Photo EER award winner July 2015
On 9 February 2016 the CoR is organising a conference on “Boosting the entrepreneurial spirit –European pioneering regions and cities”.
Dear Reader,
This newsletter provides regional and local experts with a list of the events, conferences and meetings scheduled to take place at the European Committee of the Regions in January and February 2016.
The EU institutions, individual regions and associations will be holding a number of seminars in the CoR building in order to present project results and to address topics related to the future of EU programmes.
If you wish to receive this publication on a bimonthly basis, please register here . Please feel free to forward CoR
Events Flash to colleagues in your institution who may be interested.
Comments can be sent to conferencescdr@cor.europa.eu
Kind regards,
The CoR Events unit

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The Potential of the Waste Sector for a Low Carbon Economy
Hosted conference, 12 January 2016, 14:00 – 17:30, VMA building, room VM1
Association of cities and Regions for Recycling and sustainable Resource management (ACR+), in cooperation with
Zero Waste Europe and Zero Waste France, is organising a conference to discuss the transformation of the EU into a Low Carbon Economy and more specifically to promote low-carbon solutions to waste/material resources issues.
It will also be an opportunity for the organisers to present their new report, drawn up by Eunomia: the Waste and
Climate report.
More information: www.acrplus.org
; gc@acrplus.org
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The European Investment Project Portal and the European
Investment Advisory Hub: what’s in it for regions and cities?
Lunchtime briefing, 13 January 2016, 13:00 - 14:30, JDE building, room JDE 52
With speakers from DG ECFIN and the EIB, this lunchtime briefing will enable participants to understand the European
Investment Project Portal and the European Investment Advisory Hub, and crucially, what’s in it for regions and cities.
It will seek to answer questions such as: ‘What can the European Investment Project Portal do for you? How can I register my project on the European Investment Project Portal? When will the European Investment Project Portal go live? What can the European Investment Advisory Hub do for you?’
More information: http://cor.europa.eu/en/events/Pages/european-investment-portal.aspx
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European Entrepreneurial Region (EER) 2017 Info Day
Info Day, 22 January 2016, 09:30 – 12:30, JDE building, room JDE 70 (tbc)
The EER Info Day aims to promote the EER 2017 event. It supports interested regions and cities in the run-up to their application by informing them about the assessment criteria and giving them the opportunity to talk with jury members and successful EER regions.
More information: http://cor.europa.eu/eer ; eer-cdr@cor.europa.eu
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Knowledge, Policymaking and Learning in European metropolitan areas: experiences and approaches
Hosted conference, 26 January 2016, 09:30 – 13:00, VMA building, room VM1
The focus on the research-policy nexus aims to gather academics and policymakers to reflect on theories and experiences of policy change and learning in European metropolitan areas. The event is organised by Cosmopolis,
Free University of Brussels (VUB).
More information: www.greatpi.eu
; Nicola.Dotti@vub.ac.be
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European Innovation Ecosystem: Good governance and effective support for Smart Specialisation
Co-organised conference, 26 January 2016, 10:00 - 16:00, JDE building, room JDE 52
The European Structural Investment Funds contribute EUR 118 billion to the smart growth objectives of improving the
EU’s performance in research/innovation and the Digital Single Market. These investments in the real economy will upgrade the research capabilities of firms and universities, create incubators and technological centres, enable access to risk capital and loans, build cluster partnerships, activate innovation ecosystems, provide advanced services and stimulate collaboration in European value chains in order to deepen the internal market and strengthen the industrial base.
The purpose of the joint CoR-EC conference is to update and exchange knowledge and experience concerning the effectiveness and efficiency of supporting innovative entrepreneurship at territorial levels, in the context of implementing smart specialisation strategies. This includes exploring and discussing intra-regional governance issues within the successful European Innovation Ecosystem as well as the quality and effectiveness of business support service providers.
More information: http://cor.europa.eu/en/events/Pages/innovation-ecosystem.aspx

