ESPON at #EURegionsWeek 2020
ESPON at the first ever fully digital European Week of Regions and Cities


Venue

5 October 2020 to 22 October 2020




Even in the times of the COVID 19 pandemic, the European Week of Regions and Cities is the most important event dedicated to the EU Regional Policy.

The #EURegionsWeek 2020 will offer more than 500 digital working sessions covering various topics along the thematic priorities Empowering Citizens, Cohesion and Cooperation and Green Europe.

This year ESPON’s presence includes 15 sessions in cooperation with more than 60 partners.

Tuesday 6 October

(1) Older persons as local agents of change (Q&A session)

Time: 12:30 - 13:30

Partners: AFE Activists Eramus+ Project, AGE Platform Europe, ESPON, European Covenant on Demographic Change, T.A.A.F.E Interreg Project.

Description: This session will be the opportunity to discuss strategies, experiences and good practices developed by local authorities to empower and involve older persons, who are not only service beneficiaries but also critical agents of change. 

Further info

Tuesday 13 October

(2) COVID-19 and Future Cohesion Policy: the role of local authorities (Workshop)

Time: 09:30 - 11:00

Partners: BRNO, Barcelona Metropolitan Area (AMB), ESPON, Euroregion- North West City Region, Lisbon Metropolitan area, Lyon Metropolitan Authority (Grand Lyon), Metropolitan City of Turin, Municipality of Sintra

Description: The aim of this session is to present the emergency measures taken locally and the support provided by the European Union through Cohesion Policy. The Metropolitan scale will be addressed as the partners are involved in the ESPON study METRO and are part of the European Metropolitan Authorities network.

Further info

Tuesday 13 October

(3) ESPON evidence for policy: Quality of life at sub-national level and reflections on the impact of the (COVID-19) crisis (Workshop)

Time: 09:30 - 11:00

Partners: ESPON, Ministry of Energy and Spatial Planning, Ministry of Transport and Local Government, Ministry of the Environment and Spatial Planning, Social Progress Imperative, Regional Studies Association

Description: This session will present a methodology developed by ESPON to support policymakers at national, regional and local level in measuring quality of life, including reflections related to responses to (the COVID-19) crisis.

Further info

Tuesday 13 October

(4) Keep up with interregional cooperation (Workshop)

Time: 09:30 – 11:00

Partners: ESPON, Interact, Interreg Europe and URBACT

Description: Are you keen to learn how your city and region can benefit from cooperation with the other EU regions? Would you like to gain a new understanding of the geography of COVID-19 and how it has affected regions in Europe very differently? Or are you maybe looking for tried-and-tested solutions that will help the recovery after the crisis? Are you eager to join the thematic networks or to learn about the evidence base? Then meet the representatives from the four pan-European Territorial Cooperation Programmes - ESPON, Interact, Interreg Europe and URBACT and get to know what these programmes have to offer you.

Further info

Tuesday 13 October

(5) Interregional cooperation 2021-2027 (Workshop)

Time: 11:30 – 13: 00

Description: Are you interested in networking, exchange and learning, strengthening your skills in policy-making, and applying research and tested knowledge at local and regional levels? Then meet the representatives from the four pan-European Territorial Cooperation Programmes - ESPON, Interact, Interreg Europe and URBACT. Get to know what the next generation programmes have to offer you. You will learn about the orientation of each of the four programmes and understand how you can benefit from their activities.

Partners: ESPON, European Commission - DG REGIO, INTERREG Europe, Interact, Urbact.

Further info

Tuesday 13 October

(6) Demographic change in Europe: ESPON evidence on sparsely populated areas and territorial organisation of mobility (Workshop) 

Time: 14:30 - 16:00

Partners: Council of Europe, ESPON, European Commission, Ministry of Enterprise and Innovation, Southern Sparsely Populated Areas (SSPA) Network, Spatial Foresight, Transdev Group

Description: Presentation of recently produced evidence and analysis on areas at risk of becoming sparsely populated and discussion on how to improve the evidence base in order to best support regions most in need.

