Second Training Session held in Brussels – Pro-I3T final conference – 23/10/2012

European funds have always been of paramount importance for local and regional authorities around Europe. In the context of the current economic recession and budgetary restrictions at every level, European funding becomes even more an important source of potential income for sub-national public authorities.

The final conference of the Pro-I3T project, which took place in the Committee of the Regions (CoR) in Brussels on 23 October, addressed the question of how local and regional authorities can make best use of EU funding programmes.

During the event, participants got acquainted with the current European programmes and discussed the challenges of accessing European funding. Basis for this discussion provided Mr. Vanraes, AER Bureau member and member of the Brussels-Capital (B) Regional Parliament, with the presentation of the AER’s report: Information and access to European funding.

Mr. Fanourios Pantelogiannis, Head of Brussels Office of the Union of Cyprus Municipalities presented to the participants the current EU funding programmes, with the help of the Pro-I3T project and its information tools. Mrs. Anna Michaelidou, Municipality Commit-tees and Cultural Affairs Officer from Idalion, Cyprus talked about how to make the most out of thematic networking and gave a practical example of a Thematic Network. Following this presen-tation, Mr. Jean-Luc Vanraes, presented the AER Report on information and then Mr. Kyriacos Kyriacou, Counsellor to the Cyprus Presidency of the Council of the EU updated the participants on the state of play of negotiations for the 2014-2020 budget. Mr. Petr Mooz, Head of Unit at DG Budget Information and Communication, presented the New MFF Post-2013 and Mr. Luc Van den Brande, former president of the CoR and member of the BUDG Ad-hoc Commission presented the CoR Opinion: New MFF Post-2013. Mrs. Françoise Chotard, Chairwoman of the ERRIN network talked about the “Horizon 2020 – New opportunities or new challenges?”  Then, Mrs. Isabelle Albertone, Head of sector, DG EAC B1 – Coordination of the Lifelong Learning Programme presented the European Commission proposal on the “Erasmus for All” programme and finally Mr. Nikos Lampropoulos, journalist on Regional Cooperation presented the Territorial cooperation after 2013. The presentations were followed by a long Q&A session.

The presentations of the speakers are available here bolow.

For more information, please contact:

Mr. Fanourios Pantelogiannis
Head of Brussels Office
Union of Cyprus Municipalities