Mega Regions – Old concept, new role?

European Week of Regions and Cities 2020 (Side event)

This is the final event of the ‘The New Planning Dialogue’ series organized by Vereniging Deltametropool, as a side event within the European Week of Regions and Cities 2020, with ISOCARP, METREX and WRI. In this discussion we will be looking at the mega-regions such as the Eurodelta, to understand how they can become a catalyst for a sustainable green recovery.

With an exhilarating series of dialogues over the past year, the New Planning Dialogue is finally coming to an end with one last event in store, ‘Mega-regions – old concept, new role?‘. This event is part of the exciting ‘European Week of Regions and Cities 2020’ conference where the various regions within the European Union come together to discuss important issues and share new ideas. Vereniging Deltametropool in partnership with ISOCARP, METREX and WRI (World Resources Institute) will be organising the first part of the event with some amazing speakers from academia and practice, critically analysing the role of mega-regions and their significance in today’s world. This is a side event of EU Week and will be organised online via ZOOM.

Together, we will look at some important questions pertaining to this topic such as,

• How can the mega-regions (Eurodelta) contribute towards fundamental changes of urban transitions and sustainable green recovery?
• Can change be delivered through mega-regions? What is the role of mega-regions in the current recovery? How can cross-border collaborations strengthened the project development and implementation in Eurodelta?
• How can the projects, plans, agendas and visions at the mega-region scale be translated to the city approaches?
  What is the role of cities to initiate sustainable recovery plans at local scale? How can these initiatives strengthen the mega-region agenda?

A number of cross-border mega-regions (like Eurodelta) has emerged and with them the emergence of cross-border institutions addressing their context, dimensions and causal underpinnings. This event however focuses on their urgencies and opportunities towards addressing the European Green Deal, encouraging a strong collaboration between the cities.

We are preparing to organize this meeting to discuss the following elements

• Cross border cooperation
• Corridor development
• European regional policy

The discussion will lead to setting up the following agendas and forming a collaboration to be able to work on:

• sustainable transnational urban networking
• projects/ initiatives linking cross-border regions and their various forms
• urgencies to focused themes to setting agendas in political grounds
• establishing real territorial collaboration within the EURODELTA, the second target group can help establishing comparative assessments and global benchmarking.

Program

Welcome + ‘The New Planning Dialogue’
Alankrita Sarkar (Project leader, The New Planning, Vereniging Deltametropool)

Introduction to Mega-Regions
Paul Gerretsen (Director, Vereniging Deltametropool)

Keynote – ‘The Scandinavian 8 Million City’ with Space Group

Introducing Eurodelta-SURE
Cecilia Braun (Spatial Planner, Consultant)

Go Europe, Go Rail
Jaap Modder (Spatial Planner, Consultant)

Panel Discussion 1 – Institutional agendas and approaches towards Eurodelta

In conversation with Frank D’hondt (Secretary General, ISOCARP) | Henk Bouwman (Secretary General, METREX)

Next steps?
Inspirations from STRING Network with Thomas Becker (Managing Director, STRING Network)

Audience interaction with Paul Gerretsen (Director, Vereniging Deltametropool)

Panel Discussion 2 – What are the strategic steps from the Decision-makers for a cross border cooperation?

In conversation with Pascal Smet (Secretary of State, Brussels-Capital Region)| Hans Mooren (Policy Advisor, BENELUX Union) | Erik Pasveer (Head of Strategy, Municipality of Amsterdam)

Conclusion by Paul Gerretsen (Director, Vereniging Deltametropool)

Thank you and borrel!