In January, an international conference entitled Towards a Green Economy was held in Katowice (Poland) at the initiative of the president of Śląskie region, Jakub Chełstowski – an ECR member at the European Committee of the Regions. The inspiration for organising this event was the work of local and regional authority leaders in the European Platform for Coal Regions in Transition (CRIT). This initiative is organised with the European Commission and brings together European mining regions, providing opportunities for exchanging experience and creating favourable conditions for progress in regions that are facing difficult challenges in tackling the effects of restructuring in the mining industry.

Through this initiative, regions are taking various steps, including lobbying for solutions in the EU budget to ensure that they do not fall behind in the "green change". Last year in Görlitz, 14 European mining regions signed a joint declaration and sent it to the new European Commission, in the expectation that efforts to support the structural development of regions affected by the transition would continue. Śląskie is also one of the signatories to this declaration.

The EU Commissioner for Cohesion and Reforms Elisa Ferreira attended the January conference in Katowice at the invitation of Mr Chełstowski, and presented the proposal for a Just Transition Fund published by the European Commission. In her address, she underlined that the Commission did not want anyone to be left alone to deal with the problem of the transition and was aware that we will all had to deal with the impact of this extremely costly process. However, it is essential that we move to a climate-neutral Europe by 2050.

Śląskie region is the largest mining region in the European Union. As the host of the January conference, this confirms that, in the context of the European Green Deal, the region aspires to be one of the leaders in the debate on the future of Europe’s mining regions. At the conference, Mr Chełstowski pointed out that the region was already working intensively on transforming its economy, as well as managing areas that had been degraded through mining. At his initiative, in 2019 the regional group for the mining regions initiative was set up, which brings together representatives from various fields – government, local and regional government, non-governmental, business, science and experts as well as culture. It provides an opportunity to take a look at the transition process from different perspectives, giving it a more social dimension, and many of the decisions about important investments for the region, which are essential for a successful transition, are taken as a result of broad public participation. However, EU support is a very important and even essential condition for these investments.

In the current 2014-2020 funding period, more than ¼ funds under the Regional Operational Programme for Śląskie region have been earmarked for financing low-carbon projects, installing renewable energy sources and improving energy efficiency; almost EUR 1.5 billion supports innovation and entrepreneurship projects and social and infrastructural regeneration, as well as the labour market. As part of the EU’s support, Śląskie launched a project aimed at developing a regional system for managing post-mining areas, which will make new digital e-services available in the form of an IT system publishing data and information on those areas. This tool will enable sites to be identified for economic reuse, and will also open up access to digitalised cultural, scientific, planning, surveying and cartographic resources linked to inactive mining facilities in Śląskie region. The project supports the planning of a long-term investment policy in post-mining areas and sustainable spatial management in the region, and will support investment decisions and the raising of funds for the regeneration of these areas.

Śląskie is a region with huge development potential based on industry that uses the latest technologies, as well as the medical and digital sectors. These specialisations have been identified in the Regional Innovation Strategy and EU support is already being made available for such purposes.

Through his work at the CoR, the president of Śląskie region will focus his attention on the package of measures for the just transition of mining regions, which is essential in order to help Europe's transition regions and exploit the region's potential to move towards a green economy.