22nd  European Week of Regions and Cities
Empowering Communities
7-10 October 2024, Brussels (Belgium)

The European Week of Regions and Cities is an annual four-day event during which cities and regions showcase their capacity to create growth and jobs, implement European Union cohesion policy, and prove the importance of the local and regional level for good European governance.

The 2024 Week takes between 7-10 October 2024 and is held in-person in Brussels. More on the #EURegionsWeek can be found here.

As in previous years, the learned societies (European Regional Science Association ERSA, Association of European Schools of Planning AESOP and the Regional Studies Association European Foundation RSA Europe) led by RSA Europe have collated and developed a session that showcases the best of new research to the largely policy audience at the #EURegionsWeek.

The 2024 themes of #EURegionsWeek are:

  • Competitiveness and Convergence: Two Sides of the Same Coin
  • Regions Strengthening European Democracy
  • Smart and Sustainable Growth for Regions
  • Regions got Talent

will be involved in the following session:

The end of the trade-offs? Competing and Converging for European Democracy

Albert Borschette Congress Center, Room AB-2A, Thu 10/10/2024, 11:30- 12:30 CEST

 This workshop engages with academic and policy debates in relation to the EU’s long-standing balancing act of encouraging and facilitating competitiveness across its regions and at the same time promoting social and territorial cohesion.  The session is jointly proposed by three learned societies with significant and pertinent academic and policy expertise and active members whose work has long been influencing relevant EU publications such as the EU Regional Competitiveness Index, the Reports from Experts on Cohesion Policy and the Convergence of EU Regions redux. The session will explore ways in which regions can compete at the same time converge, considering recent developments pertaining to flagship EU policies, such as the Twin Transition and the European Green Deal. It will also consider the possible impacts of convergence and competitiveness policies in relation to geographies of happiness, discontent, ‘left-behind’ people and places and the implications for European democracy.

This session is organised in partnership by three leading learned societies in the fields of regional studies, policy, science and planning (RSA Europe, ERSA, AESOP).

Speakers:

  • Univ. Prof. Dipl.-Ing. Dr Franziska Sielker, Head of Research Unit, European Spatial Development and Territorial Cohesion | Governance Research | Border Regions | Smart Cities, TU Wien, Austria
  • Professor Dimitris Ballas, Professor of Economic Geography, University of Groningen, The Netherlands
  • Professor Andrés Rodríguez-Pose, Princesa de Asturias Chair and a Professor of Economic Geography, London School of Economics, UK. He is the Director of the Cañada Blanch Centre LSE and Visiting Professor at the Centre for Innovation Research, University of Stavanger, Norway.

Moderator: Louise Kempton, Newcastle University

Registration here: https://regions-and-cities.europa.eu/programme/2024/sessions/32899