Home >  advice European grants >  List of interviews on European grants >  What is the "Ile-de-France Europe" Representation ?

What is the "Ile-de-France Europe" Representation ?

Françoise Chotard, director of the "Ile-de-France Europe" Representation

1. Which collectivities are represented by "Ile-de-France Europe" ?
Our constituent local communities are the Ile-de-France Region and fives regional councils, namely, Seine et Marne, Essonne, Seine Saint Denis, Val de Marne et Val d'Oise. The door is opened to the other subdivisions administered by a prefect which wish it too.

2. Which are the "Ile-de-France Europe"’s missions ?

Our representation office has three main missions :

- Information-monitoring on all policies which interest our local communities. This mission is carried out through different information tools like our monthly letter which is available on our website (www.iledefrance-europe.eu);

- Technic assistance and projects building help cofinanced by the Commission and provided to our communities and actors of the Ile-de-France too.

- Representation and lobbying activities. Networking with other actors, namely with other European Regions, is essential because it allows to carry weight stronger in/ to have a stronger impact on the european decision-making process.


3. What is the interest of the Representation ?

Attending permanently to Brussels allows our constituent communities to establish working relations with the European institutions and namely with the European Commission which plays an essential role thanks to its initiative power. It is important to follow as upstream as possible the discussions and debates which take place within the European Commission’s services. Thus, it allows to create a direct dialogue with these services in order to pass on to them messages. A large proportion of our work is to pass on the right message to the right interlocutor at the right time.

To give a concrete example, nowadays while the Structural Funds programmation period 2007-2013 begins, our office already works on the preparation of the future cohesion policy which will be developped from 2014.


4. What is the role of the Representation as regards communication about Europe ?

I wouldn’t say that our work has a direct impact as regards communication on Europe, but through our missions of information and technic assistance, we provide our expertise to our communities and we contribute to make the reality of the European activities better known on the Ile-de-France area. It is mainly the case of the newsletter and the website on which our actors and citizens can find information about the Europe activities.