01.12.2010

The Central Europe Annual Event held on 23 – 24 November in Prague was a great opportunity for the “Creative Cities” representatives to get the answer what the Central Europe means, how this unique programme tackles the “Europe of today” issues at the moment and how it will look like in 21st century.

A video on achievements during the first half of the programming period was presented with the oulook on some projects undertaken. Then Barbara Di Piazza – Head of JTS Central Europe help everybody to understand which future steps will be and she announced the 4th call for proposals. After that the conference attendees listened to the discussion on the contribution of the CEP to the Lisbon and Gothenburg Agendas and Europe 2020 Agenda as a key factor of inspiration for a transnational programme. Mr. Johann Sollgruber from European Commission, DG Regio underlined the importance of the regional involvement and need of experience exchange between all of the projects’ stakeholders in order to find more and better solutions to European problems. Ms Nadia Kobe from CE Monitoring Committee and Ministry of the Environtment and Spatial Planning, Slovenia added that interconnection between the projects is also very important. Some other Central Europe challenges as e.g. broadband connections in Europe were name by Mr. Aleksander LAZAREVIC from European Commission, DG Information Society and Media. He spoke about the Digital Agenda and the goals for future Europe with regards to the Internet connections: “The EU-Commission has set out high targets for the future. Until 2013 every European household should be connected to broadband internet and until 2020 half of all households should be connected to fast internet connections with 30 Mbit. These goals are important.”

Afternoon conference gave possibility to take a closer look at two other issues: transport and demographic change in Europe. The first topic is strictly connected with the concept of accessibility. Speakers gave an overview of the present transnational cooperation and they discussed the state of the Trans-European-Transport-Network (TEN-T) which connects Europe. Although there are many projects dealing now with the accessibility and working together for a better quality of transport, it was stated that there is still room for improvement. With regards to the second theme, Dr. Michael Schädlich in the introductory note underlined that we may now observe the processes of overageing in nearly every CEP participating region. He stated that demographic and social change in Europe is also related nowadays with the development of migration. Then he presented the demographic forecasts which for most of the regions are following: significant decrease in population, continuously ageing population and expected increase in the territorial differentiation. Moreover shortage of skilled workers is foreseen. Mr. Schädlich stated that the demographic change has also consequences on the infrastructure: less people need less water, less electricity; less younger people need less schools, less kindergartens; more older people need more healthcare services. It is important that the regions prepare new strategies to manage that. After that there was a panel discussion on demographic and social change as challenges for today and the future. Among the speakers there were representatives of two projects: Q-Ageing – a project which works in the field of the ageing society and YURA – a project which works in the field of avoiding brain drain of young and skilled people.

To learn more on mobility, accessibility and transport, please read the third issue of the CENTRAL EUROPEAN Newsletter called "Driving force for regions - visions for CENTRAL EUROPE." Please click here to download this publication.

During this first day of the conference there was time for networking and getting to know the different projects in the projects’ exhibition area. The “Creative Cities” had a big stand where everybody could be informed on the project background, its objectives, outputs and future steps. Some of the conference participants were interested in the project progress and we agreed to stay in touch.

The second day started with the study tours and the participants were able to see the concrete outputs of two projects: ACT CLEAN and UrbSpace. First visit was to the SME company Tiskarna KALIBA, specilised in the offset printing. The company is one of the best practice examples of Czech companies implementing clean technologies that are listed in the ACT CLEAN project database. The company tested and implemented the use of volatile organic compounds in offset printing. The second visit was connected with the UrbSpace project and the participants could have a look at the currently revitalized open public space in the 12th district of Prague. Beside the inspection of the space there was also organised a meeting with the representatives of the Prague district and students involved in the process.

In the afternoon, there was the second cross-fertilization workshop that gave the possibility to strengthen networking between project partners ,exchange experiences and learn from each other. The approved projects were divided in groups according their priority. The “Creative Cities” worked together with other project representatives from the priority “Competitiveness of cities and regions”.

To get some more information and view the outcome of our work, please visit:
http://www.central2013.eu/news-events-publications/events/past-events/cross-fertilisation/cross-fertlisation-priority-4-competitiveness/cross-fertlisation-seminar-prague-2010/

For more information on the Central Europe Annual Event in Prague, please visit:
http://www.central2013.eu/news-events-publications/events/past-events/annual-event-2010-prague/