Commissioner Danuta Hübner signs memorandum on regional policy cooperation with Brazil

Danuta Hübner, Commissioner for Regional Policy, will today in Brasilia sign a Memorandum of Understanding with the Brazilian Ministry of National Integration to set up a structured dialogue on regional policy. At the invitation of Mr Geddel Vieira Lima, Minister of National Integration, she will also open an EU-Brazil seminar on regional policy. The Memorandum of Understanding, signed by the European Commission and the Brazilian Ministry of National Integration, initiates cooperation such as:

• Setting up technical working groups and cooperation between regions on both sides; organisation of meetings (seminars, conferences) with experts, politicians, officials, private companies and
• Support from the European Union for reinforcing local structures and regional development agencies in Brazil;
• Exchanges of views on issues such as: multi-level partnership (involving regional and local actors, the private sector and civil society), strategic planning and evaluation of regional policy, development of administrative capacity;
• Information exchange on classification and definition of regions.

More information here.

Regions delivering innovation

A Staff Working Document 'Regions Delivering Innovation through Cohesion Policy' has been finalised for the Informal meeting of regional policy ministers in the Azores on 23-24 November providing an analysis of how innovation as a central feature in the 2007-2013 cohesion policy programmes has increased. Innovation is defined as encompassing four groups of spending categories - RTDI, entrepreneurship, innovative ICT and human resources. The analysis – also broken down by country - shows that the planned EU investment for innovation in 2007-2013 will be above EUR 85 billion - a sum equivalent to 25% of the total new envelope for the 27 Member States. This value is more than 3 times higher than in 2000-2006. The paper concludes that the positive results of the programming phase require the commitment of all partners for successful delivery.

Access the working document here.

2007/2008 Human Development Report: Fighting climate change: Human solidarity in a divided world

The 2007/2008 Human Development Report entitled Fighting climate change: Human solidarity in a divided world will be launched later today in Brasilia, Brazil. According to the report, Climate change is the defining human development challenge of the 21st Century. Failure to respond to that challenge will stall and then reverse international efforts to reduce poverty. The poorest countries and most vulnerable citizens will suffer the earliest and most damaging setbacks, even though they have contributed least to the problem. The most polluting countries in 2004 were the USA and China. In what concerns human development, Iceland, Norway and Australia are the countries which present better indicators. At the bottom, we can still find countries such as Guinea-Bissau, Burkina Faso and Sierra Leone, which still have a long way to go in improving most human development indicators.

Access the full report here.
Access the summary here.
More on the Human Development Report here.

Tourism Pilot Project - European Destinations of Excellence

The European Commission launched, in 2006, the first phase of the pilot project "European Destinations of Excellence". The broad aim of this initiative is twofold:

• to draw attention to the value, diversity and shared characteristics of European tourist destinations;
• to promote destinations where the economic growth objective is pursued in such a way as to ensure the social, cultural and environmental sustainability of tourism.

For the year 2006, the theme of the pilot project was related to rural tourism. The subtitle of the award for this specific year was “Best Emerging Rural Destinations”. Eligible destinations are those which have implemented in any of the last 3 years initiatives that have contributed to the promotion of the local tourist offer through a better appreciation of the rural natural and cultural heritage. Moreover, each participating Country has outlined more specific criteria of eligibility. The European Commission has recently launched the second phase of the project with the new theme "tourism and local intangible heritage". Those destinations which have developed a new tourism offer based on the appreciation of their specific local intangible heritage will have the possibility to compete at national level and be selected as 2007 destination of excellence. 18 countries will be participating in the project this time.

More on the pilot project here.
Visit the 2006 winning destinations here.

COMEDIA: thinking about creative cities

COMEDIA, founded by Charles Landry in 1978, is linked to the idea of 'The Creative City' and now the notion of ‘The Art of City Making’ and how people and cities can make the most of their possibilities. ‘The Intercultural City’ adds another concept and focuses on how cities can live well with their multicultural diversity. The questions the team tries to answer are:

• How we create the pre-conditions for decision makers at all levels to think, plan and act with imagination and in an integrated way;
• How we develop a common language across professional disciplines concerned with city making;
• How we combine an understanding of hard - physical - as well as soft - cultural, social and economic infrastructure;
• How we encourage people to think differently, so they do things differently and do different things;
• How do we identify, harness, promote and sustain the creative, cultural resources that are present in every human settlement if we look deeply enough.

