OPEN DAYS, the European Week of Regions and Cities

Regions and cities prepare for the 2010 edition of Brussels' top institutional event

OPEN DAYS, the European Week of Regions and Cities, held each year in October, has long been Brussels' biggest annual event on regional and urban development – but now it is also the city's best institutional event as well. On the day that the 2010 version of the OPEN DAYS was officially launched, the 2009 edition was named 'best 2009 event' in the category Associations & Institutional Meetings in an award ceremony hosted by the Brussels International Tourism & Congress office.

The OPEN DAYS are organised jointly each year by the Committee of the Regions (CoR), the EU's assembly of regional and local representatives, and the European Commission's Regional Policy Directorate-General (DG REGIO). The 2010 event will also include 28 regional partnerships, who will organise around a third of the more than 100 conferences and seminars to be held between 4-7 October in Brussels. The other two thirds will be organised by the CoR and DG REGIO.

The reform of cohesion policy post-2013 and the local dimension of the 'Europe 2020 strategy' will dominate the 8th European Week of Regions and Cities. Workshops and seminars will concentrate on the three key issues of competitiveness, co-operation and cohesion and will highlight the concerns and demands of regions and cities in the run-up to the adoption by the European Commission of its 5th cohesion report, an assessment of the current state of play that will influence the Commission's thinking on the policy post-2013.

The OPEN DAYS also involve the European Parliament, private companies and financial institutions. The latter will showcase the role of public-private partnerships in developing a 'greener economy' and 'territorial co-operation' – the themes of two 'villages' hosted by the CoR. In addition, the OPEN DAYS University, which brings together top-level scholars and researchers in the field of regional and urban development, will address the issue of EU cohesion policy from a more academic point of view.

A total of 6,000 participants, representing local, regional and national authorities, academia, EU officials and media, are expected to attend the 2010 event. In addition, under the label "Europe in our Region/City", another 260 local events will be organised all over Europe to reach an even wider public of more than 25,000.

The final programme and on-line registration will be available as of 5 July.

For more information, please visit www.opendays.europa.eu
Background of the 'Associations and Institutional Meetings Award':
http://www.brusselsmeetingsweek.be/