European House Skopje

On 25 October 2006, the new Draft-Strategy for Public Information and Communication in the Process of European Union Integration of the Republic of Macedonia 2006-2010 was presented. The presentation took place in the building of the Government of Republic of Macedonia.The event was opened by the Deputy Prime Minister responsible for European Affairs, Gabriela Konevska Trajkovska. She stressed that the EU membership is not a strategic priority of the government only, but also of the citizens of the Republic of Macedonia, which is confirmed by the support of 90 % for EU accession.“The goal of this Strategy is to raise the general level of knowledge abut the EU Integration Process. This Strategy will inform, educate, unite and mobilize towards the fulfilment of the EU idea. This approach is in line with the EU documents on public communication”, Konevska-Trajkovska outlined.“The government needs a clear strategy and a consistent message to convince the people at home that the short term

Clare Morgan, Media Relations Manager for the Objective One Partnership of Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly. Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly are well known in the UK as a place for traditional bucket and spade holidays. British families have stayed in bed and breakfast accommodation and sunbathed on beaches. This led to seasonal, low paid jobs and while the holiday image is known nationwide, the region as a place for successful business is a new message. The message that the Objective One Partnership is tasked with getting across is that the region has a burgeoning knowledge-based economy as well as top quality food and drink producers. The obstacles to relaying this message include distance; Cornwall is about five hours by road or train from London. National journalists will often not travel yet the best way to challenge preconceptions is by demonstrating the evidence. Because the next generation of European funding is likely to be different the Partnership also wants to demonstrate

Rough road through the way of public procurement after the EU accession László Velikovszky Head of Unit Hungarian Development Office – Unit for Procurement Coordination and Control Deák F. u. 5. 1052 Budapest Hungary Phone: +36-30-2227428 Email: velikovszky.laszlo@cfcu.gov.hu Web: www.cfcu.hu/ekke The new Hungarian Act on Public Procurement entered into force on 1 May 2004, on the day of Hungary’s EU accession. But it’s important to emphasize that those parts of the new Act which regulate contract award procedures for public procurement with support from European Union structural funds and Cohesion Fund entered into force on 1 January 2004. The main purpose of the Act was to ensure the total harmonization of the Hungarian regulation to the Community Law. This purpose has come to fruition. Furthermore the purpose was to provide for transparency and extensive public control in the reasonable use of public monies, ensure the fairness of public competition in the course of public procur

Albert van der Horst Researcher CPB, Netherlands Bureau for Economic Policy Analysis Van Stolkweg 14 2585 JR The Hague The Netherlands Phone: +31 703383402 Email: vanderhorst@cpb.nl Web: www.cpb.nl/nl/general/org/homepages/avdh/ Countries might converge, unlike provinces The European Union is one of the most prosperous parts of the world. Yet there are large regional disparities in productivity, wages, and employment, and they have only increased with the recent enlargement. Thus, there seems to be ample justification for helping lagging regions to catch up, both at the national and the European level. Unfortunately, regional policy appears to be ineffective. Well known are the fruitless attempts of Italy to bridge the gap between the Mezzogiorno and the North, of Germany to bridge the gap between the Neue Länder and the West, and of the European Commission to reduce regional disparities in general. This study validates one explanation of the ineffectiveness of regional policy. We set

By Johannes Flensted-Jensen, County Mayor of Aarhus and Chairman of the Jutland–Fyn Business Cooperation Scheme e-mail: jfj@ag.aaa.dk www.aaa.dk and www.jylland-fyn.dk The Jutland–Fyn Business Cooperation Scheme The Jutland–Fyn Business Cooperation Scheme was set up in 1998 by the 8 counties and 173 municipalities in the region, along with the Danish Ministry of Economic and Business Affairs. Just over 50% of the Danish population live within the Jutland–Fyn region. Long before 1998, these Danish counties and municipalities had observed that Greater Copenhagen was developing at a much faster rate than their own region. They also noticed that this rate of development was intensifying over time. A significant reason for this was that state funds were being spent to a greater degree in Greater Copenhagen than in the rest of Denmark. Until 1998, the individual counties and municipalities competed for investments from both the state and private sectors. This meant that it became much too

Planning regional development of „lagging regions“- example from Slovakia Andrej Steiner, PhD. Carpathian Development Institute, Slovak Republic steiner@kri.sk ; www.kri.sk It is generally acknowledged that there has been a steady trend towards an increase in spatial and regional disparities within the EU. The European Commission has long recognized that the process of economic integration championed by the EC through the construction of the Single European market and the EMU could and does sharpen regional inequalities in the EU. This could ultimately undermine the cohesion of the EU and the political viability of (and support for) the project of European economic and political integration. An active EU policy to address above-mentioned challenges has been reflected mainly in creation of the “European Regional Development Fund” to assist the development of the lagging or declining regions of the European Community. However, it has often been highlighted that there are strong tensions

How can regionas be more involved in research and innovation – science goes practice Wolfgang Fischer Institute of Geography and Regional Sciencies. Karl-Franzens-University Graz Summary 1. Graz Declaration on Committing Universities to Sustainable Development The European Union through the Resolution of the Gothenburg Council and the Lisbon Process has put itself on the frontline of the implementation of sustainable development in the global context. By this, the European Union has taken over a major responsibility to reach the UN Millennium Development Goals. The Bologna Process constitutes one of the most efficient means to realize this ambitious objective in the arena of Higher Education. On the occasion of launching the United Nations Decade of Education for Sustainable Development in higher education, an international conference on “Committing Universities to Sustainable Development”, was held from 20-23 April 2005 in Graz, Austria. The conference was jointly organized by COPERNI

LESSONS LEARNT FROM MANAGING STRUCTURAL FUND PROGRAMMES: AN ENGLISH VIEW Overview: The aim is to identify key aspects of successful programme management, providing a basis for effective delivery during 2007-13. The methodology is to consider aspects of Programme management, based on considerable personal experience. Issues to be examined include: The difficulties of keeping a balance between maintaining quality in interventions, while meeting challenging annual expenditure targets: successful delivery. The contributions that formal and informal evaluations and a more rigorous approach to project monitoring can make to successful programme management. The roles of the Managing Authority, the Programme Secretariat and partnerships in successful programme delivery. Wherever possible, practical advice and suggestions, based on experience, and with a view to helping others to avoid difficult management issues will be offered. 1) Introduction: personal and organisational information; I

Information/communication – lessons learned in Sweden This presentation will be about story telling. I have chosen this expression because I think it is often more to the point and easier to understand than Information-communication. I will focus on storytelling to the media and by the media. What can we do, as officials, to help the media to tell some of the very interesting and thrilling stories that are to tell about the structural fund’s interventions? There will always be brochures and leaflets and websites and advertising, but there is nothing like the media when credibility is concerned. My name is Maria Evertsson. I work as a communication officer at Nutek, a Swedish state agency dealing with business development and structural funds. I have worked with EU-related issues since Sweden became a member in 1995. Before that I worked as a journalist. My e-mail adress is: Maria.evertsson@nutek.se I will divide my presentation into three parts: The media situation Success factors Dif