You can order some of the team's publications or access free a growing number of texts (after registering)

EU ministers agree to set up European Institute of Innovation and Technology

EU research ministers agreed Friday to set up a European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT) and to create four private-public sector partnerships in the field of technology as part of a drive to bridge the bloc's competitive gap with the United States. The political agreement should allow to start implementation of the EIT regulation as from Spring 2008. The EIT will have a governing body, a director and an executive committee, but will not be a new institute as such. Rather, it will network and pool resources from Europe's universities and will initially seek to focus research into three broad areas: energy, climate change and information technology. The EU has earmarked 308.7 million euros for the functioning of the EIT for a period of six years.

Press release of the council meeting here.

Manufuture Conference 2007 - Constructing a Sustainably Competitive Europe, Porto 2nd and 4th December

Bringing together a vast majority of the relevant stakeholders of European manufacturing, the Manufuture 2007 Conference, being held in Porto, Portugal from the 2nd to the 4th of December, will address new concerns related to the sustainability of manufacturing activities and operations in Europe and the global positioning of European manufacturing companies for the years to come. The financing of strategic R&D activities, the Asian perspective on some of the problems with which companies are being confronted in global manufacturing operations, and support services and the transformation of the European research and innovation infrastructure in manufacturing are some themes being approached at the conference. Finally, the main outcome of the work undertaken within the scope of Manufuture, namely the result of the road mapping activities undertaken for 25 different industry sectors, will also be presented.

More information and programme here.

Informal Ministerial Meeting on territorial cohesion and regional policy: conclusions of the presidency on regional policy

At the invitation of the Portuguese Presidency of the EU Council, an Informal Ministerial Meeting on Territorial Cohesion and Regional Policy took place in Ponta Delgada, Azores, on 23 and 24 November 2007. Amongst the Presidency conclusions, one should underline the following:

• The conclusions of the Fourth Report on Economic and Social Cohesion stressed that the EU as a whole has not reached yet a sufficiently harmonious development of all its territories, in spite of the significant progress achieved. Disparities in economic performances, social indicators and education levels persist. These are remaining challenges both to the development of the EU territories and to its Cohesion Policy.
• Future discussions on regional policy could reflect, among other themes, a set of issues which takes into account some ideas on Cohesion Policy that were debated at the Cohesion Forum, like strategic integration, coherence and effectiveness, multi-level governance, visibility to the European citizens and contributions from Cohesion Policy to ongoing challenges such as globalisation, energy, climate change and demography.

Access the Conclusions of the Presidency on regional policy here.

European Commission 2006 Annual Reports for Regional Policy

In accordance with Community regulations, the Commission recently published three annual reports for 2006 on the Structural Funds, Cohesion Funds and the pre-accession instrument ISPA. The reports review budgetary implementation, the way in which programmes were carried out and the major projects adopted during the year.

Annual Report on the Cohesion Fund here.
Annual Report on the Structural Funds here.
Annual Report on ISPA here.

2007 AIDS epidemic update + What should be the world's top priorities?

Out last week, the UN 2007 AIDS epidemic update lowered the UNAIDS and the World Health Organization estimates of how many people are living with HIV/AIDS worldwide. According to the report, about 33 million people worldwide are living with HIV/AIDS, compared with an estimate of nearly 40 million in 2006. The U.N. bodies said that better methods of data collection and increased data availability from countries show that HIV/AIDS is not quite as widespread as previously thought. Sub-Saharan Africa remains the most seriously affected region, with AIDS remaining the leading cause of death there. Downward trends in HIV prevalence are occurring in a number of countries, where prevention efforts aimed at reducing new HIV infections since 2000 and 2001 are showing results. In most of sub-Saharan Africa, national HIV prevalence has either stabilized or is showing signs of a decline (Figure 2). Côte d’Ivoire, Kenya and Zimbabwe have all seen declines in national prevalence, continuing earlier trends. In South-East Asia, the epidemics in Cambodia, Myanmar and Thailand all show declines in HIV prevalence.