Further info

Tuesday 13 October

(7) Sustainable urbanisation and land-use (Workshop) 

Time: 14:30 - 16:00

Description: This session regards a discussion between scientists and policymakers: how can we use the findings from the ESPON SUPER project to make better policy decisions? What can we learn from other regions' experiences?

Partners: ESPON, ICLEI, Ministry of Construction and Physical Planning of the Republic of Croatia, PBL Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency, Politecnico di Torino (POLITO), URBANEX, ÖIR GmbH

Further info

Tuesday 13 October

(8) New Approaches for Shrinking Rural Areas (Workshop) 

Time: 16:30 - 18:00

Description: This workshop presents the key findings of the ESPON ESCAPE project, diagnosis of forms of shrinking, intervention logic, governance and policy recommendations.

Partner: ESPON

Further info

Wednesday 14 October

(9) Macro-Regional Strategies in a Europe closer to citizens (Workshop) 

Time: 09:30 - 11:00

Description: This session will present a platform to develop shared visions for the future of macro-regions and discuss their role by sharing experiences from stakeholders in EU MRS.

Partners: Cambridge University, Danube Strategy Point, ESPON, European Commission, Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg, VASAB

Further info

Wednesday 14 October

(10) #territorialdata: SDGs (EURegions talk)

Time: 12:30 – 13:00

Description: during the talk we will introduce ESPON data and tools supporting the implementation of the SDGs and how these tools can be used to support European, national, regional and local policy makers, researchers and experts.

Partners : City of Lisbon "European Green Capital 2020", Region of Galicia, Region of Brussels, French government represented by ANCT (Agence Nationale de la Cohésion des Territoires), EUROSTAT, JRC- Knowledge centre for territorial policies, REGIO – GIS, ESPON, OECD, World Bank, UNDP, UN – Habitat

Further info

Wednesday 14 October

(11) The Manufacturing City & Industry 4.0 (Workshop) 

Time: 14:30 - 16:00

Description: This session aims to open up a discussion about the results of two ESPON research projects related to the changing nature of the industry, the relationship with the city and the production of space.

Partners: ESPON

Further info

Wednesday 14 October

(12) Territorial impacts of natural disasters (Workshop) 

Time: 16:30 - 18:00

Description: This workshop will briefly present the economic impacts of the hazards with case studies, good practices and policy recommendations closely linked to the key policy questions addressed by the ESPON TITAN project.

Partners: ESPON, Lombardy Region, Ministry of the Interior and Kingdom Relations, Technical University of Dortmund, Tecnalia Research & Innovation

Further info

  1. ESPON project: TITAN - Territorial Impacts of Natural Disasters
  2. Contact : Zintis Hermansons [email protected]
  3. Details and registration: #EURegionsWeek 2020 official website

Thursday 15 October

(13) Data-driven analysis of urbanisation (Workshop) 

Time: 09:30 - 11:00

Description: The attendees of this workshop will learn how to use data to visualise and analyse urbanisation in cities and their commuting area. 

Partners: ESPON

Further info

Thursday 15 October

(14) Territorial Impact Assessments. Making European Legislation more territorially aware (Participatory Lab - world café) 

Time: 09:30 - 11:00

Description: The aim of the session is to give participants insight into what the ESPON TIA tool has to offer and how it has been used by Commission Services in real cases, as part of the Impact Assessment process.

Partners: European Commission - DG REGIO

Further info

Thursday 22 October

(15) An SDG benchmarking tool for regions (Workshop) 

Time: 11:30 - 13:00

Description: This workshop will show participants a useful web application for regions to monitor progress and distance to targets and to benchmark themselves with other regions. 

Partners: ESPON, European Committee of the Regions, OECD, Technopolis Group, United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)

Further info