Territorial partner wins the European Entrepreneurial Region (EER) award

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Territorial partner wins the European Entrepreneurial Region (EER) award

In March 2021, Gabrovo Municipality in Bulgaria received the European Entrepreneurial Region (EER) award for its systematic efforts to enhance the entrepreneurial performance of the region. The EER is a European label of excellence, initiated by the European Commission, and is given annually to local and regional administrations with outstanding entrepreneurial and innovative policy strategies.

The jury is composed of members of the Committee of the Regions, the European Parliament and EU-level stakeholders such as social partners and territorial associations. The focus of the merged 2021-2022 version of the award is “Entrepreneurship for a sustainable recovery”.  Along with Gabrovo Municipality, five other regions from Finland, Portugal, Spain, France, and Poland received the award. The implementation of the winning regional strategies will be monitored by the EER jury during the next two years, through which the territories will be given an objective external assessment on the progress made.

In recent years, due to the growing manufacturing and processing industry, Gabrovo Municipality has become one of the most important economic centres in Bulgaria – the long-term vision is to develop Gabrovo as a green, smart, and innovative region by capitalising on the existing assets such as entrepreneurial culture, technological traditions, and citizens’ innovative mindset. The planned transition towards ecologic sustainability and more resilient economy will be achieved through investments in economic activities with higher added value like the Information and Communication technologies (ICT).

The entrepreneurial strategy of Gabrovo for the upcoming years will boost the development of the municipality by focusing on three main areas, namely digital business transformation, green entrepreneurship, and eco-innovations, as well as further promotion of the entrepreneurial culture.

Targeted measures will be devised and applied with the aim of enhancing the digital transformation of local businesses, as well as of encouraging them to embrace eco-innovations. These initiatives are expected to add value to the dynamics of the existing environment and to strengthen the entrepreneurial and innovation ecosystem of the region.

By becoming a member of this EU network of territories, which pro-actively develop their entrepreneurial ecosystems, Gabrovo will not only have the opportunity to exchange experience and best practices with the other regions, but will also develop partnerships for future joint initiatives.

Article written by Adriana Dimova – ARC Fund

Adriana Dimova is Project Coordinator at ARC Fund

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