The ECRN President Fabrizio Sala (Lombardy) opened ECRN’s new year on 16 January with his first regional visit. The visit was hosted by the region of North Rhine-Westphalia in Düsseldorf, where all the German ECRN member regions had the chance to exchange ideas and discuss priorities for 2017. The meeting with the German regions was complemented by an additional meeting between Mr. Sala and the ECRN Vice President Twan Beurskens (Limburg) to discuss key policy issues and other updates.

This regional visit was the first one also for the new Director of the ECRN Secretariat, Renatka Krcova, who outlined the elements of the ECRN action plan for 2017 to the members during the meeting. Visits and meetings in the regions will continue throughout the year, and all ECRN members will come together for the first Permanent Working Group meeting of the year on 1 February 2017 in Brussels.