have achieved the European Remembrance funding, all of them focus on the World War II and the associated rise of intolerance that enabled crimes against humanity and the consequences of World War II for the post-war architecture of Europe.

Regarding the Democratic engagement and civic participation, selected projects, Hungarian municipalities have successfully get funding for Town Twinning projects, getting 30 out of the 144 total grants, followed by Slovakia (21 projects granted), Romania (13) and Italy (11), among others. Italy seems to be the most successful EU country though regarding the grant selection for Networks of towns projects, followed by close by Hungary.

All these initiatives will contribute to reinforce the cooperation among European countries.

The INTERREG IVC programme shows its results

INTERREGSTORY

INTERREG IVC programme just came to an end. It has been a laboratory of ideas that contributed considerably to EU territorial cohesion. It stimulated European regions to share their knowledge and solutions with each other and improve the effectiveness of regional policies and instruments.

INTERREG IVC involved 29 countries which shared solutions to generate sustainable economic growth and create jobs more easily and effectively together. Its approach was specifically designed to help regions progress, step by step, and achieve their ultimate goal. Whatever applicants needed – information, constructive feedback, training, exchange of ideas or promotional resources – INTERREG IVC was capable of providing the right support at the right time.In order to channel efforts for the best results, the programme focused on improving regional and local policies in two areas:
– Innovation and the knowledge economy
– Environment and risk prevention

The selection procedure was strict: only 1 in 5 project applications received funding and just 2,295 organisations out of 14,000 applicants were selected to take part in cooperation projects. The Institute for Regional Development successfully  joined the program.

INTERREG has just presented its interregional cooperation’s results from 2007-2014 online report. This attractive report gives you a summary of the programme’s actions in seven chapters. Click on ‘Learn more’ in each chapter for additional details and examples of successful projects, or use the navigation menu to go directly to the section that interests you most.

This program may have come to an end, but interregional cooperation continues! Next calls will be published under the INTERREG EUROPE programme

INTERREG

Results for Erasmus+ Sport call published

The results for Collaborative partnerships in the sport field and Not-for-profit European sport events related to the 2015 European Week of Sport were published last week. The projects were submitted to EACEA in January.
Only 5 Collaborative partnerships and 5 Not-for profit events received funding. You can have a look at the results here.
The Sport Chapter in the Erasmus+ Programme aims to support European partnerships on grassroots sport in order to pursue the following objectives:

  • Tackle cross-border threats to the integrity of sport, such as doping, match fixing and violence, as well as all kinds of intolerance and discrimination;
  • To promote and support good governance in sport and dual careers of athletes;
  • To promote voluntary activities in sport, together with social inclusion, equal opportunities and awareness of the importance of health-enhancing physical activity, through increased participation in, and equal access to sport for all.

The next deadline is on the 14th of May for Collaborative partnerships in the sport field and Not-for-profit European sport events NOT related to the 2015 European Week of Sport.

EuDA hosted "Roma Leaders" conference

The inaugural conference of the project Act Locally Develops Globally – But Green! entitled Roma as Leaders and subtitled “Social entrepreneurship in the field of waste management contributes to economic growth at the local level” was successfully held on the 19th of March in the Exe Iris Hotel Praha.
Program of the conference included official welcome by Mgr. Martin Synkule, MA, the CEO of EuDA, the introduction to the project given by Adnan Memed from the Municipality of Shuto Orizari and a talk by Mr. Nadir Redzepi from the Open Society Foundations with the topis “Roma in European perspective“.
After the short breake 3 best practices were presented:

  • Self-entrepreneurship of Roma in Slovenia by Harris Tahirovic (President, Roma Informative Center Anglunipe) –
  • Experience with green business in Shuto Orizari by Mr. Zoran Dimov (President, Association Roma Business Informative Center in Macedonia)
  • Bulgarian experience with green business by Zlatko Mladenov (President, Roma Public Council Kupate, Bulgaria)

In the afternoon the participants were divided into working groups and discussed the topics below. At the end of the session outcomes were jointly presented and confronted with others.

  • Workshop 1 – Legal environment of doing green business in the region (focus countries Macedonia, CZ, Bulgaria, Slovenia) and possible amendments towards its improvement
  • Workshop 2 – Existing green businesses in the region (focus countries Macedonia, CZ, Bulgaria, Slovenia) and their success
  • Workshop 3 -Options for environmental business: possibilities and conditions for starting a business.

For more information about the project have a look here.

Project applications for Erasmus+ Strategic partnerships submitted!

Today was the deadline for submitting the applications under KA2 Erasmus+ (Strategic partnerships). With the help of our partners we submitted 23 educational project to different National Agencies and in different topics, including:

  • financial literacy in grammar schools
  • new approaches to teaching pupils with learning difficulties
  • social entrepreneurship education
  • education and skills in agro- and food sector
  • healthy lifestyle and gastrotourism
  • inclusion of Roma pupils to the school classes
  • international cooperation education
  • wine and tourism
Let’s keep our fingers crossed! The results will be published in summer.