ECRN members met on the 14th of March in Brussels for a productive first meeting of the Permanent Working Group in 2018. Regional representatives from across Europe came together to discuss policies and opportunities for cooperation. ECRN Director Renatka Krcova presided over a discussion on the priority topics to work on throughout the year. These included:
Bioeconomy, Circular Economy, REACH, CO2 Economy and EU Plastics Strategy
Building upon the member regions’ policy goals and following the work done during the last Working Group Meeting, the Secretariat presented the latest version of the ECRN Position Paper on EU Cohesion Policy. Members approved the Paper’s overall stance on the policy and agreed to move forward with its release in the upcoming weeks.
The PWG meeting was also the place to highlight the energetic work already done by the Secretariat and members from Lombardy and Limburg on launching a New Thematic Area on Chemicals under the Smart Specialisation Platform for Industrial Modernisation. Among the expected benefits of this initiative is the deeper understanding of inter-regional complementarities and the potential for mobilizing the industry and financial sector in the perspective of generating new investments in the regions.
Finally, ECRN is glad to confirm that the results of the recently held Italian elections were positive for the current ECRN President, Mr. Fabrizio Sala (Lombardy), and the network is therefore expected to continue to strive while holding a stable presidency seat in the future.
