The Danube Transnational Programme actively participated in the 13th European Week of Regions and Cities, better known as Open Days, which took place from 12 to 15 October 2015 in Brussels, Belgium.

Specifically, some members of the Joint Secretariat participated in the:

- Workshop 'How could result-oriented transnational cooperation best be organised' Capitalising on part experiences to address present and future challenges'

Some of the questions discussed during the workshop are: How can transnational cooperation be of added value for Europe’s cities and rural area? What is the state of play of transnational cooperation is Europe in ETC programmes, macro-regions and other contexts? For what types of actions is there an added value in transnational cooperation? How to rally local, regional and national authorities, NGOs, private companies and other actors to transnational cooperation? These issues are relevant in relation to macroregional regional strategies, which seek to mobilise local and regional actors around shared objectives. However, the objective of the workshop was to have a wider discussion on the purpose and potential added-value of transnational cooperation. 

- Open Days official reception and Regio Stars Award ceremony

RegioStars – the award for innovative and inspiring projects – has been running for eight years and has been firmly established in the Regional and Urban Policy calendar as an event that recognizes and rewards innovative projects supported by Cohesion Policy. The Europe in my Region photo competition, running this year for the fourth time, shows and celebrates projects that are making a real difference to local communities. A trophy was presented to the winning projects as well as a short video on each winning RegioStars project in the following categories: Smart Growth, Sustainable Growth, Inclusive Growth, and CityStar. In Sustainable Growth category of South East Europe project was among the finalist: Mild Home.

- Workshop 'Cross-border cooperation and regional integration, a worldwide approach'

For the last 25 years, Interreg has funded cross-border cooperation programmes that have achieved considerable success. But cross-border cooperation is not limited to Europe. On other continents, national and local authorities and regional organisations are committed to strengthening cross-border integration. This workshop presents different cross-border cooperation projects in West Africa and Latin America in relation to the European experience.What experiences of CBC can be shared between Europe and other continents? What is the role of local authorities? What is the role of decentralised cooperation in stimulating cross-border cooperation? These and other questions were disscussed during the workshop.

- Workshop 'Filling the data gap in border regions: the importance of developing meaningful cross-borderdata for policy making and programme management'

To exploit the full potential of border regions and reduce the negative effects of political and administrative borders, policy- and decision-makers need more robust and meaningful ways to measure flows across borders. Questions which are simple in a national or regional context can become very complex in a cross-border context because underlying data is either missing or not compatible. The workshop drew a general picture of the state of play of cross-border data and looked at two initiatives which have tried to address the issue. It considered as well possible future developments in this field. 

More information about Open Days here.