Dr. Pavel Branda (Deputy Mayor of Rádlo municipality, Czech Republic), the ECR Group representative on the Committee of the Regions' Conference of Regional and Local Authorities for the Eastern Partnership's (CORLEAP) Bureau, spoke at the CORLEAP conference in Yerevan, Armenia on 24 October 2017. The conference was titled "Innovation and regional development: Agents for growth in Eastern Partnership countries".

Dr Branda gave a presentation on the importance of cross-border cooperation in fostering regional and local development. He shared specific examples and best-practices from the 26 years of cross-border cooperation that his border region has with the neighbouring German and Polish regions. This was very much welcomed by the participants as an inspiration for cross-border cooperation projects between the Armenian-Georgian border. Dr Branda offered the participating representatives of Eastern Partnership countries his expertise and assistance if needed.