During more than 15 years, Pascal Goergen has been to some 40 countries on 180 different professional assignments, covering a total distance of more than 400.000km across Europe! These assignments abroad are not only due to the various Council Presidencies (formal and informal ministerial meetings), but also for defending regional interests and the promotion of best practices in specific sectoral dossiers (working with DG Relex in Tunisia for the Euromed partnership, organisation of conferences on structural funds or enlargement, active participation in the Open Days of the CoR, conference on the EBN network, training seminars in the framework of Training Academy Seminars, …). All these trips have shaped his vision of a Europe with the regions and its regional public, economic and academic actors.

As a Delegate of the host-region for eleven years, as Secretary General of AER and FEDRA, Pascal Goergen has established excellent public relations with 243 local and regional representations in Brussels, with whom he work still today in the frame of his regional expertise. The lobbying activities that were initiated towards the Commission and the European Parliament, in partnership with other offices, have been instrumental to set up pilot projects in the field of Regions of Knowledge (ERRIN network), the Euromed partnership (MedPact network) and the establishment of networks, like NEREUS (for local and regional authorities that use spatial technologies) or FEDRA (www.fedra.eu)

Over the course of his professional career, I have gained more than a decade of experience and hands-on work within several European networks, be they formal or informal, thematic or political.

Very active in networks of cities such as Eurocities, ‘Cities for Cohesion’ or the Network of Capital City-Regions where he defended the urban dimension of European structural funds, he is still heavily involved in the European Neighbourhood and Euro-Mediterranean policies, in particular through the network of Euromed cities which has generated concrete projects of decentralised cooperation (Med’Pact, CIUDAD, SHAMS,…). His participation at the inauguration session of ARLEM in Barcelona and at the CoR session in Bari (2012) and his mission in the Ukrainian regions in 2014 show his strong commitment to those regional topics.

Co-founder of the ERRIN network (European Regions for Research and Innovation Network) in 2003, and member of the Management Board until 2009, he worked hard for the Brussels-Capital Region alongside 8 other European regions to make this network the voice of the regional dimension of European research policy. Building on that experience, he also took part in setting up the NEREUS network, a European network of regions that use spatial technologies, and was a Management Board member until 2012.

Alongside my engagement in thematic regional networks, Pascal Goergen acquired a lot of experience in political networks such as REGLEG (network of regions with legislative power), for which he assumed the position of Secretary General during the Brussels-Capital Region Presidency fo 2011, in the framework of a Regional Trio Presidency (Aragon in 2010, Brussels in 2011 and Vienna in 2012).His first participation to an AER meeting (Assembly of European Regions) was in Pecs (Hungary) in 2002. Ten years later, he becomes Secretary General.

• Being reactive and proactive in the preparation of European policies and discussing issues with partners in the networks
• Being on the ground by participating in seminars and conferences
• Playing an active role in summer schools organised by regional networks and in the Open Days of the Committee of the Regions
• Delivering key messages to regional stakeholders
• Providing training about the regional dimension and about the regional potentialities in Brussels and all over Europe
• Promoting the networks through digital platforms, websites and newsletters
• and above all, being in Brussels and taking part in formal events or other types of social gatherings (cocktails, receptions…), because networking is essentially about human interaction.