The EURADA General Assembly took place in Brussels on 3rd June 2024. As usual, it has been an opportunity to meet in person our members and an occasion of discussion and networking. This edition was crucial being mainly devoted to the elections of the new Board of Directors and the new Presidency. Roberta Dall’Olio, EURADA Director, managed the meeting together with the former Vice President Rafael Escamilla of Ivace+i.
They both underlined the relevance of these elections occurring under the rules of the new Statutes approved in June 2022 and implying a 3-year mandate renewable for two further mandates. The Director expressed then the need for a Board strongly engaged representing a balance from the gender and geographical side.
Each candidate on the Board had the opportunity to share and discuss their vision for the future of the association.
The Assembly, members recognising and awarding the commitment of the candidates voted on a consensus basis for all 17 candidates.
The newly elected Board of Directors includes Valeria Bandini (ART-ER), Jean-François Benon (CEEVO 95), Jean Jacques Bernardini (GRAND E-NOV+), Greta Camilleri (Malta Enterprise), Luca Capra (Trentino Sviluppo), Antonio Manuel Castro Jiménez (TRADE), Rafael Escamilla (IVACE+i), Cristina Gallardo (FUNDECYT-PCTEX), Theodorus Nicolaas Maria Föllings (Oost NL), Joaquín Gomez (INFO MURCIA), Daniel Janeiro (ADRAL), Andreea-Raluca Leru (North-East Romania Regional Development Agency), Kornelija Mlinarević (Razvojna agencija Zagreb), Hélène Morin (Bretagne Development Innovation), Cristina Oyón (SPRI), Darjan Vlahov (SIMORA), and Jan Sinkievic (ARRSA Bielsko Biala Poland).
The newly elected Board of Directors convened right after its elections to elect the new Presidency. The board unanimously voted for the following candidates: Theo Föllings (Oost NL) as President, Cristina Oyon (SPRI) as Vice-President, Andreea-Raluca Leru (ADR Nord-Est) as Vice-President-Treasurer, and Daniel Janeiro (ADRAL) as Vice-President-Secretary.
Our new President, Theo Follings, would like to focus his mandate on intensifying the role of RDAs in building bridges with public administrations at national and local levels, highlighting the role that EURADA, as a network, could play in leveraging the experience of each member and providing policymakers with new hints.
He encourages a greater engagement of members being the strength of EURADA made of the collective efforts of its associates representing a variety of concrete actions for the benefit of their regions and territories. He insists on the importance of the EURADA Secretariat in the creation of better and more effective synergies among members also thanks to the deployment of new integrated digital platforms.
Cristina Oyon, SPRI, shares with the President the same thoughts about the necessity to reinforce the cooperation among the current EURADA members and is willing to help the EURADA Secretariat in enlarging its network through new adhesion of RDAs in countries in which we do not have any representation. She would like to promote a new industrial model emphasising sustainability and social values. In her current position at SPRI, she is focused on the social transition and decarbonisation of industrial activities and promotes the role of women in industry.
Andreea-Raluca Leru, ADR Nord Est, is willing to help the new EURADA President in elaborating a Strategy for the next 10 years. Andreea would like to organise a series of online meetings with all the EURADA members to determine what are the priorities for the next years and, therefore, apply some strategic foresight principles as extensively discussed in the framework of our internal Strategic Foresight EURADA Working Group. In order to enlarge the EURADA network, Andreea would like to organise one of the next EURADA events (for example Summer School 2025) in Romania to take advantage of this event to attract new members from Eastern Europe.
Lastly, Daniel Janeiro, ADRAL, agrees with the necessity of enlarging the EURADA network through an extraordinary membership campaign to be held in 2025 with a special focus on the agencies which are daily involved in the attraction of (foreign) investments.
The EURADA secretariat is grateful to all resigning administrators, former President Bogdan Chelariu, Vice President Rafael Escamilla and the members of the Executive Committee, Daniel Janeiro ADRAL Henri Jansens OOST NL, Yunus Colac Karacadag Development Agency who supported the Director and the network during the past years.
Knowing that new important challenges (new European Parliament New European Commission, reform of Cohesion funds) and engagements are waiting for our proactive engagement, we are now looking forward to a fruitful and trustful cooperation with the new Presidency and the old and new members of the Association. We are sure that we will be able together to shape the future of EURADA for the well-being of our regions.
