The last European Business Summit was the opportunity for MCI Group/Logos Public Affairs to present an original project the agency is supporting: the Federation of Regional Actors in Europe (FEDRA) launched online today. On 6th May, Pascal Goergen, Secretary General of FEDRA, and Frederic Soudain, MCI Group/Logos Public Affairs, presented this new project in front of an audience composed of European business leaders, policy-makers, civil society and academics.
Throughout his experience in European regional Affairs, Pascal Goergen noticed that regional economic actors could be much more involved in European projects and create better growth synergies between European regions if they had the correct European expertise. Based on this knowledge, Pascal Goergen decided to create FEDRA, a European association that aims to create a community of 20,000 regional key players from the 274 European regions, stemming from economic actors to regional representatives. FEDRA will deliver services to these different strategic actors in order to give them a better understanding of relevant European legislation through a regional perspective. Furthermore, FEDRA aims to support regional growth projects by providing its members tailor-made advice through a hotline of experts in 6 key sectors: health, digital, transport, energy, food, and tourism.
More specifically, this new federation aims to provide, for policy-makers in different regions, a deep and concrete understanding of European challenges as well as trainings for regional economic players to support their research for partners for EU funding projects. FEDRA represents also an opportunity for its economic members to understand other “success stories” models of enterprises developed in other European regions.
Regions and regional economic players are too often forgotten when it comes to European Public Affairs. However, they are powerful actors in the European landscape. For instance, did you know that 71 regions in the European Union can shape their own regulations? Or that it is particularly difficult for SMEs to find partners in another European region to be eligible for certain EU funding programmes? By offering tailor-made advice and webinar services, FEDRA and MCI Group/Logos Public Affairs will create strong bonds with local authorities and regional growth actors. Such a network will also allow FEDRA to create efficient grass roots campaigns, as needed.
It did not take long for MCI Group/Logos Public Affairs to believe in the concept of an association that represents Europe’s diverse regions. Such Federation will be a perfect application of the European Union’s motto: “United in diversity”.