This platform seeks to support regions to address the consequences of demographic change and to mitigate the challenges associated with the decline of tertiary educated populations across the EU. Its goal is to ensure that impacted regions receive the guidance, information and knowledge they need to elaborate, consolidate, develop and implement tailored and comprehensive strategies to train, attract and retain talents. As part of Pillar 7 of the Talent Booster Mechanism, four working groups were created on the topics of digital, health, research & innovation, and territorial development. The objective of the working groups is to bring relevant stakeholders at the EU, national and regional level together, enhancing dialogue, exchanging experiences and building knowledge. Moreover, the groups strive to identify opportunities and potential approaches to help mitigate challenges associated with the decline of the population.
After two official meetings, one in-person and one online, complemented by several working meetings, the members of the groups gathered in Brussels on 11 October 2024, for the third Working Group meeting of the Harnessing Talent Platform at the premises of the Directorate-General for Regional and Urban Policy of the European Commission, to take stock of the progress of the work conducted so far and to keep structuring the logical frame of delivery through discussions and presentations.
In addition to this, the objectives of the meeting revolved around identifying cross-cutting issues and exploring the scope for further cooperation across working groups to deliver better structured outputs and reflecting on external synergies with other EU initiatives that contribute to the wider topic of harnessing talent.
The first half of the event started with a warm welcome and presentation of the HTP project by DG REGIO and the contractors from EY Belgium. The latter also presented to the audience the HTP workplan and the related sequencing of activities, subsequently animating a discussion among the participants on potential synergies between the topics addressed by the WGs.
It continued with the working group leaders providing an update on the work conducted so far with key reflections and ideas for the next steps. The topic of synergies was also addressed through the presentation of ongoing EU initiatives such as the Pact for Skills, the European Cluster Collaboration Platform (ECCP) and the Rural Revitalisation Platform.
For the second half, the members of the four working groups gathered to discuss and brainstorm on outputs and milestones in view of the next meetings and events and reflect on synergies within and beyond the WGs.
The event concluded with final remarks from DG REGIO and key reflections in view to the high-level annual event of the Harnessing Talent Platform that will take place in the first half of 2025.
