Register now: ECRN Annual Congress on 7^th October 2010 in Brussels

The European Chemical Regions Network will hold its 8th Congress of the European Chemical Regions on 7th October 2010 in Brussels. The 2010 Congress will be co-organized by member regions Flanders and Wallonia and supported by the Belgian Presidency of the Council of the European Union. This year’s thematic focus is dedicated to Chemical Regions Reflecting High Level Group Recommendations, which will concentrate on the current state of implementation of the recommendations of the High Level Group on Chemicals.

As in the past, chemical stakeholders are warmly invited to use the chance for intensive dialogue and exchange with relevant representatives from public and private sector, associations and academia from all over Europe. In order to access the official invitation card for the congress, please click here. In order to register your participation for the event, please click here.

The 8th ECRN Congress is listed on the official website of the Belgian Presidency of the Council of the European Union. You can access the Presidency website on www.eutrio.be. In order to get directly to the ECRN Congress announcement on the Presidency’s website, just click on this link: http://www.eutrio.be/ecrn-congress-european-chemical-regions-reflecting-hlg

The final Congress agenda will be published here in due time. Please get in touch with the ECRN Network Secretariat in case of any questions.

ECRN adopts annual planning for 2010

ECRN General Assembly meeting 2010, Brussels

ECRN representatives from all over Europe met in the Representation of member region Bavaria to the in EU in Brussels for the ECRN General Assembly and Executive Board meetings on 25th and 26th February 2010. After lively and constructive discussions which were chaired by ECRN President and Minister of Economy and Labour of Saxony-Anhalt, Dr. Reiner Haseloff, ECRN priorities and projects for the year ahead were decided upon by the representatives who also re-elected ECRN Vice-Presidents Karl-Uwe Bütof, Director of Industrial Policy Department in the Ministry for Economic Affairs of North Rhine-Westphalia, and Tony Richmond, Councillor of Darlington Borough Council from Tees Valley. Petr Fiala, Vice Governor of the Ústí Region, was elected as the Czech Executive Board Member of the ECRN. Furthermore, the General Assembly officially welcomed the 21st ECRN member region to the network. ECRN President Dr. Haseloff expressed his great satisfaction with the fact that the ECRN continues to grow and thereby strengthens the leverage of its single voice even further on the European level.

The ECRN website will inform on all events and activities in 2010. For an overview on the ECRN’s achievements and activities in 2009, please access the ECRN Annual Report 2009 here.

ECRN disseminates High Level Group results in its regions: Successful High Level Group Follow up Conference in Ústí nad Labem on 16^th/17^th April 2009 - Final Report available now

High Level Group Follow up Conference
in Ústí nad Labem

The High Level Group (HLG) Follow-up Conference “Delivering the HLG results in the regions” which took place on 16^th/17^th April 2009 in Ústí nad Labem/ Czech Republic was a big success for the ECRN and its member region Ústí, who had been organizers for this event under the patronage of the European Commission and the Czech Presidency: Over 120 participants and high-level speakers from all over Europe representing regional, national and European institutions, industry, academia and associations had assembled in Ústí to discuss the HLG results and how these results can now implemented. Furthermore, the ECRN Executive Board formally adopted a joint congress declaration with the title “A competitiveness agenda for a sustainable chemical industry in Europe - Implementing the HLG recommendations with the chemical regions in Europe” which was distributed among the participants and which will be also addressed to European policymakers.

Participants of the High Level
Group Follow up Conference
in Ústí nad Labem

This conference was a further step of the HLG implementation process in the European chemical regions. The final report is available now and can be accessed here. Further events will follow and will be published on the ECRN website.

Implementation of HLG results in the ECRN regions: Conference on "Chemical industry and competitiveness" in Düsseldorf on 29^th April 2009

Lombardy region and North Rhine-Westphalia
exchanging experience and opinion.

The ECRN continues to implement actively the High Level Group results in its member regions: On 29th April 2009, the first implementation event after the Ústí conference took place in Düsseldorf, North Rhine-Westphalia. Under the heading “Chemical industry and competitiveness – Recommendations of the High Level Group on the Chemical Industry” about 100 participants and speakers exchanged views and developed concepts for effective implementation of the HLG recommendations in North Rhine-Westphalia. Among the speakers were Christa Thoben, Minister of Economic Affairs and Energy of North Rhine-Westphalia, Gwenole Cozigou, Director of the
Conference participants in
Düsseldorf on 29th April 2009 Directorate Chemical Industry, DG Enterprise and Industry of the European Commission, Massimo Buscemi, ECRN Vice-President and Minister of Nets, Public Utilities and Sustainable Development of Lombardy and Dr Utz Tillmann, Managing Director of the VCI.

This conference was a further step of the HLG implementation process in the European chemical regions. Further events will follow and will be published on the ECRN website.

ECRN events in February 2009: PWG meeting in Milan, Parliamentary Evening in Brussels, General Assembly Meeting and cooperation on skills - initiative

MEP Evening in Scotland House
Brussels on 18^th February 2009 February 2009 has seen several ECRN events: Starting with the first Permanent Working Group meeting of 2009 in member region Lombardia on 6th February, the ECRN then held a Parliamentary Evening of the European chemical regions in cooperation with its member region Scotland on 18^th February in Brussels where over 60 participants attended. This evening was preceded by a meeting on “Cooperation for skills development: the social partners, industry and the regions working together” on the afternoon of the 18^th.
ECRN General Assembly 19^th February 2009 On the 19^th February, the ECRN General Assembly meeting took place, the most important internal event of the year. For more details on these meetings, please check under “News” or follow this link: http://www.ecrn.net/ecrnnews/