The European Week of Regions and Cities brought together around 5,000 participants from across Europe in Brussels for over a hundred talks and seminars. The Galicia Europa Foundation (FGE) promoted Galician participation in this exchange platform to address regional and urban challenges.
On Monday, September 12, the Porto Metropolitan Area held a talk on multilevel governance and the future European budget. The director of FGE in Brussels, Ana Ramos Barbosa, highlighted cooperation between Galicia and Northern Portugal.
On Tuesday the 13th, the president of the Provincial Council of Pontevedra, Luis López, presented the model of water user communities promoted through the +Aqua and +Novaqua programs. This initiative, which mobilized 8.5 million euros and supported nearly a thousand projects, was presented as an example of public-community collaboration to face demographic and environmental challenges in rural areas.
On Wednesday, October 14, the FGE office in Brussels hosted the seminar "Europe's Digitalization in the Next Decade", organized by the Galician Innovation Agency (GAIN) within the BEST_DIH European project. The event brought together representatives from GAIN and partner regions of the project to review the European Digital Innovation Hubs (EDIH) over the past decade. The director of GAIN, Carmen Cotelo, explained Galicia's commitment to strategic technologies such as Artificial Intelligence, quantum computing, and biotechnology, mentioning the future European AI factory 1HealthAI and the new Quantum Technologies Hub of Galicia. The Digital Innovation Hub of Galicia (DIHGIGA) presented its digitalization work in sectors like food and textiles, and leading technology companies such as IQM and Fsas Technologies shared their vision on key trends in artificial intelligence and quantum technologies.
The Galicia Europa Foundation also participated in other seminars, such as the high-level event organized by the Alliance for Cohesion at the European Committee of the Regions on the participation of local and regional entities in national and regional cooperation plans for the 2028-2034 period. The workshop "Barriers to the right to stay: How transport connectivity affects the attractiveness of territories", organized by the Network of Regions affected by Demographic Change (DCRN), also highlighted the importance of mobility infrastructures for retaining population.
