BEST OF EUSALP Annual Forum and General Assembly 2024

09:30-12:30, 16:15-18:00 – Green Infrastructure Goes Business Award: Coaching Workshop

The Green Infrastructure Goes Business Award is designed to support innovative ideas, products, and services that contribute to the development of a green economy while promoting sustainable development within the framework of the EU Strategy for the Alpine Region. In its third edition in 2024, the award recognized eight winners:

• Optigrün Smart Flow Control (Opti green)
• Pocket Parks – blau-grüne Oasen (Blue-green oases)
• EauRoot (Water root)
• HydroMontania - Irrigation solutions for sustainable agriculture in mountain areas
• BORKY - battle bark beetles better
• Mirage Urbain (Urban mirage)
• Natur ImPuls.e - Reconnect. Experience. Change.
• Building material solutions from annual fibre sources

As part of the 9th EUSALP Annual Forum, the winners were invited to participate in a Coaching Workshop organised by PLANVAL, which provided a platform to assess their businesses, identify challenges, and collaboratively develop strategies for future growth.

Coaching Workshop Overview

The camp began with a coaching session emphasizing the importance of identifying problems as the basis for business development. Participants were encouraged to develop solutions tailored to these problems, ensuring they meet market needs. The final stage, "scaling," focuses on refining and expanding the solution to ensure its growth and competitiveness in the market.

The workshop's second segment was a BarCamp, an interactive, participant-driven discussion where attendees proposed discussion topics and formed working groups to explore them.

Among the topics discussed were:

• Determining the best form of organization
• Scientific testing of products
• Funding for public goods
• Raising customer awareness

The discussion on customer awareness focused on promoting urban green spaces and effectively engaging customers. While younger generations were initially considered as a potential target, participants recognized them as users rather than customers and suggested targeting young entrepreneurs. Emphasis was placed on presenting solutions that not only address problems but also offer added value to customers and policymakers.

When asked how they benefited from the BarCamp, participants highlighted two main takeaways:

• Strategies for demonstrating added value to stakeholders (customers and policymakers).
• Enhanced targeting techniques based on specific customer characteristics.

The final segment of the coaching workshop focused on preparing participants for their business presentations, scheduled for the following day. Moderators provided guidance on crafting compelling presentations, offered feedback during rehearsals, and suggested improvements.

This workshop provided a comprehensive platform for the winners to refine their business strategies and prepare for future growth.

More information

14h00-15-30 – Official opening of the 9^th EUSALP Annual Forum: High-Level Plenary Panel “Alpine region – competitive, circular and smart in global world?” & Handover Ceremony of the EUSALP Presidency to Austria and Liechtenstein

The 9th Annual Forum of the EU Strategy for the Alpine Region (EUSALP) was inaugurated by Tanja Fajon, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Foreign and European Affairs of Slovenia. She welcomed participants and highlighted Slovenia’s pioneering role in the EUSALP Presidency. Fajon emphasized the urgent challenges of the green transition, peace, and prosperity, outlining three key priorities for Slovenia’s 2024 Presidency: fostering a circular economy, promoting a water-smart society, and improving the quality of life for young people in the Alpine region. She praised Alpine cooperation as a model for linking European policies with regional stakeholders and called for continued support of flagship initiatives.

Copyright Peter Irman

EU Commissioner for Cohesion and Reforms, Elisa Ferreira, addressed the forum via video message, praising the Alpine Region’s innovation and competitiveness. She highlighted the Strategy’s success in fostering cooperation on climate change, energy efficiency, and skills development. Ferreira thanked the Slovenian Presidency for advancing the Strategy’s goals and stressed the need for sustainable practices, innovative policies, and ecosystem protection. She also emphasized the importance of youth engagement through the Youth Council and the Strategy’s role in aligning local initiatives with EU priorities.

The High-Level Plenary Panel featured representatives from the seven EUSALP member countries, who discussed best practices and tools for enhancing cooperation. They acknowledged the unique resilience of mountain regions despite their vulnerability to climate change. Key initiatives included investments in the circular economy, sustainable water management, intermodal transportation, public-private partnerships, local resource-based economies, and industrial decarbonization. Achieving climate neutrality was a central goal, with a strong emphasis on involving young people in governance and development processes.

Panelists highlighted the importance of exchanging best practices and fostering a culture of sharing to counteract rising nationalisms. They called for multilevel cooperation and positive messaging to address public apprehensions about change.

The forum concluded with a ceremonial handover of the EUSALP Presidency from Slovenia to Liechtenstein and Austria, symbolized by the passing of the Kolo Wheel.

Photo gallery

16:00-18:00 – EUSALP Energy Conference “Energy Transition in the Economy” & EUSALP Energy Award Ceremony

Copyright Peter Irman

The conference commenced with a presentation of Action Group 9’s activities within the EUSALP framework: work plan, notable achievements—including the energy survey, energy observatory, and AITA platform—and its current focus on green hydrogen. The cross-sectoral initiative on hydrogen, undertaken in collaboration with Action Groups 2, 4, and 9, was highlighted, alongside key projects such as AMETHyIST, CEASAR, and CEASAR 2.

