European Commission and CoR have a promising plan

The two bodies will join efforts in the next two years towards bridging gaps in education on the continent

Earlier today, Mariya Gabriel (EU Commissioner for Research and Innovation) announced together with Apostolos Tzitzikostas (CoR chief) the launch of a new joint action plan that will see the two institutions work together for the next 2 years in deepening the synergy between science, innovation, education and culture across the European Union. This is a clear sign of the EU authorities’ intention to seek direct partnership with their colleagues at the local and regional level, without whom bridging old gaps would be unthinkable.

This plan will be an essential building block of the European Knowledge Strategy

The new EU programming period has already shown signs of having serious ambitions towards better cohesion and integration, spurred on as it is by the express need for dynamic action in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic.

“Our goal is to improve the innovative capacity of regions, cities and smaller settlements through 26 concrete initiatives in cooperation with regional and local authorities and European citizens. They will contribute to improving the quality of the education and training process, the development of the skills and competencies of the citizens, responding to the new realities related to the digital transformation. No one will be left behind - together with the regions, we can contribute a lot to that," said Maria Gabriel.

This is in line with the overall desire of the CoR to play a greater role in the decision-making aspect of transformational policies which concern all corners of the continent.

The 26 initiatives, which Commissioner Gabriel has referred to, are divided into 4 priority sections, all of which seek to closely involve local governments in the processes of financing, supporting, promoting and disseminating innovation.

The idea behind this action plan is to ideally reduce and bridge gaps which exist when it comes to research and innovation on the continent, moving it from a few traditional cluster areas to a more even distribution that would allow all European citizens to enjoy the benefits of the digital transition more equally and concurrently.