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Business in Europe

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The first edition of EUobserver's Business in Europe magazine looks at business and industry in Europe.

"It's our duty to turn

"It's our duty to turn the migration challenge into an opportunity" The arrival of more than 1 million refugees has posed a major challenge for cities. The Urban Agenda launched by regional policy commissioner Corina Cretu is an effort to deal with it. The refugee crisis that took Europe by surprise last year has posed many challenges for the EU's asylum system, border management and decision-making. But it is cities that have borne the brunt of the arrival of more than 1 million people in a single year. Roughly 70 percent of the European population and 75 percent of the continent's jobs are concentrated in cities. Many of the problems governments have to address – from affordable housing and air concentrated in cities. To this list of challenges has been added the short-term welcoming and long-term integration of a massive number of refugees. They have all been included in an Urban Agenda that the European Commission and member states presented on 30 May. REFUGEE CRISIS IS TESTING IDEAS "Member states and cities came to realise that with all these challenges nobody can go alone. With this pact we can start working with a consolidated agenda for years to come," EU regional policy commissioner Corina Cretu said in an interview with EUobserver. The idea for an Urban Agenda was launched by the commission in 2014 to increase cooperation between the EU, member states and regional and local authorities. Almost two years later, the refugee crisis is testing the idea. 30 — BUSINESS IN EUROPE JUNE 2016

Roughly 70 percent of the European population and 75 Photo: Yadid Levy/Norden.org "It's our duty to do everything we can to turn the migration challenge into an opportunity," Corina Cretu said. While the EU was addressing short term needs like accommodation, mobile hospitals, sanitation or water supply, she said "we all know that most effective solutions will be long term". "We cannot avoid the fact that around 1 million people is already on the EU territory and that most of them are here to stay," she said. EU regional and social funds have been used for many years to run development projects and community initiatives. But these programmes were designed before the migration crisis, the commissioner noted. MORE FLEXIBILITY REQUIRED Addressing new challenges will require more regional and local authorities are used to manage EU-funded projects. Money from the European Regional Development mobile hospitals in Italy and Greece. Social funds were used to train refugees, mainly with language lessons. For this year, with the risk that more migrants come to Italy after the closure of the Balkan route, plans have been made to establish a working group between the commission's directorate general for migration and home affairs and the Italian interior minister to see how funds can be used to help cities. "It is important for member states and regions to know how to exploit all possibilities of EU funds," the necessity of stable investment and adapting ourselves to the challenges." In April, the commissioner, along with her migration colleague Dimitris Avramopoulos hosted a meeting with representatives from EU cities on coping with the crisis. At the meeting, she stressed that cities 2014-2020 cohesion funds. "It's a sign of trust but at the same time a great responsibility," she told EUobserver. European cities are encouraged to exchange their experiences and offer to help the most affected cities. "We ask member states to come up with ideas" for projects and initiatives, Cretu said. AMSTERDAM TOOK THE LEAD As part of the Urban Agenda, Amsterdam accepted the lead on migration. It is one of the urban areas, with Berlin and Stockholm, where projects have been run for years and could be used as model. In Sweden, the country which has received the most refugees as a proportion of its population, the capital Stockholm has developed what the commissioner called a "nice project" with ERDF and social funds. Refugees have been given housing as well as language courses and job training. Children have noted. In Berlin, another project was launched several years ago with EU funds, where German mothers help Turkish mothers when they have to deal with administration. BUSINESS IN EUROPE JUNE 2016 — 31

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