- Referent für Europaangelegenheiten
The European Union is becoming increasingly important to regions, administrative districts, towns and municipalities. For this reason the Rhine-Neckar Regional Association set up a European department on 1.1.2007 which acts, so to speak, as a regional "bridgehead" with Brussels. This devotes itself to three focal task areas.
1. Networking and cultivating contacts
The association represents the Rhine-Neckar metropolitan region in the European Network of Metropolitan Regions and Areas (METREX) and the European Regions Research and Innovation Network (ERRIN). It is also networked with European institutions at national level through the initiative group European Metropolitan Regions in Germany (IKM). Above all, however, the association's decision-makers maintain direct contact with the respective "switchboards" of the European Commission, the European Parliament and the influential Brussels environment. The main focuses of cultivating these contacts are:
- the Regional Policy, Mobility and Transport directorate-generals
- the five members of the European Parliament who come from the metropolitan region, Franziska Brantner (B'90/Die Grünen), Jürgen Creutzmann (FDP), Peter Simon (SPD), Jutta Steinruck (SPD) and Dr. Thomas Ulmer (CDU)
- the three federal state representatives from Baden-Württemberg, Hesse and Rhineland-Palatinate
- a pending MRN network in Brussels (Kurpfalz-Stammtisch)
The main theme at the moment concerns the discussion on EU structural politics for the grant period 2014-2020. The central objectives of the association are to retain Goal 2 against the background of the supported cluster competitions and the possibility of administering funding in the metropolitan region on an independent basis. The corresponding positional paper was adopted by the association assembly on 12.12.2008.
2. Participation on EU projects
The association regularly takes part on EU projects. Two EU-sponsored activities from the INTERREG IVB Northwest Europe programme are currently underway, namely "CODE24" and "Manage+".
3. Service point for local authority districts
The association's tasks also include providing local authority districts with information and advice about EU grant programmes. Information events are regularly held in this respect. The following topics have been covered to date:
- INTERREG IV B and IV C in Mannheim (2007)
- Goal 2 federal state programmes in Hockenheim (2008)
- Lifelong learning in Mannheim (2008)
- INTERREG IV A Upper Rhine in Landau (2009)
- Mayors' Convention in Heidelberg (2010)
- Support programmes for municipal climate protection in Speyer (2010)