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[Y] Factor: Think Smart, Think Regional…Let’s Innovate!
CoR conference, 27 January 2016, 09:30 – 13:00, Atrium 6
The [Y] Factor Conference is a youth conference organised by the trainees of the European Committee of the Regions in collaboration with CoR services. This time, the 4th [Y] Factor conference will highlight entrepreneurship and innovation and will tackle two topics: “Smart Generation needs Smart Cities: how can big data drive innovation?” and
“How can local and regional authorities support young entrepreneurs to be the drivers of growth and innovation?”.
Registration: http://selectsurvey-gen.cor.europa.eu/TakeSurvey.aspx?PageNumber=1&SurveyID=94KHn973&Preview=true
More information: http://www.cor.europa.eu/yfactor
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Health and Social Benefits of Biodiversity and Nature Protection
Hosted conference, 27-28 January 2016, 09:00 – 17:30, JDE building, rooms JDE 51, 52, 53
This two-day workshop will bring together cities, regions and national policy makers from the health, social and environmental fields to explore the health and social benefits of nature and develop a common agenda and road map for action – i.e. a health-social-nature roadmap for the EU, its cities and regions.
Information and registration: smootoosamy@ieep.eu
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Overview of the main events for regional and urban policy in 2016
29 January 2016, 11:00 - 12:30 followed by a networking cocktail, JDE building, room JDE 52
The European Committee of the Regions (CoR) and the European Commission Directorate-General for Regional and
Urban Policy (DG REGIO) invite colleagues from regional offices, associations and EU institutions to a presentation of the main events to be organised in 2016 on the topic of regional and urban policy, in the presence of Secretary-
General Jiří Buriánek (CoR) and Director-General Walter Deffaa (DG REGIO).
More information: http://www.opendays.europa.eu
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Startup Europe Week
Hosted conference, 1 February 2016, 14:00 – 17:00, JDE building, room JDE 51
The official opening of the Startup Europe Week (SEW) is organised by Startup Europe/DG CONNECT, which aims to bring together entrepreneurs and regions and fill a gap that is unique in Europe - the importance of local / regional support in new business creation.
More information: http://startupeuropeweek.eu/
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Boosting the entrepreneurial spirit – European pioneering regions and cities
CoR conference 9 February 2016, 09:30 – 13:00, JDE building, room JDE 52
The event will focus on successful EER regions and other interested parties, sharing the benefits of the entrepreneurial spirit: the pioneering regions should decide together on areas of enhanced cooperation, and examples could be found from smart specialisation strategies, the needs of the participators or current projects of the Commission, EU
Presidency or the EIB. Based on the interests of the pioneering regions, EU support can be found by connecting multifinancing sources (ESIF, EFSI, H2020) and across policy fields and Commission DGs.
Pioneering cities and regions themselves are to take an active lead: the role of the European Committee of the Regions is to act as a facilitator and enabler in the process, feeding results and knowledge from research, EU policy and EUlevel partners to the participants.
More information: http://cor.europa.eu/en/events/Pages/entrepreneurial-spirit.aspx
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Demographic changes in the Alps
Hosted conference, 10 February 2016, 09:00 – 12:00, JDE building, JDE 53
The event is dedicated to the presentation of the “Fifth Report on the State of the Alps”. The report, approved by the
XIII CoP of the Alpine Convention chaired by the Italian Ministry for the Environment and Protection of Land and Sea, is dedicated to demographic change in the pan-Alpine territory with a focus on the labour market, public services and migration data. The presentation is addressed to policy makers at European and national level, in order to present a useful tool of knowledge to deal with demographic change in the Alpine Region.
More information: http://www.minambiente.it ; http://www.alpconv.org

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HoNCAB project Final Conference
Hosted conference, 18 February 2016, 09:00 – 16:00, VMA building, room VM1
The final conference of the HoNCAB project. The project’s main aim is to obtain a better understanding of the financial and organisational requirements that may arise as a result of a patient receiving healthcare outside their Member
State of affiliation. The results of the project will be discussed, together with the next steps. Organised by European
Hospital and Healthcare Federation.
More information: http://honcab.eu
On 2 December 2015 more than 150 participants held discussions during the conference on “The Digital Single Market: Creating opportunities for regions and cities.”