1. 12/10/2014 The Committee of the Regions’ European Entrepreneurial Region (EER) label Simone Beissel (LU/ALDE) Chair of the Commission for Economic and Social Policy (ECOS), Deputy Mayor of the City of Luxembourg YEDAC conference, 29 April 2013, Odense, Denmark hosted by the South Denmark (EER 2013 region)

2. 12/10/2014 Encouraging entrepreneurship and local and regional level with the support of

3. (1) CoR – a political assembly Political assembly of holders of a regional or local electoral mandate EU consultative body providing expertise and advice on EU legislation and other aspects of EU decision making from a regional perspective Promotion of cooperation between all existing legitimate actors - European, national, regional and local level 12/10/2014

4. (2) EER - Context Targeted actions at regional and local level needed. EER = providing an additional stimulus for EU regions to make change happen on the ground. Objective: develop adequately the competitiveness of regions by setting up a new ‘springboard’ at the regional level with a focus on the business-friendly and entrepreneurship policies. Follow-up to the Opinion on the ‘SBA for Europe’ (2009 and 2011), to contribute to the Europe 2020 strategy for growth and jobs and demonstrate good examples of ‘Multilevel Governance’/regional partnerships.

5. 12/10/2014 (3) What is the EER? Label targeted exclusively at local and regional authorities policy strategy: rewards ex-ante (!) the most forward looking political vision to make regions more entrepreneurial -> EER action plans designed by the respective regions themselves: evaluated, monitored and adapted by regions Partnership approach: help creating "EER communities“ including all relevant stakeholders (business representatives, academia, clusters, young entrepreneurs, universities, schools etc.) build up a Pan-European network of regions that can serve as a laboratory for cross-border cooperation for the promotion of entrepreneurship (special focus: entrepreneurship education)

6. 12/10/2014 (4) The EER award winners EER of the year 2011: Land Brandenburg – Germany Kerry County - Ireland Murcia Region – Spain EER of the year 2012: Catalonia - Spain Helsinki-Uusimaa Region - Finland Trnava Self-Governing Region - Slovak Republic EER of the year 2013: EER of the year 2014: Nord-Pas de Calais – France? Southern Denmark – Denmark? Styria (Steiermark) – Austria ? Eligibility: all EU regions!

7. 12/10/2014 (5) EER – achievements policy strategies are worth disseminating as best practices across the EU; Some examples: –Murcia, Spain: integration of the SBA's principles into Murcia's regional (legal) framework, –Kerry County, Ireland: Kerry's junior and young entrepreneur programmes was seen to serve as European models of excellence for the promotion of entrepreneurship within society, starting at a very early stage; to be scaled up as national schemes across Ireland as of 1.01.2013 –Brandenburg, Germany: reshape of its SME policy “A strategy to support Innovation and Creativity for SMEs“, joint innovation strategy with Berlin launched during the EER year 2011, awareness raising campaign with entrepreneurs in secondary schools. –Collaborative project YEDAC: starting point for closer cooperation

8. 12/10/2014 (6) EER – contact Thank you very much for your attention! For further information please consult www.cor.europa.eu/eer or contact eer-cdr@cor.europa.eueer-cdr@cor.europa.eu Compilation of good practices from EER regions: http://cor.europa.eu/en/takepart/eer/Documents/encouraging-entrepreneurship- local-regional-brochure-2012-EER.pdf