"Moreover, a minimum target of 20% of cohesion policy,rural areas and fisheries allocations must be spent for integrated territorial development strategies such as integrated territorial investments, community-led local development, LEADER or other territorial tools designed by Member States, in urban or rural areas, as a guarantee of a genuinely place-based approach that empowers local communities and stakeholders". The European Committee of … Continue Reading
IN-COMMONS – Commons-based approaches for the regenerative reuse of “invisibilised” spaces
During a recent LDnet WG “New Ideas” meeting, we had the opportunity to present and discuss the concept note of IN-COMMONS, a proposal currently under development for the Horizon Europe – New European Bauhaus call: “HORIZON-NEB-2026-01-BUSINESS-03 – Approaches to reuse vacant, obsolete or underutilised spaces”. The proposal — developed in collaboration between CSIC (Spanish National Research Council) and CNR (Italian National Research Council) — … Continue Reading
Events & activities
ELIF Webinar: Right to Stay – Understanding the drivers of territorial cohesion, 4 June 2026
This ELIF Webinar, follows on from the high-level launch on 6 May 2026 by the Europan Commission of a public consultation on the "Right to Stay". The Commission intends to put forward a strategy on this topic, focusing on regions and territories. The aim is to identify the key challenges communities … Continue Reading
RUR_DYNAMIX 2026: International Conference on Rural Dynamics, Resilience and Innovation
This conference will take place on 27–28 November 2026 in Mosteiro de Ancede, Baião, Portugal. It is organised through a collaboration between academic institutions, research centres and local authorities committed to the sustainable development of rural territories. RUR_DYNAMIX 2026 brings together … Continue Reading
What do cities need?
The European Urban Initiative (EUI) has launched a forward-looking survey to gather insights from urban practitioners and policymakers across Europe. This survey, hosted on Portico, aims to identify key trends, challenges, knowledge gaps and support needs in European sustainable urban development. The … Continue Reading
IMPACT project: Strengthening community-led local development in border regions
The IMPACT (Interreg Mechanism for Promoting Active Communities and Territories) project is funded and supported by the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Regional and Urban Policy (DG REGIO) and carried out by the OECD. IMPACT brings together up to 30 pilot cross-border regions from Europe and … Continue Reading
Follow-up debate on the next EU Multiannual Financial Framework – 22 January 2026: The summary, presentations and recording of the event
This webinar took place successfully on 22.1.2026 with some 60 active participants. We provide below a summary of the presentations and discussion, as well as the full recording of the event and the introductory presentation. Follow-up debate on the next EU Multiannual Financial Framework – 22 January … Continue Reading
Articles
Rural development: a call for a broader territorial cohesion agenda
The European Committee of the Regions (CoR) adopted an opinion on the Future of Rural Development after 2027 during a plenary session of on 6 May 2026. Led by rapporteur Radim Sršeň (CZ/EPP), mayor of Dolní Studénky, the opinion calls for rural development to be fully recognised as a core objective of … Continue reading
LEADER-CLLD post 2027: redefining the place of the EU in local development
AEIDL has published a new discussion paper, authored by Raquel Pastor Carretero and Serafin Pazos-Vidal from AEIDL’s Rural and Territorial Development team. The paper examines how the proposed 2028–2034 Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF) could redefine the future of LEADER and Community‑Led Local … Continue reading
Proposals for improving the draft regulations accompanying the next MMF
As discussed in the recent LDnet webinar on the way that the MFF proposals are likely to evolve in 2026, there several proposals that are currently being discussed focussed on specific amendments to the draft Regulations. . Some of the proposals are substantial. For instance, the recently published draft … Continue reading
Expert Voices – From community, for community
In the latest interview in the EXPERT VOICES series, Armelle Ledan, Social Innovation Expert and ELIF Thematic Coordinator, reflects on how EU policy and funding frameworks support, and often limit, Community-Led Social Innovation (CLSI) in practice. She highlights why community-led initiatives still … Continue reading
Chairperson’s report
Following the re-launch of LDnet earlier this year, four groups initiated by the management board of our association are now up and running. The communications group has set up a number of new systems and we now have a members WhatsApp group which you are welcome to join. We have just become active on … Continue reading
PUBLICATIONS
Flexibility and Simplification in Cohesion Policy under the 2028-2034 MFF Proposals
This study for the REGI Committee of European Parliament assesses the main implications of the European Commission’s 2028-2034 proposals for the future design and implementation of Cohesion Policy, from the perspective of the European Parliament. It examines the likely effects of the proposed new framework … Continue reading
The new LEADER added value
The transnational LEADER cooperation project “OUR COMMON FUTURE”, involved LAGs from Austria, Luxembourg, Portugal, Bulgaria together with associated LAGs from Sweden, Finland, Italy, France, Spain, Croatia, Estonia, Latvia and Romania. Lead partner was the LEADER-forum Austria. The project set … Continue reading
Citizen science contributions to environmental risks assessment and management
Using Citizen Science with local communities to address environmental risk is an approach attracting considerable interest and is expected to be the subject of a webinar in the Autumn 2026. This publication, co-authored by LDnet members Joanna Storie and Ghieth Alkhateeb, is an example of the growing number … Continue reading
Study on Cohesion Policy territorial instruments
The European Policies Research Centre (EPRC) is highlighting the outputs from its recent study on Cohesion Policy territorial instruments implemented in 2014-20, including the final report of the study, instrument fiches and country fiches. The five types of territorial instruments covered by the study … Continue reading
Roadmaps for Administrative Capacity Building – Design and Implementation
The ‘Study on Roadmaps for Administrative Capacity Building – Design and Implementation’ was carried out by t33 and Spatial Foresight for the Directorate-General for Regional and Urban Policy of the European Commission. The study provides an in-depth analysis of the development and implementation of … Continue reading