Between 4 and 7 October 2010, the OPEN DAYS -- European Week of Regions and Cities will be held for the eighth time in Brussels. Once again, around 100 seminars, workshops, debates, exhibitions and networking opportunities for around 6 000 participants will be organised by the Committee of the Regions (CoR) and the European Commission, in partnership with regions and cities from all over Europe, companies, banks and international associations and academic organisations. CoR headquarters will host the OPEN DAYS "meeting place" with two thematic villages showcasing best practise and local action on climate change and on trans-border cooperation in Europe. The official OPEN DAYS media centre, for 250 to 300 journalists, will also be located at the Committee of the Regions. The OPEN DAYS are organised jointly each year by the Committee of the Regions, the EU's assembly of regional and local representatives, and the European Commission's Regional Policy Directorate-General (DG REGIO). The 2010 event will also include 28 regional partnerships, who will organise around a third of the more than 130 conferences and seminars to be held between 4-7 October in Brussels. The other two thirds will be organised by the CoR and DG REGIO. The reform of cohesion policy post-2013 and the local dimension of the "Europe 2020 strategy" will dominate the 8th European Week of Regions and Cities. Workshops and seminars will concentrate on the three key issues of competitiveness, cooperation and cohesion and will highlight the concerns and demands of regions and cities in the run-up to the adoption by the European Commission of its 5th cohesion report, an assessment of the current state of play that will influence the Commission's thinking on the policy post-2013. The OPEN DAYS also involve the European Parliament, private companies and financial institutions. The latter will showcase the role of public-private partnerships in developing a "greener economy" and "territorial cooperation" -- the themes of two "villages" hosted by the CoR. In addition, the OPEN DAYS University, which brings together top-level scholars and researchers in the field of regional and urban development, will address the issue of EU cohesion policy from a more academic point of view. A total of 6 000 participants, representing local, regional and national authorities, academia, EU officials and media, are expected to attend the 2010 event. In addition, under the label "Europe in our Region/City", another 260 local events will be organised all over Europe to reach an even wider public of more than 25 000. The preliminary programme and on-line registration is available now from the Open Days website.