European Regional Economic Forum (EREF) 2008
The EREF Forum in Nova Gorica (European Regional Economic Forum) is a platform of European regions on knowledge economy and society, and has also acted as a bridge between EU Member states and countries of South-Eastern Europe supporting them in their efforts of gradual integration with the Union through discussing policies and measures aiming at implementing the Lisbon Strategy and through the presentation of good practices from European regions.
The EREF Network consists of the following 16 regions: Stockholm, Lapland-Oulu, Flanders, Wallonia, Scotland, Baden Württenberg, Styria, Friuli Venezia Giulia, Lombardia, Emilia Romagna, Valencia, Cataluña, West Pannon, Slovenia, Croatia, Turkey.
The fourth Forum in Nova Gorica brought together about 250 representatives of the economic, research, innovation and education spheres, as well as local and regional actors from EU regions and countries, and regions from South-Eastern and Eastern Europe.
On behalf of the EREF Network the Forum was organized by the Municipality of Nova Gorica, the Government Office for Local Self-government and Regional Policy, together with the Slovenian and Business Research Association in Brussels, under the patronage of the Committee of the Regions and sponsored by HIT Nova Gorica. Members of several European networks actively participated in the Forum, such as: Lisbon Regions Network, NIROC, IGLO, ERRIN, RIBN, and others.
During the Forum the results and recommendations drafted during the 5 preparatory workshops were presented to Ms. Danuta Hübner, Commissioner for Regional Policy, Mr. Luc Van den Brande, President of the Committee of the Regions and to all the participants.
TURBO presented the results of the preparatory workshop on "Business Academia Partnership" it organized in Istanbul on April 30th 2008.