EU - Chile cooperation on regional and urban policy

In the 8th meeting of the Chile-EU Association Committee, established by the Association Agreement, which took place on 25 November 2010 in Santiago, Chile, the Directorate General for Regional Policy and the Office for Regional and Administrative Development of Chile (SUBDERE) exchanged letters of intent establishing a dialogue on Regional Policy.

The dialogue addresses, inter alia, exchanges of information and practices on policies aiming at economic, social and territorial cohesion including cross-border cooperation; on setting up and implementing regional policy and organizing territorial development strategies; on multi-level governance and partnership issues; on planning and evaluation procedures and methods.

Chile is an important partner for the EU in the actions carried out to further this cooperation, namely:

• International Urban and Regional Cooperation (IURC) programme for city-to-city cooperation on sustainable urban development and region-to-region cooperation on regional innovation
• INNOV-AL project promotes the exchange of knowledge and good practices on the definition and implementation of decentralized innovation policies and smart specialization policies at the regional level and the cooperation between the national and regional authorities of six countries in Latin America (Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Peru, Mexico) and between these and their counterparts in the EU.
• INNOVACT project diffusing EU regional policy experience and good practices in Latin America
• to facilitate the sharing of information and lessons between European and Latin-American cross-border regions on promoting cross-border cooperation, innovation systems, clusters and competitiveness;
• to identify and develop strategies, action plans and concrete projects or programmes for the development of cross-border value chains;
• and to stimulate and contribute to a learning process based on concrete examples and best practices.
• Seven Latin Americas border areas were covered by INNOVACT, including Chile-Peru border area