structural development

Learned something every day   

A little farewell from Lars Semrock

Even in your early 40s you learn something new every day. I've also learned that in the last 15 months of ENO membership. ENO?

I've heard that before, but what exactly they're doing there - "something public for the district" - I didn't really know in detail until the end of 2020.

It is May 2021 when the "Structural Change" task force begins work in the ENO. A total of 10 motivated colleagues, colorfully put together with the most diverse professional and educational backgrounds. However, they all have one thing in common – the will to make a difference and create something new. And it takes a lot of will when it comes to a good 8,000 jobs that want to be replaced by 2038. The cold start is easy, because the ENO core team has every conceivable support, so that the first steps are easy. But it shouldn't be too easy, because ideally we'll end lignite-fired power generation by 2030... Phew, we'll have to roll up our sleeves again!

Almost 100 projects on the subject of structural change are already in the queue, which municipalities or municipal sponsors have submitted to the district as ideas. Not exactly a little, because somewhere time is always on the neck. But before I can go on to further qualify the ideas, I first have to learn a completely new language and I feel like I'm in a new verse of the Fanta-4 hit "MfG"... SAS and SAB , RBA and AKE , SMI and SMK , LASUV , LASUB , GRW ... apparently I was fetching chalk from school when these terms were discussed.

You grow with your tasks. 

I can't really see any blood - certainly not my own. When my colleague Heike accidentally got on the train to Zittau instead of Görlitz, I jumped in for her and made an appointment for project qualification at the Municipal Clinic in Görlitz . It is about the implementation of a surgical robot. Since I myself am not at all up to date professionally, I look at various info trailers, backgrounds and data and hope that none of my colleagues will see my skin color change to pale as chalk and me in the swivel chair slide deeper and deeper. It doesn't matter - "You have to go through with it," I think to myself - only those who can put themselves in the shoes of the projects can ultimately implement them successfully. In the meantime, I can only smile tiredly about left heart catheter measuring stations and I have not fainted with my last three vaccinations. In addition to a good €4 million for the clinic, it also did something for me personally 😉 .

In addition, I have been able to accompany a wide variety of other projects and, together with the project sponsors and my dear colleagues from the ENO, bring them to the application stage, sometimes developed within just a few hours, sometimes over several months. Not everything was confirmed as “eligible”, and rejections were also part of everyday life. But in the end that only increased our motivation to revise the applications to match the guidelines .

Why am I actually writing this? leave the task force and the ENO in the direction of the district office district development office . Within the past few months we have learned that upheavals can only be mastered as a whole and as a regional unit. We must not leave the many companies on the track and must let them participate in the structural change process, because only the strong entrepreneurs in Lusatia can actually create jobs with which the exit from coal-fired power generation will succeed. A close connection between municipal authorities and entrepreneurs, the reduction of bureaucratic hurdles and the shortening of approval procedures are particularly important to me.

And this ensures that my contact with my colleagues in the ENO is maintained. 

Much remains to be learned...

See you soon - elsewhere!

Your Lars

(Bye Lars! It was fun working with such a fine colleague like you - we look forward to continuing to work with you! All the best - see you soon! Your ENO team)