EU Cohesion policy: 25 finalists announced for the 2021 RegioStars competition

Today, the Commission has announced the 25 finalists of the 2021 RegioStars awards for the best Cohesion policy projects in five categories: ‘Smart Europe: Increasing the competitiveness of local businesses in a digital world’, ‘Green Europe: Green and resilient communities in urban and rural setting’, ‘Fair Europe: Fostering inclusion and anti-discrimination’, ‘Urban Europe: Promoting green, sustainable and circular food systems in functional urban areas’, and the specific Topic of the Year ‘Enhancing green mobility in the regions: the European Year of Rail’. Commissioner for Cohesion and Reforms, Elisa Ferreira, said: “This year we broke once again the record in terms of participation in this flagship Cohesion Policy competition, with 214 applications received from all over Europe. The goal of the RegioStars awards is to find projects that are lighthouses of quality and can be inspirational for others to follow. As Cohesion policy is committed to leave no one behind, I am glad to see excellent examples of this inclusive approach among the 2021 RegiosStars finalists”. An independent jury has selected five finalists per category among the high-quality applications received. In particular, the jury has selected projects located in Flanders and Wallonia in Belgium, in Kaunas region in Lithuania, in the North Denmark region, in Krapina Zagorje County in Croatia, in Lower Silesia in Poland, in Emilia Romagna in Italy, in Centro Region in Portugal as well as projects financed by different Interreg Programmes: ‘North Sea’,  ‘France-Spain-Andorra’, ‘Ireland-Northern Ireland-Scotland’, ‘Italy-Austria’, ‘Alpine Space’,  ‘Nord’ , ‘EMR’,  ‘North-West Europe’, ‘Croatia-Bosnia Herzegovina-Montenegro’, ‘Balkan Mediterranean’. The RegioStars 2021 5-category winners and the winner of the Public Choice Award will be announced on 2 December 2021 during the Award Ceremony in Dubrovnik, Croatia. The full list of finalists can be found here. As of today, the public is encouraged to vote for its favourite project until 15 November here.