3rd semester stakeholders' meeting in Florence (26/6/2024)
On the 26th of June 2024, the meeting between some local stakeholders of the REC4EU (for the 3rd semester) and INVECE projects took place in Novoli at the Tuscany Region headquarters.
Attendees:
For Tuscany Region: David Tei
For ARRR: Roberto Bianco, Simone Tartaro, Greta Alberici, Susanna Ceccanti
For Federazione Toscana Banche CC (FTBCC): Gianni Parigi, Silvia Russo
For IreCoop: Marco Pippolini
For Oppure Srls: Tommaso Scavone
During the meeting, ARRR updated the participants on the status of the art of the two European projects REC4EU (of which ARRR is the lead partner and Tuscany Region is Partner) and INVECE (of which ARRR is a partner and Tuscany Region is the main Stakeholder).
REC4EU:
3rd semester is about to end (31/8/2024)
Starting from semester N. 3 (1/3/2024) within the scope of the enlargement of the Interreg program area to the 7 EU candidate countries, two more European countries have been added to the consortium: Albania and Serbia.
In particular two entities involved in the development of RECs in the two countries :
the Regional Development Agency of SREM (Serbia) and Milieukontakt (Albania),
The good practices that emerged from the partners during the Tampere meeting (28/29 May 2024) were briefly illustrated in order to verify if any of these can be useful for improving the selected policy (ERDF ROP 2021-2027) of the Tuscany region.
The above good practices are described in detail and available at this link on the Interreg Europe REC4EU website.
ARRR, together with the Tuscany Region, will have to identify among these good practices one or more that could be useful to try to improve the policy taken into consideration for REC4EU which is the ERDF ROP 2021-2027.
The next Stakeholder meeting will take place at the beginning of semester 4, together with the INVECE meeting, in which the REC Observatory and its management will be illustrated more in detail.
In the coming months, the partners will continue to work on the Engagement Path to further involve stakeholders on the topic of RECs and will organize bilateral exchanges (both in person and online) to discuss any good practices useful for improving their country's REC policy.
INVECE:
ARRR explained the ongoing activities of the INVECE project (which formally started on 1/3/2024 and has a duration of 24 months, ending at the end of February 2026).
In particular:
• The creation of the Cross-border Observatory of RECs (OTCE), which was presented for the first time in Cagliari during the meeting of June 4th and 5th. It will be established by the end of 2024 and will be maintained until 2030. The Tuscany Region expressed the willingness of taking charge of the management of the OTCE, in collaboration with ARRR which was already given the mandate for the creation and management of a regional RECs database. The OTCE could also be useful for REC4EU project and become a useful tool for other European projects in the REC field.
• Prototyping of RECs: activity carried out by ARRR which on July 23rd in Genoa will manage the meeting to define the prototyping criteria aimed at modelling them
• Support activities for the pilot RECs which will be selected through an expression of interest: the selection methodology and criteria and the different types of support, coaching and assistance to be provided to the selected RECs must be decided by the consortium. We must pay attention to the type of RECs that will be financed since there are also other financing methods that must not overlap and everything must be transparent. This modelling and assistance activity to RECs will be entrusted to the University (of Florence and Siena), on behalf of ARRR
• Transnational launch event of the OTCE, which will be held in Tuscany at the end of 2024, organizational procedures to be defined, inserting the event within a regional “macro event” on the topic of ecological transition that will be organized by the Regional Administration. Within this meeting, a round table could be planned between the 5 regions involved in the project (Liguria, Tuscany, Sardinia, Paca and Corsica).
Next steps:
• 23/7/2024 RECs prototyping and modeling event in Genoa
• 24/7/2024 Practice exchange event in Genoa + signing of the Cross Border Memorandum of Understanding
• Organize a meeting with regional stakeholders (REC4EU + INVECE together) by September 2024 and sign the Regional Memorandum of Understanding with them, explaining clearly what type of collaboration will be required for the management of the OTCE
• End of October 2024 meeting in Ajaccio for the drafting of a strategy and action plan of the OTCE, where the participation and involvement of the Tuscany Region representatives would be very useful
• December 2024-January 2025 OTCE launch event in Florence (date and location to be defined)
The meeting ended at 6.00 pm.
Next appointment by the end of September for an update of the table with the Stakeholders of the 2 projects, REC4EU and INVECE