LDnet – Local Development Network

Rural Pact: European and local leaders join forces to make local communities stronger

The Rural Pact conference, 15-16 June 2022, brought together EU, national, and regional politicians along with local authorities, social and economic stakeholders in a participatory event that reflected the rural vision’s ambition and bottom-up character. It sought to engage participants in designing the … Continue Reading

European Rural Parliament 2022

The 5th European Rural Parliament will take place from 12 to 15 September 2022 in Kielce, Poland. The programme of this event and further information are available HERE. … Continue Reading

CLLD – Giving value to coastal landscapes from the bottom up

On 27 May an event organised by the Chair of Landscape Architecture of the Estonian University of Life Sciences, within the series of open seminars “Exploring Landscape Boundaries”, offered an interesting opportunity for an exchange between research and practice in local development. In the seminar on … Continue Reading

Rural Europe – European Parliament event

Book Launch on the future of Rural Europe with Special Guests. This hybrid event on 7 June 2022, 16:30-18:30 CEST live from the European Parliament, with physical participation in room WEISS N3.5, with interpretation available in English and French. It marked the launch of the new book Rural Europe Takes … Continue Reading

40 years of the OECD local development programme!

The OECD Local Development Forum 15-17 June 2022, Cork, Ireland. It will be an in-person event with live streaming of selected sessions. This year's Local Development Forum will mark the occasion of the 40th Anniversary of the OECD’s Local Employment and Economic Development and will debate the issues … Continue Reading

CLLD country profile: Denmark

This new country profile, the 22nd in this LDnet series on CLLD in Europe, offers an overview of CLLD in Denmark in the 2014-2020 period and beyond: local development approach, use of EU funds, number of LAGs, achievements so far, barriers encountered, national specificities - February 2022Main author: … Continue reading

CLLD country profile: Ireland

This new country profile, the 21st in this LDnet series on CLLD in Europe, offers an overview of CLLD in Ireland in the 2014-2020 period and beyond: local development approach, use of EU funds, number of LAGs, achievements so far, barriers encountered, national specificities. January 2022Main author: Brendan … Continue reading

CLLD in Europe: country profiles & EU-wide analyses

This LDnet initiative aims to present in a systematic and succinct way how local development is implemented in different EU member states, as explained in the introduction CLLD in Europe: An initiative of LDnet. We have now published 22 CLLD country profiles for Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czechia, … Continue reading

The ENSAMBLE project: Expertise and Networking to Sustain Actions in Med through Blue and Local Economy

Engaging local communities to boost the blue economy in the Mediterranean is the main goal of the ENSAMBLE project. Coordinated by the Italian FLAG "Costa degli Etruschi" for the Tuscany Region, the project partnership involves an innovative French cooperative based in the Mediterranean (Petra Patrimonia … Continue reading

Update: Implementing cohesion policy funds through multi-Fund CLLD

Community-led Local Development (CLLD) was introduced in the 2014-20 programme period and is based on the well-established LEADER tool. While LEADER is distinctly rural, co-funded by the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development (EAFRD), CLLD allows Member States to make use of up to four different ESI … Continue reading

Rural proofing – a foresight framework for resilient rural communities

This report for the European Committee of the Regions aims at identifying the mainstreaming potentials of existing rural proofing methodologies and territorial impact assessment methodologies in the EU policy process.It was written by Roland Gaugitsch, Isabella Messinger, Wolfgang Neugebauer, Bernd Schuh … Continue reading

Rural Europe Takes Action

This new book by ARC2020 and Forum Synergies - Rural Europe Takes Action - offers incisive and inclusive proposals for political and practical rural action to address the ongoing challenges of the transition towards a more resilient agriculture, a circular economy, a more inclusive rural infrastructure and … Continue reading

Towards a Brussels Citizens’ Assembly

"En Question" is the quarterly journal of "Centre Avec", an association located in Brussels aiming at promoting the common good and citizen engagement. The journal addresses ecology, democracy and interculturality with a view to encouraging action for social justice. In its June 2021 issue, the journal … Continue reading

CLLD comparisons: ESI funding available to LAGs in different countries

How does the average ESI funding per Local Action Group (LAG) compare by Member State? This analysis is part of the CLLD in Europe initiative of LDnet, comprising CLLD country profiles and horizontal analyses (see here). We have seen that the EAFRD is the dominant ESI Fund in most EU Member States (see … Continue reading

Local responses to the COVID-19 crisis: A new briefing on lessons for rural development

Several organisations have been collecting and publishing local initiatives in response to the Covid-19 crisis. We have updated our overview and are offering below the links to a number of these initiatives (see sections 1 and 2). We have also conducted a number of discussions in June/July 2020 through … Continue reading

CLLD country profile: France

Events & activities