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Looking for the most entrepreneurial regions and cities in Europe
The European Committee of the Regions (CoR) is looking for cities and regions which are ready to create and implement an ambitious and outstanding strategy to support their SMEs and entrepreneurs. Applications for the European Entrepreneurial Region (EER) award 2018 are accepted until 7 April 2017.
The European Committee of the Regions (CoR) yearly identifies and rewards three EU regions which show an outstanding and innovative entrepreneurial policy strategy, irrespective of their size, wealth and competences. The regions, cities or any other local or regional institution with the political competence to implement an entrepreneurial vision are invited to hand in their application. The three most forward-thinking and promising visions with a credible implementation plan are granted the label “European Entrepreneurial Region” (EER) for the specific year.
"We want to encourage cities and regions to be ambitious and further boost their entrepreneurial potential. Therefore the EER initiative does not reward past achievements but instead focuses on the future. This means that the EER award is aimed not only at regions and cities that are already among the top performers but also targets territories that may still be less prosperous, but that have developed an ambitious strategy allowing them to move forward", stated Benedetta Brighenti (IT/PES), CoR member and rapporteur on the Sharing Economy, launching the call for applications for the EER 2018 edition during the SME Assembly in Bratislava.
The implementation of the prize-winning regional strategies will be monitored throughout the award year by the EER jury, which is composed of CoR members, representatives of EU institutions and social partners. At the end of the year, the jury visits the awarded territories in order to verify the progress made and provide them with an objective outside view on their policies. The main results and achievements of the EER 2018 winners will also be shared and discussed among regional and local authorities through the EER network.
The deadline for the submission of applications is 7 April 2017. The application form and further information are available on the EER web page: www.cor.europa.eu/eer
During the event representatives of EER 2016 winner Małopolska and EER 2017 winner Lower Austria shared their regions success stories. Find the successful strategies of all former EER winner regions here.
Contact:
Carmen Schmidle
Tel. +32 (0)2 282 2366
Carmen.schmidle@cor.europa.eu
