ESIMeC

With the vast majority of people in Europe living in medium sized towns and cities, these have a key role to play in Europe's economic development and competitiveness. However, they often struggle to define what their role should be and what position they should occupy in Europe's economic fabric.

In addition, medium sized cities tend to be affected more adversely in times of economic recession as they often do not have the same level of economic and social resilience as large metropolitan areas.

Therefore positioning medium sized towns and cities and ensuring their sustainable economic growth remain some of key challenges for the years to come.

ESIMeC brings together nine medium sized cities from across Europe that share similar challenges and priorities.

The main aim of ESIMeC is to develop innovative economic strategies that capitalise on the assets and specificities of medium sized cities to ensure they are better equipped to cope with economic downturns and to encourage faster economic recovery as well as long term economic growth and resilience.

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Project launch :
25 November 2009
End of the project :
2012

Lead Partner

Basingstoke and Deane Borough Council daniel.garnier@basingstoke.gov.uk

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Basingstoke and Deane is a district located in the north of the county of Hampshire in South East England. It is named after Basingstoke, the largest town, with a population of 105,000 inhabitants, and Deane, the smallest village with only a handful of houses. Basingstoke's strategic location close to motorways, international airports and with a direct fast train connection to London, has meant the town was able to build a broad business base and become one of the region's key economic and business centres.

Partners

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Lead Expert

Alison PARTRIDGEalison@aurora-ltd.com

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Alison Partridge is one of the co-directors of Aurora – a European Consultancy founded in 2002. With more than 20 years of experience of European policy and programmes, across the voluntary, statutory and private sectors, she specialises in European project and partnership development and implementation. Her current portfolio spans a range of Interreg and mainstream ERDF programmes across the EU and URBACT II.

Her role in ESIMeC is to lead on the development of the baseline study and to support the partners in the development of an effective workplan for the implementation phase.