Speakers:
Corina Creţu, European Commissioner for Regional Policy
Camille Gira, Luxembourgish Secretary of State for Sustainable Development and Infrastructure
Marc Neu, Reidener Energieatelier
Patrice Verscheure, Maison de l’Eau
On 15 and 16 September the Luxembourgish Presidency of the Council of the European Union, together with the European Commission and the INTERACT Programme, will host a Conference celebrating "25 years of Interreg".Interreg, also known as European Territorial Cooperation (ETC), is a financing instrument under the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) to support cooperation between partners across borders. Interreg provides a framework for the implementation of joint actions and projects between national, regional and local actors from different Member States to tackle common challenges together and find shared solutions.
At the press conference local partners will present three Interreg projects with a focus on energy and environment:
- Pôlénergie: a project with the aim of sensitising the local population about the existence and use of renewable energy sources
- Vallénergie: a project on cross-border activities with the goal of attaining energetic self-sufficiency in the local project area (http://www.vallenergie.eu/) and
- Aquafil: a project on interregional activities towards protecting and restoring river systems (www.aquafil.net).
The Conference celebrating "25 years of Interreg" will take place the 15th September 2015 from 13:30 pm to 16th September 2015 14:00 pm in the Maison du Savoir, 2, Avenue de l'Université, L-4365 Esch-sur-Alzette (Belval). Luxembourg.
The first day of the Conference will begin with opening speeches from François Bausch, Luxembourgish Minister for Sustainable Development and Infrastructure, and Corina Creţu, the European Commissioner for Regional Policy. In the following sessions, the conference will look back on the history of Interreg with a special edition of the ARTE series ‘Le dessous des cartes’ in the presence of the author of the series, Jean-Christophe Victor. The conference sessions will also illustrate some of the themes where Interreg made a difference (labour market/demographic change and environment); and think out of the box in the format of TED Talks with regards to the behavioural dimensions of international cooperation and the diffusion of innovation.
The second day of the conference will take a global view on territorial cooperation with examples from West Africa and Latin America, and discuss visions for Europe and its regions in the light of the question which role Interreg could play there. The panel discussion will be informed by an online survey that was launched by the European Commission to let the citizens speak.In addition to presenting evidence, as well as new sources for reflection and inspiration, the conference will also offer participants the opportunity to choose the winner of the Interreg Project Slam with projects from across Europe. To broaden the participation, there will be a vivid exchange and interaction with the Twittersphere under the official hashtag #interreg25.
More information: Photo coverage of the press conference will be available on Ebs http://ec.europa.eu/avservices/ebs/schedule.cfm INTERREG 25 Years