Conference Discussion

Moderated by Etienne VIENOT (Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes Énergie Environnement) the first panel featured Tine SELJAK (University of Ljubljana), VlastaKMERLJ (Energy and Climate Agency of Podravje), Manuel AITA (EUSALP Youth Council), SasoSELJAK (Alpacem Cement), and Igor STEINER (INEA). Key topics addressed included:

• Role of Policymakers.
• Disparity Among Enterprises, notably between companies that capitalise energy targets and those struggling to comply with existing regulations, often resulting in competitive disadvantages.
• The importance, for small and medium enterprises (SMEs), to be prepared for energy transition. 
• The urgent need for political intervention to mitigate the shortage of skilled personnel required for the energy transition. Proposals included increased investments in education and scholarships targeting energy-related fields. The need for employing a balanced approach of incentives (“carrots”) and penalties (“sticks”) to drive the transition was also underlined. 

A second part of the conference was moderated by Benjamin AUER (KlimaHaus Agentur) and included contributions from Marija Cebumar ZAJEC (Ministry of Economy), Matteo MAZZOLINI (Energy Agency Friuli Venezia Giulia), Julia ZOTTER (Zotter Chocolate Austria), Saso SELJAK (Alpacem Cement), and Alessandro GARZOTTO (Arbor Srl). The discussion focused on: 

• The role of state-level assistance and EU funding opportunities in fostering energy transition initiatives. 
• The establishment of a dedicated Centre for Circular Economy. 
• The introduction of voucher schemes for obtaining quality certifications, explored as valuable support. 
• The challenges for SMEs: while larger enterprises often recognize the financial and operational benefits of energy efficiency, smaller businesses, particularly micro-enterprises, struggle to perceive immediate advantages. As a result, public support was deemed indispensable for smaller businesses to participate meaningfully in the transition.
• The intersection of Green Transition and Digitalization. In this regard, the importance of integrating digital tools to track and manage energy data effectively was underscored. 

Speakers:
Panel 1: Policy frameworks
Tine SELJAK, Assistant Professor, Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, University of Ljubljana,
Slovenia
Vlasta KRMELJ, Director, Energy and Climate Agency of Podravje, Slovenia
Manuel AITA, EUSALP Youth Council member
Panel 2: Support Schemes and Programmes to Support the Energy Transition of the
Economy
Marija ČEBULAR ZAJEC, Undersecretary, Ministry of the Economy, Tourism and Sport,
Slovenia
Matteo MAZZOLINI, Director, Energy Agency Friuli Venezia Giulia, Italy
Julia ZOTTER, Zotter Chocolate, Austria
Presentation of the winners and handing-over of trophies
Guided tour through the exhibition “Climate and I”
Moderators: Etienne Vienot, Energy and Environment Agency Auvergne-Rhone-Alpes

Photo Gallery 

YouTube video of the event

The panel explored the potential of the Alpine Region to serve as a leading example of circular economy practices, emphasizing the need for technological integration, collaboration, and innovation. The session featured a keynote speech by Jernej Pintar, Director of the Technology Park of Ljubljana, who underscored three critical imperatives for advancing circular economy in the Alpine Region: 

1. Engagement in the technological process: technological advancements should be embraced by actively understanding, using, and filtering them. 

2. The need for unity, with emphasis on the difference between unity and mere collaboration, as an essential wat to overcome fragmentation. 

3. The urgency to establish a Circular Hub, a centralized hub for cutting-edge circular technologies. This hub would also facilitate the sharing of best practices and solutions across stakeholders. 

Copyright Peter Irman

The rest of the panel featured Slobodan Sesum, Robert Oddon, Roland Mayer, Denis Jahic, and Jan Diederich Luken as speakers. The discussion delved into the practical and systemic dimensions of circular economy implementation in the Alpine Region. Key themes included: 

• Daily practices embracing circularity. 
• Multilevel cooperation at both local and macro-regional levels, particularly in those fields of production where cross-border collaboration is deemed particularly critical. The importance of networks such as EUSALP was highlighted as a platform for fostering such cooperation. 
• Barriers to circularity: despite EU programs designed to promote the green transition, panellists noted a stagnation in circularity rates. 
• Role of public incentives: the discussion stressed the need for public policies to incentivize stakeholders to adopt circular practices. 
• Problem of overregulation, in other words overly complex regulatory frameworks which constitute a significant barrier, often discouraging innovation and complicating the transition to circular economy practices. 
• Producer responsibility models, for example the “CARE” Program in the United States, which encourages producers to take responsibility for waste by the allocation of incentives to integrating it back into production cycles. 
• The need to build stronger waste management connections within the Alpine Region to improve waste management practices. 
• The critical role of young people in driving change

Speakers:
Introduction speech: Jernej PINTAR, Director, Technology Park Ljubljana, Slovenia
Slobodan ŠEŠUM, Director-General, Directorate for Economic and Public Diplomacy,
Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs, Slovenia
Roland MAYER, Secretary General, Conference of Cantonal Governments, Switzerland
Robin ODDON, Project manager, Techtera, France
Nina MEGLIČ, Cluster manager at Strategic Research and Innovation Partnership Networks
for the Transition to a Circular Economy, Slovenia
Denis JAHIĆ, General Manager and Board Member, AquafilSLO, Slovenia
Jan-Diederich LÜKEN, Professor of Business Economics, Faculty of Chemical Technology
and Economics, Bavaria, Germany
Moderator: Igor E. Bergant, Slovenian journalist and national TV news presenter

Photo Gallery