Access the report and further documentation here.

When global warming has become the world's top priority, others are starting to question whether it should be the world's top priority, in opposition to fighting hunger, poverty and/or HIV. Although when can question his conclusions, economist Bjorn Lomborg makes a persuasive case for prioritizing the world's biggest problems, asking "If we had $50 billion to spend over the next four years to do good in the world, where should we spend it?" His recommendations - based on the findings of the 2004 Copenhagen Consensus - controversially place global warming at the bottom of the list (and AIDS prevention at the top).

Institute for Competitiveness & Prosperity

The Institute for Competitiveness & Prosperity is an independent, not-for-profit organization funded by the Government of Ontario and mandated to share its research findings directly with the public, that deepens public understanding of macro and microeconomic factors behind Ontario’s economic progress. The Our Work section includes research on Ontario’s and Canada's competitiveness, productivity, and economic progress. The Links section contains external news and resources from other institutions.

The European Commission proposes new options to reinforce development of micro-credit in Europe

Regional Policy Commissioner Danuta Hübner presented yesterday an initiative which seeks to improve access to finance for small businesses and for socially excluded people, also ethnic minorities, who want to become self-employed. This initiative, in line with the Lisbon Strategy for growth and jobs, aims to make small loans, or micro-credit, more widely available in Europe to satisfy unmet demand. The main aspects of the initiative are:

• it invites Member States to adapt their national institutional, legal and commercial frameworks needed to promote a more favourable environment for the development of micro-credit. This should include making changes to their National Reform Programmes under the Lisbon strategy for jobs and growth, in order to set themselves meaningful targets in this field.
• it recommends setting up a new European-level facility with staff to provide expertise and support for the development of non-bank micro-finance institutions in Member States. This would equip micro-financers to offer not just a loan, but a service mentoring the borrower to help develop and ensure the success of their business. This kind of accompaniment is the key to the success of micro-credit operations.
  

More information here.

Informal Ministerial Meeting on Territorial Cohesion and Regional Policy, Azores 22-25 November

A reminder for the Informal Ministerial Meeting on Territorial Cohesion and Regional Policy, being held in Azores (Portugal) form the 22th to the 25th November. The working sessions will be dedicated to the discussion and adoption of the First Action Programme for the implementation of the Territorial Agenda of the European Union, thus carrying out the commitment assumed by Portugal during the Informal Ministerial Meeting on Urban Development and Territorial Cohesion held in Leipzig in May 2007. The second day of the Meeting, November 24, will focus on Regional Policy issues. The EU Regional Policy contribution to the delivering of Lisbon goals, concerning particularly Innovation related issues, will be discussed. At the same time, as a follow-up of the Cohesion Forum that was held on the September 27-28, an open and informal discussion on the future of EU Regional Policy will be promoted.

More information here.

Communicating together on Cohesion Policy: Survey launched

In the run-up to the conference on "Telling the Story: Communicating Cohesion Policy together" on 26 and 27 November in Brussels the Regional Policy DG of the European Commission has launched a short term survey. The objective of the survey is to find out how the new requirementsa of a new and more transparent approach concerning information about the programmes and projects co-financed by the structural and cohesion funds will be put into practice by the national and regional managing authorities. Results of the survey will be presented during the conference.

More on communicating policy for 2007-2013 here.
Access the survey here.
Telling the Story conference here.

New issue of Higher Education Research & Development: Volume 27 Issue 1

The new issue of the journal 'Higher Education Research & Development' (Volume 27 Issue 1) is now available for paid subscribers at the Informaworld's website. This issue contains the following articles:

• Facing and managing dilemmas as a clinical educator
• Qualitatively different ways of experiencing student self-assessment
• Bridging the implementation gap: a teacher-as-learner approach to teaching and learning policy
• University student anonymity in the summative assessment of
• The quality of guidance and feedback to students
• Evaluating an earlybird scheme: encouraging early assignment writing and revising
• Innovation in PhD completion: the hardy shall succeed (and be happy!)

