This project builds upon a collaboration which has been established since 15 years in the field of social work between teachers and lecturers of Zuyd University, HU University and Elte University. Another network joining this project was CARe Europe, an NGO aimed at improving community care throughout Europe. Before the start of the project already HU University, Tallinn Mental Health Centre and Kwintes were participating in this network. In the course of several international meetings (e.g. CARe Europe conference in Prague in 2005, ENSACT conferences in Dubrovnik in 2009, and Brussels in April 2011, ESN conference in Brussels in March 2011), and many local meetings, it became clear that professionals in the social sector have difficulties to change current practices. There is a great need to develop new methods, which professionals can use to create community care.
This publication is a result of an international research project which took place from 2012-2014. Among the participators were four universities, number of service providers, NGOs and people with psychiatric and learning disabilities from Amersfoort and Maastricht in the Netherlands, Budapest in Hungary and Tallinn in Estonia. The aim of the project was to explore the wishes and needs of persons with psychiatric or learning difficulties with regard to community participation, and how services could be (more) supportive in order to meet these needs. We also looked at local policies, especially from the perspective of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD). From the research we learn that regardless of the country where people live, persons with disabilities have similar struggles to cope with vulnerability and deprivation. They also share the same desires as any other human being: the wish to live a good and valued life, to have meaningful activities and to belong to a social community. The stories in this book were selected from the interviews which were conducted by researchers during the project. The portraits illustrate experiences of illness, disability and recovery. They also reflect experiences of using social- and mental health services, exclusion and inclusion. By reading these stories we see, how multifaceted life can be, and what are the challenges towards the real participation in community
This paper is about the political imbalance in the EU when it comes to attracting European agencies. Over the years, mainly due to the Brexit negotiations and for cost-efficiency reasons, many EU agencies moved from the UK to elsewhere, finding a new sea for headquarters functions or other departments. Whenever such a move is announced, EU countries and their candidate host cities jump into the breach to make a beneficial offer. The way these processes take place is a vector of the politicization of European integration. Nevertheless, these new locations of the EU agencies have won the bidding contest, is a process that usually takes place under the radar. The decision-making of these kinds of processes rests with the member states of the agency. Instead of choosing the most strategic place and ensuring an equal distribution among EU countries, which is the deal, often the highest bidder or the state contributing the most wins the agency. Interestingly, these processes have hardly been studied in the light of the increased politicization. This paper is an attempt to fill this research gap, by focusing on three cases and the processes of decision-making. The cases are the Collège européen de police (European Police College, CEPOL) which moved from the UK to Budapest in 2014, the European Medicine Agency (EMA) moving from London to Amsterdam in 2019, and the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) which moved its EU-funded program to Bonn and Helsinki mid-2021. The research strategy is as follows: the cases and the lobbying processes are described, then the main political actors are described, and the outcomes are described. The main research question is: How do these processes of political decision-making work out in practice? By answering this question, this study contributes to the discussion on globalized decision-making across the EU and the politicized imbalance which is the result of this.
Events:Project meetings & trainings with the COMMITTED partners•Kick-off meeting at Hanze University of Applied Sciences, Groningen, 5 April 2022•Partner meeting & training at Technical University of Applied Sciences Würzburg-Schweinfurt, Wurzburg, 12- 14 Dec. 2022•Partner meeting & training at Moravian College Olomouc, 31 May – 2 June 2023•Partner meeting at Lappeenranta-Lahti University of Technology LUT, Kouvola, 18 Sept. 2023•Final partner meeting at Budapest Business University, Budapest, 18 March 2024Trainings for university staff and SMEs:•Deemed export compliance pilot training for university staff,1 Feb. 2024, IBS Hanze. •Deemed export compliance pilot training for SMEs, 12 Feb. 2024, IBS Hanze.Conference presentations:Project pitch at Conference of the Centre of Expertise Entrepreneurship, Hanze, May 21, 2024Workshops:Deemed export workshop at the annual Enterprise Europe Network (EEN) consortium day on June 27, 2024The proposed project will help companies, policy makers and university researchers and students involved in international projects for which export compliance is applicable, recognize the risks related to the dissemination/use of data, R&D results and other products of international cooperation. Such items regulated by export control regimes require preparedness and understanding what is necessary to comply with the rules, in order to prevent infringement, which can have profound negative consequences for all parties involved. EU calls for tailored guidance to address those distinct challenges (2021/821 Regulation) and the proposed project is inline with this need.
TOURBAN objective is to spearhead a transnational and cross-sectoral movement towards tourism sustainability in urban areas across Europe, leveraging SME capacities and skills to uptake best practices and develop innovative solutions that make them both more sustainable and competitive. It will do so by tackling current urban tourism challenges in an era of increasing tourism visitor pressure, acting in European cities such as Amsterdam, Barcelona, Copenhagen, Dubrovnik, Kiel, Budapest and Tallinn. To achieve the objective, TOURBAN will share knowledge on sustainability strategies and the advantages of adopting sustainable solutions and practices, including EU/internationally recognised certificates and labels (e.g. EU Eco Label, EMAS) and circular economy models. These will be based on case studies and stories from SMEs and other frontrunners in sustainability.The project will share this practical knowledge through highly interactive training workshops and peer-to-peer sessions. Another core element of the project is cross-sector knowledge exchange and collaboration. In addition, more intensive support services will be delivered so that the tourism SMEs can effectively adopt sustainability strategies and seek additional financing. In this, financial support will be provided on the basis of a selection process under a competitive Call for Proposals launched by the Sustainable Urban Tourism Acceleration Programme. In this action, TOURBAN will engage around 70 SMEs from 7 different countries (NL, ES, DK, HR, DE, HU and EE) in a 12-month programme. To drive successful outcomes, the partnership gathers expertise in a wide range of topics related to tourism sustainability and can draw on years of practical experience in incubation, acceleration and SME developmentPartners:Breda University of Applied Sciences (Breda - The Netherlands), Barcelona Chamber of Commerce (Barcelona - Spain), B. Link Barcelona Strategic Projects (Barcelona - Spain), The Institute for Tourism Research in Northern Europe (Kiel - Germany), Estonian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Tallinn - Estonia), City of Dubrovnik Development Agency (Dubrovnik - Croatia), Creative Business Network (Copenhagen - Denmark), VIMOSZ Hungarian Hospitality Employers’ Association (Budapest - Hungary).
