"The European Entrepreneurial Region (EER) 2013"

SOCIAL ECONOMY EUROPE has been invited to participate as a Jury member for the election of the "EER 2013".

The regions of Nord-Pas-de-Calais (France), Southern Denmark and Styria (Austria) have been nominated as the "European Entrepreneurial Regions" for the year 2013. This Committee of the Regions initiative rewards EU regions which show an outstanding and innovative entrepreneurial policy strategy, irrespective of their size, wealth and competences.

A jury led by Committee of the Regions President Mercedes Bresso selected the three winners during their meeting on 15 December.

- The French region Nord-Pas-de-Calais distinguished itself with "credible regional programmes in the area of innovation setting clear targets, showing strong stakeholder cooperation, whilst also highlighting a clear commitment to the implementation of the "Small Business Act for Europe" (SBA) and demonstrating how the EER label would bring added-value to the regional policy", jury members said. The region Nord-Pas-de-Calais has strongly integrated the "social and solidarity economy" in its regional economic development.

The French institutes for statistics (INSEE) released data mapping the social and solidarity economy in the Nord-Pas-de-Calais region (here - in French only)

See also the regional Chamber for Social and Solidarity Economy (here).

See also the information website for social economy in the French regions (here).

 Southern Denmark’s application presented a detailed analysis of entrepreneurship-related weaknesses and areas for improvement, as well as a good action plan around three major themes, and clearly identified areas of business excellence, as well as presenting a very concrete EER 2013 project: the entrepreneurial one-stop-shop.

 The Austrian Land of Styria presented a comprehensive general strategy in the framework of the Europe 2020 targets, with a strong social dimension, specific measures for migrants, a commitment for its specialisation strategy and a strong focus for Public Private Partnerships. Furthermore, Styria’s ideas on how to foster cooperation among the EER regions impressed the jury.