Access this issue in Informaworld's website.

The City of Tomorrow, Week of the City, Brussels 19-25 November

Based on the initiative of Charles Picqué, Minister-President of the Brussels-Capital Region, the aim of the Week of the City is to enable Brussels to think about its future as a City-Region covering the themes of governance and policy territoriality. Globalisation, urban diversity, territorial discrimination, urban marketing, innovation and sustainable management, structuring urban projects, governance, the role of the State, the Regions and private sector stakeholders, etc. are just some of the key issues which now require fundamental, far-reaching analysis in the context of the city’s future.

More information and programme here.

U.N. Science Panel Sees Faster Warming of Earth

Global warming is "unequivocal" and carbon dioxide already in the atmosphere commits the world to an average rise in sea levels of up to 4.6 feet, the world's top climate experts warned Saturday in their most authoritative report to date. The U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which shared the Nobel Prize with Al Gore this year, released its final report Saturday at the end of the group's conference in Valencia, Spain. The report includes data and findings from three IPCC working groups on climate change and offers dozens of measures for avoiding the worst catastrophes if taken together — at a cost of less than 0.12 percent of the global economy annually until 2050. They range from switching to nuclear and gas-fired power stations, developing hybrid cars, using more efficient electrical appliances and managing cropland to store more carbon.

You can access the working groups reports on the IPCC website.

Back from the Dead - The Economist article on the regeneration of industrial American cities

The October 27th edition of The Economis presents an interesting account of the resurgence of two America's industrial cities, Flint (the birthplace of General Motors) and Cleveland. At least two interesting regeneration schemes can be identified in this news report:

• a land bank that acquires abandoned buildings though foreclosure, then readies them to be sold in the market and returned to the the tax rolls. The bank claims to have increased property values by more than $112m so far;
• a tax-sharing scheme to split taxes from businesses that move within the Cleveland area, thus sharing revenue and rationalising services (Cleveland provides water services to the surrounding towns;

However, as the article puts it, these cities will not recover overnight.

Access the article here.

Information Day of the European Commission's Joint Research Centre (JRC), Lisbon November 30

The European Commission and the Portuguese Ministry of Science, Technology and Higher Education are organising an Information Day of the European Commission's Joint Research Centre (JRC), to be hled in Lisbon on November 30. At the Information Day participants from the scientific, political and corporate world will discuss the cooperation between the JRC and Portuguese research organisations, centred on the main themes: Agriculture and Food products, Energy and Safety, Maritime Affairs, Environment and ERAWATCH.

More information here.
Access the programme here.

New issue of Entrepreneurship & Regional Development

The new issue of Entrepreneurship & Regional Development: An International Journal, Volume 19 Issue 6, is available for paid subscribers at the informaworld website. This issue contains the following articles:

• Editorial
• 'Entrepreneuring' as a conceptual attractor? A review of process theories in 20 years of entrepreneurship studies
• The moral space in entrepreneurship: an exploration of ethical imperatives and the moral legitimacy of being enterprising
• Entrepreneurship, discourses and conscientization in processes of regional development
• Interstanding the industrial district: contrasting conceptual images as a road to insight

Access the the issue table of contents here.

Barcelona Strategic Plan for Culture

The city of Barcelona has been in the last decade promoting itself and making its own path as a European capital of culture, by situating culture as one of the principal elements in the development and projection of the city, through the running of municipal facilities and cultural services and by promoting and facilitating the emergence and consolidation of the numerous private-sector cultural platforms and projects in the city. This central objective is based on the Strategic Plan for the city's culture sector and is embodied in the following specific actions:

• To consolidate culture as a basic strategy in the development of the city of knowledge
• To assist Barcelona in becoming a centre for the production of cultural content
• To support popular and traditional culture, and the activities of Barcelona's cultural associations
• To complete and remodel the city's network of heritage facilities and improve the effectiveness of these
• To promote the educational dimension of culture
• To facilitate the incorporation of the cultural sectors into the flows of the digital age
• To articulate metropolitan strategies in the field of culture
• To implement the libraries plan approved by Barcelona City Council
• To articulate actions to improve cultural provision in the districts and neighbourhoods of the city

Access the Barcelona Strategic Plan for Culture here.

