Founded in 1992, the European Association of Regional Development Agencies gathers people working on economic development through a large network of 69 members throughout 22 countries in the European Union and beyond.

Regional development agencies are a designated meeting place between local actors. They carry out an economic development mission characterized by the search of the collective or overall interest of an area (and not corporative or sectorial) and which are significantly linked with a local, metropolitan or regional authority with respect to management, financing or missions. In order to carry out this mission, they gather highly skilled professionals and are able to answer the specific needs of firms willing to develop their activities. As major economic actors in their regions, RDAs missions consist in assembling, coordinating and promoting best initiatives.

The EURADA network connects its members with all kind of economic development practitioners such as RDAs, business partners and European authorities.

We seek to

Encourage exchanges of experience between members and promote “best practice” in the field of local and regional economic development;

Promote the recognition of the development agencies as specific mechanisms and economic development entities;

Participate in the development and delivery of territorial development programs and/or support programs for companies especially for small and medium sized enterprises;

Reinforce and better organise technical cooperation both with the European Commission and other Community institutions;

Assist the development agencies newly set up in the non-European Union countries;

Promote the emergence of cooperation projects between development agencies of several countries

We do this through

The exchange of information on the regional development strategies, the assistance to enterprises and the training of development agency executives;

The analysis of Community Policy impact;

The development of cooperation projects between different development agencies;

The promotion of innovative and transferable techniques in the field of local and regional economic development;

The dissemination of relevant information insofar as that concerns Community policies as much as best practice;

A relevant forum open to new forms of know-how exchange between development agencies;

The management of co-operation projects co-financed by the European Commission;

Reflections on new management methods for regional development or development agencies.