On 19 February 2025 LDnet organised a webinar with a lively discussion about the future shape of EU policies and the potential consequences for local communities in urban and rural areas. As decisionmakers at EU level are preparing to publish the draft legislation of the EU’s Multiannual Financial Framework for post-2027, numerous stakeholder groups express […]
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A stronger future for rural Europe: petition calls for urgent action on LEADER/CLLD
The debate about the post-2027 EU budget and policy priorities is continuing among serious concerns about the potential impact of funding for LEADER/CLLD and local development. ELARD has now launched a petition calling on the European Commission to reinforce LEADER/CLLD as a key pillar of EU rural policy and funding in the next multiannual financial […]
European Court of Auditors report on LEADER and CLLD
The long-awaited special report of the European Court of Auditors on LEADER and CLLD has been published. The overall message from the ECA is that “LEADER and community-led local development facilitates local engagement but additional benefits still not sufficiently demonstrated”. We present below the Executive Summary and the Conclusions and Recommendations. We have also published […]
4th European Rural Parliament – Let Europe´s rural voice be heard
The 4th European Rural Parliament took place in the rural, green north of Spain, in the coastal village of Candás (Asturias) from 6th to 9th November 2019. Alistair Adam Hernández participated and his report is presented below. I attended the ERP as LDnet representative and was kindly invited to join the German delegation. The choice […]
CLLD experiences and ‘hot’ questions for the future
There are many challenges facing the implementation of CLLD and the multi-fund approach. A recent seminar European Seminar on CLLD took place on 8-10 November 2017 in Győr, Hungary, focusing on capitalising and learning from experiences of applying CLLD in rural, urban and coastal areas. Participants also discussed how to use European programmes and funds […]
European Rural Parliament and the “Venhorst Declaration”
The 3rd European Rural Parliament took place on 18-21 October 2017 in Venhorst in the Netherlands. The European Rural Parliament is a long-term campaign to express the voice of rural people in Europe; and to promote self-help and action by the rural people, in partnership with civil society and governments. During these four days, around […]
Local development in the EU beyond 2020: Practitioners and researchers kick off the debate
On 10 October 2017, LDnet co-organised with ELARD a workshop on “Communities as change agents: local development in the EU beyond 2020” as part of EWRC 2017. It was followed by a networking session co-hosted by the Regional Studies Association. An impressive line-up of local practitioners and international experts led a lively debate, with many […]
Practitioners and researchers join the debate: “Communities as change agents: local development in the EU beyond 2020”
LDnet is co-organising with ELARD this event as part of EWRC 2017 (ref: 10B39). It will take place from 14:30 to 17:00 on Tuesday 10 October 2017 in Room VMA2 of the Committee of the Regions, followed by a networking session co-hosted by the Regional Studies Association. More than 160 people have registered for this […]
Resilience and its Core Principles – The key to Sustainable Rural Development?
Learning to Shape Change actively in European Rural Areas Since the late 1990s the use of the term resilience has experienced a bonanza (Bürkner, 2010; Vogt, 2015). It is now ubiquitous in European cohesion and regional policy and is often used in a transdisciplinary manner (Lukesch, 2015). In the meantime it has risen to become […]
Challenges facing the implementation of CLLD and the multi-fund approach
‘Community-led local development’ (CLLD), previously known as ‘the LEADER method’, is for many still a quite new way to work with local development. In the current programming period 2014-2020 there are even more possibilities available for funding. Four different EU funds can be used for CLLD and a successful recent European seminar, held on 7-8 […]
The challenge of achieving social inclusion in CLLD in the context of the results orientation of the ESI Funds
A short report on LDnet’s workshop at EWRC 2016 (12 October 2016, Brussels) LDnet’s workshop on ‘Achieving social inclusion in CLLD in the context of the results orientation of the ESI Funds’ focused on challenges of a results-oriented approach combined with the pursuit of social inclusion, especially in the context of Community-Led Local Development (CLLD). […]
LDnet at EWRC 2016
LDnet’s workshop in this year’s European Week of Regions and Cities on ‘Achieving social inclusion in CLLD in the context of the results-orientation of the ESI Funds’ took place on Wednesday 12 October from 9:00 to 10:45 at the Committee of the Regions (Workshop Ref 12B76 ). It was very well attended and focused on the […]