The Committee of the Regions' (CoR) Secretary-General, Gerhard Stahl, and the European Commission Director-General for Regional and Urban Policy (DG REGIO), Walter Deffaa, have officially launched the start of preparations for the 12th edition of the OPEN DAYS – European Week of Regions and Cities. Local and regional stakeholders can now apply to become official partners of the event with the deadline closing on 14 March.

Apply now to be an OPEN DAYS 2014 partner

Applications are open until 14 March for those who are interested in helping to shape this year's programme of the OPEN DAYS which will take place on 6-9 October in Brussels. Information about the application procedure, timeline and conditions are detailed in the Guide for event partners available on the OPEN DAYS website.

'Growing together – Smart investment for people'

Under the slogan 'Growing together – Smart investment for people', OPEN DAYS 2014 will focus on those who are ultimately affected by regional and urban policy. The event will offer the opportunity to reflect on first experiences of implementing the newly-agreed regional policy priorities under the EU budget for 2014-2020.

The OPEN DAYS 2014 programme will be structured under the following three themes:

• Connecting regional strategies: smart specialisation, digital agenda, SME support, low-carbon economy, training and social inclusion, urban dimension;
• Building capacity: new features and instruments in programme management (financial engineering, performance framework evaluation, partnership arrangements);
• Territorial cooperation: the new generation of pan-European programmes (INTERREG, URBACT, ESPON, INTERACT), international cooperation.

The event will provide an opportunity to look into new programmes which are due to be adopted during the EU Italian Presidency (July-December 2014), such as integrated territorial investments and community-led local development, the new European Territorial Cooperation programmes and the Adriatic-Ionian Macro-regional Strategy.

As the annual regional and urban policy platform, the OPEN DAYS will continue to foster the sharing of experiences and generate debates on local, regional and cross-border governance and EU funding management. Exchange between practitioners will be combined with input from academia. Non-EU countries that are interested in learning from European regions' experiences in regional policy, as well as in presenting their own stories, also have the occasion to participate.

Under the EU budget for 2014-2020, EUR 366 billion will be invested in EU Member States' regions and cities through the Cohesion Policy. Undoubtedly the OPEN DAYS 2014 will be a crucial moment where first experiences of this new programming period can be shared.