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Open Consultation on the European Tourism Label for Quality Systems Initiative
Posted on: 3 May 2012
By: mackene
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Currently there is a wide variety of public and private initiatives that aim at defining the principles and criteria to be used by European tourism stakeholders for ensuring the development and provision of quality tourism within the EU. However, these quality systems often show little consistency and coordination as they usually focus on individual sectoral or territorial objectives without following a European integrated approach. This fragmentation is a possible obstacle to achieving a EU level playing field for providing high-quality tourism service throughout Europe, which is likely to cause detriment to the competitiveness of the European tourism sector. The European Commission has launched a consultation exercise to obtain the views of a wide circle of public and private stakeholders and individuals on possible EU action in this field. Comment are requested by 13 July 2012.
CHAMP (Cycling Heroes Advancing sustainable Mobility Practice) Newsletter
Posted on: 30 April 2012
By: mackene
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CHAMP is a European project, launched in October 2011, which brings together champion cities in the field of cycling. By looking at their counterparts in Europe, the CHAMP cities want to find ways to upgrade and optimise their cycle policy and collect new ideas for making cycling even safer and more attractive. The cities involved are: Groningen (the Netherlands), Bolzano (Italy), Orebro (Sweden), Ljubljana (Slovenia), Burgos (Spain), Kuanas (Lithuania) and Edinburgh. The first issue of the CHAMP newsletter is now available providing further information on the project.
Rationalising regulations for growth and innovation
Posted on: 30 April 2012
By: mackene
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Procurement processes in the housing sector are ‘onerous and costly’, thanks to overzealous interpretations of European Union procurement rules, according to a report published by trade body The Housing Forum. The report recommends rationalising regulations into three parts: planning, building and housing standards, and doing away with other regulatory systems such as building for life and the mayor of London’s housing design standards.
Guidelines for conducting a cost benefit analysis of smart grid projects
Posted on: 30 April 2012
By: mackene
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The European Commission’s Joint Research Centre has released a set of guidelines for conducting cost-benefit analysis (CBA) of smart grid projects. The report extends to smart grids the recent JRC work on guidelines for CBA of smart metering deployment, which served as a technical basis for the European Commission (EC) Recommendation on smart metering deployment, adopted in March 2012. The study serves as key input to the definition of an eligibility assessment framework for “common interest” smart grids projects, according to the provisions of the EC proposal for a regulation on guidelines for trans-European energy infrastructure.
Urban dimension of cohesion policy post 2013
Posted on: 30 April 2012
By: mackene
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The aim of the Background Report on the urban dimension of the Cohesion Policy is to enhance the debate on the urban dimension of Cohesion Policy. Together with other documents prepared for the Polish Presidency it should serve as the starting point for further discussion on different forums and for the formulation of the Presidency conclusions. The document is composed of three main chapters, of which the latter is the most relevant for the further debate as it elaborates on the different issues that need to be discussed in the near future. The first chapter of the document sets out the challenges the European cities are facing, while the second chapter describes how the urban issues have been tackled within the framework of the European Union so far. An appendix includes information on urban issues in EU programmes in the different programming periods as well as information on urban policies in EU-Member States.
Joint Action Plan for the Creative Industry
Posted on: 23 April 2012
By: mackene
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The creative industry sector is vital in moving towards a more innovative and competitive Europe. The transnational network “Creative Cities” aims to develop new tools to exploit the unused potentials of creative industries in Central European Cities. The project is financed by the Central Europe Programme and develops transnational clusters to make cities more attractive and to stimulate entrepreneurship. The overall purpose of the project is to establish a transnational network of creative industry clusters in large Central European Cities. Before developing planning instruments, the city partners conducted a SWOT analysis to gain more insight on the sector’s current situation. For this, a joint methodology was created representing the circumstances of each partner city (Leipzig, Genoa, Gdansk, Ljubljana and Pecs). The most important milestone of the project will be a Joint Action Plan (JAP) involving a set of guidelines and recommendations for other cities to use in similar projects. The JAP gathers the results of the network’s Cluster Work Groups and elaborates on the outcomes of the SWOT analysis. The plan is structured around five activities: Networking, Education and Employment, Transfer of Knowledge, Marketing, Infrastructure and Financial Support. The plan aims to answer the following questions: How public policies should be improved; How the cooperation to business of other economic sectors can be strengthened and how to use cooperation potentials; What actions should be taken to improve human skills and how can the support of entrepreneurs and start-ups be optimised; Which joint marketing and dissemination activities should be realised; How to further develop transnational cooperation potentials.
Civitas: Cleaner and better transport in cities
Posted on: 19 April 2012
By: mackene
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The tenth edition (April 2012) of MOVE, the quarterly newsletter from the Civitas initiative, is now available online. It throws the spotlight on Aalborg’s activities to promote commuting by bike. The city is targeting school children, students and tourists with different initiatives including a “Cycle to School” campaign, a cycle motorway and a popular city bike scheme. This issue also includes the most recent news from the cities participating in this CIVITAS project. The latest urban transport policy developments from the European Commission is also included.
Making integration work in Europe’s cities. Amsterdam, 8-9 March 2012
Posted on: 17 April 2012
By: mackene
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The fifth conference in Eurocities’ Integrating Cities series was held to address the main challenges surrounding migrant integration in Europe. A video report, findings of the conference, and presentations are available online.
CORPUS Workshop II Housing. Helsinki, 15-16 March 2012
Posted on: 17 April 2012
By: mackene
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This event considered policies and policy instruments for sustainable housing. It covered good policy practices in sustainable housing from other EU countries, and identified research needs and helped develop a research agenda for sustainable housing. Presentations are available online.
Renewing the commitment for SD: Stock-taking of international and European SD objectives and goals pre-Rio+20
Posted on: 13 April 2012
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In the light of the upcoming UN Conference on Sustainable Development in June 2012 (Rio+20), this European Sustainable Development Network Quarterly Report (QR) provides a comprehensive overview on precedent international and European policy documents that include objectives on how to achieve sustainable development. As part of the preparation for Rio+20, the development of a global set of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) could assist in focusing the broad international sustainable development agenda at a practical level. Thus, in answering the recent development on SDGs, the QR investigates trends on identified SDGs among international and European SD policy documents and their link to two recent Rio+20 proposals for SDG sets.
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