News

In the last quarter of 2017 colleagues from South Moravia, Czech Republc, have been busy talking about the PURPLE and its remit with local and regional organisations. As a result of their intense activity five organisations have signed up to PURPLE’s Peri-Urban Charter whose aim is to widen recognition of peri-urban issues and challenges in Europe.

The new signatories include two academic establishments with an interest in regional and territorial development; an environmental foundation; the South Moravian regional development agency and Association of Municipalities and Cities of South Moravia. A short description of each of these organisations can be found here.

Further to our previous news story with regard to the 11 October Workshop ‘Regions and change – the transformative power of transnational networks’, PURPLE has now published its own Key Messages summary of the event.

This document brings together a number of key points arising from the workshop and highlighting the role transnational networks can play role in bringing about change though policy development and project delivery. It can be downloaded here.

On 11 October, two PURPLE regions (Surrey and Flanders) together with 3 non-PURPLE regions (Regione Toscana in Italy; Vallée de la Bruche joint municipalities in the Grand Est of France; and Krapina-Zagorje County in Western Croatia) co-organised a workshop entitled ‘Regions and change – the transformative power of transnational networks’.

The event, which took place at the Liaison Agency Flanders-Europe (VLEVA) in Brussels, was part of the official programme of the European Week of Regions and Cities 2017 and aimed to increase appreciation of the contribution made by transnational co-operation networks in bringing about change. Four such networks shared experiences, thoughts and future aspirations, giving the assembled group of 70+ from fourteen countries the chance to learn about transnational networks’ role in policy development and project delivery.

In addition to PURPLE the three other such networks were:

• FEDARENE - European Federation of Agencies and Regions for Energy and the Environment);

• ERIAFF - European Regions for Innovation in Agriculture, Food and Forestry; and

• FECOF - European Federation of Forest Municipalities

In her speech PURPLE president Helyn CLACK highlighted that “a key point about transnationality and the value of networks such as PURPLE (is that) if I want to find my real peers I may have to go some distance!! Having found them of course we want to explore how best to collaborate. PURPLE is a result of exactly such an exploration!!”. Indeed it transpired that transnational networks such as those featured in this workshop have a key role to play in both developing high-quality policy and in implementing that policy through projects, ongoing work and other means. In all instances, networks with either a thematic or territorial starting point or focus make a significant contribution to the positive development of both policy and practice – they bring by their very nature, a breadth of experience, a depth of understanding and a cross-representation of members.

On 11 October PURPLE launched a Lobby Group Paper on EU Cohesion Policy beyond 2020 with a view to feeding into the debate on future cohesion policy and coinciding with the publication of the European Commission's 7th Cohesion Report.

The official launch took place in Brussels on the occasion of the ‘Regions and change – the transformative power of transnational networks’ at which PURPLE was showcased and as part of the official programme of the European Week of Region and Cities 2017.

The paper, together its related 'key messages' document, sets out core elements of what PURPLE considers to be essential principles for, and features of, a revised Cohesion Policy which takes due account of peri-urban Europe today.

PURPLE's 27th General Assembly meeting will take place between 14:30 and 16:45 on 11 October 2017 in Brussels.

The agenda and papers for the meeting are available in the member-restricted area.

Please note that registration is open to PURPLE member regions only or to others by special invitation. To register please email secretarygeneral@purple-eu.org by Thursday 5 October 2017 (late registrations will be considered).

The General Assembly meeting will follow the event at which PURPLE will be showcased as part of the European Week of Regions and Cities (EWRC) 2017: 'Regions and change – the transformative power of transnational networks'. Further details here.

The European Economic and Social Committee (EESC) has now published the key recommendations and workshop reports from the Civil Society Days (CSDs) that took place on 26-27 June and in which PURPLE President, Helyn Clack, had taken part (see article here).

The report on Workshop 2 on ‘Rural-Urban dimensions: towards more territorial and social cohesion’ in which Mrs Clack was a panellist highlights calls for a more cohesive Europe where “people living in rural, remote and peri-urban areas are not economically and socially disadvantaged as compared to people living in the cities and towns”. It proposes to achieve this through political recognition of rural areas and their needs; a rural agenda to be implemented at national and regional levels through a rural fund pooling existing sources of rural development funding; and though the provision of new technologies, infrastructure (such as broadband) as well as investments into human development and skills.

Six overall key recommendations emerged from the discussions at CSDs. Two of these recommendations echo points highlighted in workshop 2, with the CSDs’ participants asking that EU institutions “Stick to the objective of territorial and social cohesion to overcome the disparities between and within the Members States” and “adopt a rural agenda in recognition of the specific needs in order to ensure territorial cohesion”. All six recommendations are available here and opening and closing sessions as well as workshop reports can be downloaded from the EESC website.