2007.05.22 QeC-ERAN Skills Workshop in Brussels [EN]
Very late - my apologies! - I got informed about a European urban practitioners' Skills conference in Brussels (tomorrow...)
It is organised by Quartiers-en-Crise/European regeneration Areas Network.
Long time ago, in 1988/89, I was one of the founders of Quartiers-en-Crise (QeC). We were the first NGO to join into the new European urban (re)development programmes, first mainly supported by Employment (DG V), soon mostly by REGION (DG-XII). Founded originally by some national coordinators (civil servants) of urban regeneration programmes (the French one, the British one, the big German Land of Nordrhein-Westfalen and me, as the Dutch coordinator of "PCG"), it developed into a network that was pricipally guided by local elected aldermen and mayors.
Soon, however, it gave way to bigger, and more official, networks, like EuroCities and, of course, the Comittee of the Regions. After 1993, QeC was essentially run by the city of Torino. At the start of the 21st century, it got a second life with its new director, Haroon Saad (from London, later Bijlmermeer in Amsterdam, Holland) and its new president, Ilda Curti, a successful developer of a difficult Torino neighbourhood and now alderman ("deputy mayor") of Torino. I saw her at the Lyon Regenera final conference (23/2/07) and I got a very positive impression of her work and the new course of QeC, now called "ERAN". QeC-ERAN participated very actively in the URBACT urban networks study and research programmes and produced remarkably good reports in 2006 and in 2007. (UDIEP-ALEC, led by the city of Venice).
I am looking forward to the meeting, tomorrow. I ask your special attention for a new Qec-ERAN initiative: the ERMN - an European Regeneration Managers Network, to be launched soon. It has roughly the same intention as e-urban: providing a platform for urban regeneration operatives, in order to enhance our skills by peer review and designing procedures and criteria for good practices. I wil give more information about this new network for urban project managers and their elected political patrons in a separate contribution to this Journal.
Here is the programme of the QeC-ERAN Workshop:
QeC-ERAN Conference: SKILLS FOR SUSTAINABLE AND COMPETITIVE URBAN DEVELOPMENT : TAKING THE EU AGENDA FORWARD
Date: 22 May 2007 Time: 09:00-1 6 : 3 0 Venue: Committee of Regions, Rue Belliard , Brussels
AGENDA [Summary]
09:30: Ilda Curti, Deputy Mayor; City of Torino and President QeC-ERAN - Intro
09:40 Setting the context From Lille to Leipzig , Haroon Saad , Director QeC-ERAN
10:10 Developing the EU Agenda (1) - Centre for Excellence/LEED programme ; Ekaterina TRAVKINA Policy Analyst, Manager of the OECD LEED Forum for Cities and Regions
11:15 Developing the EU Agenda (2) - Academy for Sustainable Communities (UK); Trudy Birtwell, the Director of Learning and Skills
11:50 Developing the EU Agenda (3) - The Council of Europe' Centre of Expertise - Sylvia IVANOVA Programme Manager
12:25 Developing the EU Agenda (4) - EUKN – European Urban Knowledge Network – Mart Grisel, Head of the secretariat
14:15 Case Study: Scottish Centre for Regeneration, Craig Mclaren, Director
14:50 The needs of key actors - Initial Results from a Skills and Training Audit - Haroon Saad, Director, QeC-ERAN
15:25 The contribution of EU Regional/Cohesion programmes, Corinne Hermant-de Callataÿ Commission européenne , Direction générale "Politique Régionale" Unité "Actions urbaines"
15:45 Taking the EU Agenda Forward – Next Steps – Panel Discussion
16:30 Conclusions and end of Workshop
One of the next days, I'll report about the proceedings here.
Huib Riethof, Brussels.