On Tuesday evening, the European Commission's yearly RegioStars Awards ceremony took place in Brussels, as part of the European Week of Regions and Cities.

This yearly EU-wide competition puts the spotlight on the most innovative and inspiring EU funded projects and illustrates, through concrete real-life examples, how Cohesion Policy supports the creation of economic growth and jobs.

In addition to bringing recognition to the selected projects, it aims at fostering the exchange of best practices between Cohesion Policy practitioners as well as inspiring other project managers and managing authorities.

Out of 104 applications, an independent expert jury first shortlisted 23 finalists.  In a second stage, five winning projects were selected to receive the prestigious RegioStars trophy from the hands of EU Commissioner for Regional Policy, Corina Creţu and the RegioStars Jury President, MEP Lambert van Nistelrooij. In addition, this year, the project Circular Ocean received a “Public Choice Award”, based on the votes from attendees to the event.  

This year, the submitted projects competed in 5 categories: support to businesses operating in the global economy, social inclusion strategies, the circular economy, sustainable urban development and finally, a new category dedicated to projects looking at innovative solutions to manage EU funds more effectively. 

Check all winners in this link.