The 22nd edition of the European Week of Regions, embarked in Brussels 7 -10th October hosting more than 100 parallel sessions and thousand of participants from all the regions and cities across the EU.
Jointly with the Covenant of Mayors for Climate and Energy, Co-PLAN representatives in the frame of the GreenFORCE HORIZON Project hosted an engaging panel at the Albert Borschette Conference Centre, Brussels on October 8th.
The debate focused on “Multilevel Governance: Empowering Stakeholders in the Climate and Energy Transition”, highlighting how local and regional governments are driving the transition towards a just and sustainable future, byb bringing key insights from 3 esteemed panelists: Mr. Miljenko Sedlar, Head, North-West Croatia Regional Energy and Climate Agency, PhD*.Anila Bejko, Executive Director of Co-PLAN; and Mrs. Benedetta Brighenti, President of Agency for Energy and Sustainable Development.
Under the moderation of Mr. Eero Ailio, Adviser on Energy Transition and Local Governance at DG ENER, the discussion span from the inspiring processes on establishing and undertaking multilevel climate and energy dialogues, in the framework of the NEC Platform in Croatia, to showcasing initiatives of the AESS in Emilia Romagna Region in Italy. The discussion was then shifted to the Western Balkan and the GreenFORCE Project approach in enabling multilevel governance in the region.
On her speech, Mrs.Bejko highlighted that “… In light of the “new” (green and digital) transitions for the WB, we are becoming increasingly aware of the profound cooperation needed to shift to a greener and more sustainable future jointly. It is on this note that jointly with our partner institutions and the joint mission in building a sense of ownership of our own future and taking responsibility for laying the path forward, we have designed and are implementing the GreenFORCE Horizon project, which contributes to fostering excellence in research for a Just Green Transition in the WB.”
During the discussion, as part of GreenFORCE methodology, the attention to the role and the contributions that academia/research institutions/NGOs can play as important stakeholders in the multi-level governance for a just green transition as drawn as the first highlights. secondly, the project approach for embedding “multilevel governance” concept since the beginning of the research efforts and selection of case studies was meticulously presented.
The panel debate was concluded highlighting once again from each of the panelists on the necessity of enabling comprehensive and collaborative processes, where each one of the stakeholders are well represented. The experiences presented, underlined the fact that unless serious efforts are made to transform the countries from within, the green transition risks ending in the bucket of unaccomplished transitions for the region, while at the same time transferring the costs of action (or inaction) down the way to the most vulnerable societal groups. As such it is everybody’s role to be active, and only jointly could further the transition and ensure we successfully reach our green and energy transition goals.