Community Development Foundation

The Community Development Foundation (CDF) was organized in 1948 by community leaders who saw the need for a unified effort to coordinate the economic and community development activities of the region and has been characterized by many as an organization that is at the center of innovation, as well as the most significant creative force in rural American economic and community development. The CDF has been undertaking diverse actions in promoting the socio-economic development of the Tupelo-Lee County region, such as:

• marketing the region to business, industry and professional leaders;
• developing a ten year strategy plan, an annual program of work designed to enhance agricultural, business, educational, industrial, private/public partnership and support efforts such as skills and technology enhancement, improved transportation and health care;
• establishing and/or supporting agencies that meet the needs of the community;
• establishment, in collaboration with government of nine industrial parks located in the area.

Visit the Community Development Foundation website here.

Business and Biodiversity: Specialists and Entrepreneurs meet today in Lisbon

Under the Portuguese Presidency, business leaders, biodiversity experts, NGOs and policy makers, return today and tomorrow to Lisbon to explore how European business can improve performance through biodiversity responsibility during the EU High Level Conference on Business & Biodiversity.

Conference brochure here.
Conference background paper here.

27th Session of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), Valencia, 12-17 November

About 140 countries will be represented in the 27th Session of the IPCC, scheduled for 12 -17 November 2007 in Valencia- Spain and which will focus on the adoption of the IPCC’s Fourth Assessment Report (AR4). The IPCC is currently finalizing its Fourth Assessment Report entitled Climate Change 2007. The reports by the three Working Groups provide a comprehensive and up-to-date assessment of the current state of knowledge on climate change.

More information on the session and agenda here.

Will Money Solve Africa's Development Problems?

The John Templeton Foundation is conducting the second in a series of conversations about the "Big Questions" and has called on leading scientists and scholars to answer the question 'Will Money Solve Africa's Development Problems?'. The essays are available online at the Foundation's website.

Free Online Access to all SAGE Journals until November 30, 2007

SAGE Publications is offering free online access to all SAGE Journals until November 30, 2007: All one needs to is to register in order to be able to access online more than 460 journals, including European Urban and Regional Studies, the Journal of Planning Education and Research and Urban Studies, amongst other. A wealth of information freely available until the end of the month.

Read more and register here.

People-to-people lending

The recent credit-crunch affecting present and prospective homeowners, especially in the USA, is reinforcing the role of social-lending (or people-to-people lending) as opposed to mainstream credit markets. Social lending has been offering borrowers cheaper credit than they could get elsewhere, as lenders in this credit model are not seeking solely to maximise returns. Intriguing is that social lending firms have been capable of assessing risk better than they mainstream counterparts, presenting default rates lower than the major banks.

Visit these social firms: Prosper and Zopa.

SmartManuakau - Towards a Knowledge Society Strategy for Manukau

Manukau, a city in the Auckland region of New Zealand, adopted in 2002 the SmartManukau initiative, which aims at transforming Manukau City into a ‘knowledge city’ that adopts new technologies, educates its youth and generates knowledge-led economic growth. Manukau City thus achieves sustained economic growth and improves well-being by:

• Developing opportunities for all citizens to attain the highest possible level of training, education and lifelong learning;
• Attracting and growing knowledge-based entreprises;
• Demonstrating exemplary practice in the application of knowledge strategies in business and community activities.

Access the SmartManukau strategy here.

The Economis article on the European Treaty

The October 25th edition of The Economist brings a critical reading of the lack of democratic legitimacy and accountability of the new Lisbon Reform Treaty of the European Union, which was agreed on October19th and is to be signed by the leaders of the 27 member states on December 13th. The British - and The Economist too - have always been very Eurosceptics, but the article does raise some pertinent questions on how the EU leaders have abandoned the 'European Constitution' term and adopted the 'Reform Treaty' term - keeping some 90% of the old document and increasing its opacity - in order to avoid democratic - and possibly negative - referendums by national voters. In the words of the writer of the article, 'Whatever your views on the treaty, this is a farce—and it has consequences stretching far beyond Europe'. A good article, whatever one's opinion on the treaty is.

