The seminar in Lednice will bring together representatives of the European Parliament, the Committee of the Regions and the European Commission, as well as of local development projects funded and supported by EU programmes. Together, they will celebrate the launch of the Czech Rural Pact as well as take a closer look at rural development and remedying disparities between European regions through financial and practical instruments.

How can digital tools make citizens' lives better? Be it in the field of digital communications, public services, or AI technologies? This session will explore case studies of employment of digital tools by European cities and regions. Bringing together experts in various fields, to showcase innovative approaches and best practices for developing and deploying digital technology in a way that improves people's lives.

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This workshop will highlight different regional best practices to showcase, from multiple angles, how regions can support youth empowerment by using cohesion and other types of funding at the core of the digital and green transitions. Examples will include public transport in rural areas, effective distance learning, strategies tackling depopulation, education mobility programmes and much more, reflecting on the European Year of Youth in multiple regional policy areas.

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The main objective of the Vanguard Initiative is to allow its member regions to collaborate in order to pursue innovation and create opportunities to stimulate territorial and societal renewal. In this context, the seminar will seek to provide information on how Vanguard Initiative regions are contributing to the digital transition by connecting their innovation ecosystems and by co-developing interregional value chains.

Speakers: 

Patricia Argerey, Director of the Galician Innovation Agency (GAIN) 

By taking stock of the current state of play, focusing on key initiatives, exploring current experiences and challenges, the CoR, the Commission and EUREGHA are joining forces to discuss how the digital health transformation can nurture quality and efficiency of health and care provision, empower citizens and boost resilience and sustainability and what is truly needed to achieve it across Europe, putting a particular focus on the role of regional and local health authorities in driving this change forward.

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This workshop will focus on how digital skills programmes at regional and municipal level reinforce each other and work together to strengthen regional and city ecosystems. The aim of the workshop is to demonstrate the added value of the DT4REGIONS and Living-in.EU initiatives to scale up and effectively improve the digital transformation skills of European regions and cities. The workshop will be moderated by the Computer Vision Center, featured by DG CNECT, Emilia-Romagna, the City of Helsinki and the European Network of Living Labs.

This workshop is a collaboration between AURORAL and dRural. Its aim is to promote the awareness for the general public, not just the relevant stakeholders and authorities, to achieve a better understanding and critical reflection between inhabitants and needs in different rural areas and the common goal they want to achieve through digitalisation. 

Digital technology can facilitate participatory urban planning by empowering citizens and turning them from passive recipients of policy to active agents of city change.