European Week of Regions and Cities (EWRC) also known as the “Open Days” is an annual four-day event held in Brussels during which cities and regions showcase their best practices in relation to their capacity to implement the European Union cohesion policy on various levels.

Each year the Committee of Regions as main institutional organizer selects different themes for the events that are attended by approximately 6,000 participants. 

Schuman Associates is delighted to be part of the ‘Winning Business in Africa’ initiative supported by the Irish Department of Foreign Affairs. Together with Ibec we have built a portal of opportunities totalling 8.5 BEUR of EU funding projects in Africa. The web portal provides information on the opportunities available. Accompanying advice and networking opportunities will allow Irish companies to form clusters and get involved in projects.

The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) hosted a Western Balkans Investment Summit in London on Monday, 26 February. A number of high level public officials, including all six Prime Ministers from the region gathered in EBRD's London headquarters to present their countries' potential in attracting private investment at the same time addressing bottlenecks in front of representatives from the private sector.

EU FUNDING STAGIAIRE VACANCY

Brussels Office

with 1-2 years of experience

Deadline: 20th March 2018

Administration and Finance Coordinator 

Brussels Office

>5 years of experience

  In March 2018 Schuman Associates Brussels Headquarters and local offices gathered together for the annual «Away Day» to share best practices, reflect on company's values and present the business strategies for 2018.

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Last week, Schuman Associates was delighted to participate in the latest ‘Future of EU Communications’ event hosted by Indiepics. We moderated the event which looked at how European social and visual communications are changing, what the latest trends are and how we can get the most out of our communication budgets.

The first post-Brexit budget focuses on innovation, digitization, climate change, support for young people, but also on security and migration.

Schuman Associates was invited this week to present its main elements and its impact for Spain at a breakfast-conference organized by the Spanish Chamber of Commerce in Brussels. 

This new budget contains several novelties with respect to current financial framework. One example is the effort towards simplification moving from current fifty-eight funding programs to thirty-seven, multiplying the investment in digitalization, Erasmus program and security and defense programs, as well as border control.

In a few days, Bulgaria will be passing on the Presidency of the European Union to Austria. We take this opportunity to look back at some of the key issues that the Bulgarian Presidency has put forward in these 6 months and to present our office in Sofia.

At the helm of the EU for the first time, 10 years after the accession to the European Union, the Bulgarian Presidency  placed particular emphasis on strengthening the stability and security in Europe with the Western Balkans and the relations with Turkey..

Security has become of the main topics for EU policy makers, ranking high on the list of concern of EU citizens. During the Bulgarian Presidency, the European PNR rules became applicable and an informal agreement was reached with the European Parliament on three regulations on the use of the Schengen Information System in the fields of:

(1) police and judicial cooperation in criminal matters;

(2) border checks and

(3) return of illegally staying third-country nationals.

The fifth edition of the Berlin Process Summit was held on 9-10 July in London (UK), gathering heads and ministers of governments of the Western Balkans six (WB6) as well as several EU Member States with high interest in fostering further cooperation with the region.

The focus of the Summit in London was on economic development and connectivity, cooperation in security matters and good neighbourly relations.

Within this year´s EU Regions Week , the Regional Development Agency Bucharest-Ilfov organized a workshop on Innovative technologies and partnerships in developing regions, in partnership with COCIR and our client Philips. The event, chaired by MEP Jan Olbrycht (EPP, PL) presented the benefits of public-private partnerships supported by EU Funds.

A year ago, Schuman Associates was selected to support the bid writing of a FET Flagship project on EU Cultural Heritage. This is one of those projects that only comes once in a decade. If you work with the H2020 programme, you will know that these are very big projects with expected large scale social and economic impacts and, of course, high competition. The key challenge is to build a solid business case around a visionary idea, leading to a coherent and ambitious research and innovation agenda for the EU and its Member states for the next 10 years.