Access the article here.

European Development Days, Lisbon 7-9 November

The European Development Days will take place in Lisbon, from 7 to 9 November 2007. The subject of this edition will focus on «climate changes and development», highlighting the strategies and activities of cooperation for the development of the EU. This Forum's debates will focus on various issues related to partnerships for development and questions on global regulation for the environment, concentrating especially on matters such as the vulnerability of developing countries, the protection of the world public heritage, the impact on populations and spaces, as well as the adaptation and opportunities for developing countries.

More information here.
Programme here.

Documentation of the Seminar «Cultural and Creative sectors at the Lisbon Agenda» available

Documentation of the Seminar «Cultural and Creative sectors at the Lisbon Agenda» held in Lisbon on the 31st October and 1st November is now available in the website of the Portuguese Presidency of the European Union. The seminar had three objectives: to create research and policy agendas for the sector, capable of being efficiently articulated; to explore new employment opportunities, either offered by the sector or being offered to the sector; to reflect on how the sector can grow into a sustainable development factor in the different EU countries.

Access the documentation here.

World Development Report (WDR) 2008

The World Bank's 2008 'World Development Report' (WDR), the 30th in the series, underlines the role of agriculture as a fundamental instrument for sustainable development and poverty reduction and provides guidance to governments and the international community on designing and implementing agriculture-for-development agendas that can make a difference in the lives of hundreds of millions of rural poor. The report thus addresses three main questions:

• What can agriculture do for development?
• What are effective instruments in using agriculture for development?
• How can agriculture-for-development agendas best be implemented?

Access the full report here.

More than 710 US mayors have now signed the U.S. Mayors Climate Protection Agreement

As disclosed on November 1st during the U.S. Conference of Mayors Climate Protection Summit, Orlando, FL, has recently became the 700th signatory of the U.S. Mayors Climate Protection Agreement, an initiative launched in February 16th by Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels to advance the goals of the Kyoto Protocol through leadership and action in American cities. Collectively, the 710 signatories represent 25% of the total population in the United States. On the final day of the summit, the US Mayors have also called for federal partnerships on climate protection.

Access the U.S. Mayors Climate Protection Agreement here.
More information on the U.S. Conference of Mayors Climate Protection Summit here.

Creative Partnerships

Creative Partnerships is the English Government’s flagship creativity programme for schools and young people. It aims to develop:

• the creativity of young people, raising their aspirations and achievements;
• the skills of teachers and their ability to work with creative practitioners;
• schools' approaches to culture, creativity and partnership working; and;
• the skills, capacity and sustainability of the creative industries.

More information here.

A Global Comparison of National Biodiesel Production Potentials

Matt Johnston and Tracey Holloway of the Center for Sustainability and the Global Environment at the University of Wisconsin—Madison have developed a a consistent, national-level evaluation of potential biodiesel volumes and prices, replicated across 226 countries, territories and protectorates. The results show an upper-limit worldwide volume potential of 51 billion liters from 119 countries; 47 billion of which could be produced profitably at today’s import prices. The study also argues that Malaysia and Indonesia stand out above the remaining countries, making up almost 75% of the potential volumes from increased yields.

Read the draft document here.
More information on the research and country results here.

Zaragossa Towards Knowledge City

Launched in 2003, Zaragoza Ciudad del Conocimiento (Zaragossa Towards Knowledge City) is the Zaragossa municipal government's strategy for the economic promotion of the city and its advance towards the Knowledge Society. Focusing mainly on ICT and digital networks, the action plan has the following main objectives:

• Carry out the establishment of innovating companies, to boost economic growth and the creation of skilled jobs.
• Use of new technologies to give more efficient public services.
• Guarantee to every citizen, entity, company and institution the full exercise of the right of access to communication networks.
• Take advantage of the technological change to develop a new urbanism to consolidate the city and create economic opportunities.
• Turn Saragossa into a national and international reference thanks to its attitude facing the phenomenon of innovation and new technologies.

More information here (in English) and here (in Spanish).