The European Week of Regions and Cities (#EURegionsWeek) is the biggest annual Brussels-based event dedicated to cohesion policy. It has grown to become a unique communication and networking platform, bringing together regions and cities from all over Europe, including politicians, administrators, experts and academics. Over the last 18 years, it has done much to promote policy learning and the exchange of good practice.
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the 2020 event was the first digital edition never organised, attracting more than 10.000 participants online. Based on this success, this new advanced event's platform will ensure in 2021 the opportunity to debate, keeping communities connected, exchanging best practices and ideas between partners and participants on four themes: Cohesion, Green transition, Digital transition, Citizens' engagement.
Under the heading "Together for recovery", this year programme is focused on the capacity of the EU and of national and regional governments to support European citizens and their local communities with practical measures and public policies aimed at investing in a fairer, greener and more digital future for recovery. In this respect, the new cohesion policy and new generation of EU programmes for 2021-2027, as well as the EU's financial instruments for tackling the COVID-19 crisis, will be centre stage in the 2021 event. The #EURegionsWeek will also serve as a platform for fostering the ongoing debate on democracy and citizen’s engagement on the future of Europe.