Open Days 2013: the European week of regions and cities, plus welcome to Croatia and more...
Kicking off the Parliament Magazine Regional Review's 2013 Open Days coverage is regional policy commissioner Johannes Hahn, who invites all regions and cities to use this year's event to "learn more about the priorities of the next phase of the structural and investment funds". Hahn emphasises the new regional policy's focus on value for money and flexibility, saying it was designed to "ensure that the EU invests in key areas of growth to stay competitive in an ever more globalised economy". Committee of the Regions (CoR) president Ramón Luis Valcárcel Siso writes that the debate surrounding the EU's funded growth strategies will "massively contribute to the public discussion related to the 2014 elections and the future of Europe". For Valcárcel Siso, the effects of the economic crisis have "proven just how necessary and powerful EU regional policy really is".