Finland – Evaluation of the regional and local rural development operating model Multi-level Governance Architecture Matters for Leader’s Added Value In recent years, there has been a strong focus on proving the added value of Leader in the rural development system. Significant steps have been taken to define the theoretical model for Leader added value, […]
Publications
Strong villages and towns: understanding the determinants of population change in EU settlements
This JRC Working Paper, Strong villages and towns: understanding the determinants of population change in EU settlements, is authored by Mert Kompil, Paola Proietti, Chiara Dorati, Chris Jacobs-Crisoni, and Lewis Dijkstra. The study examines the drivers of population change in EU settlements, focusing on villages and towns, and analyses the influence of local characteristics and […]
Policy brief: Why Europe’s future depends on its places and territories
A new ‘Territorial Thinkers’ briefing (August 2026), Why Europe’s future depends on its places and territories reflects on main messages put forward by the authors over the past 10 years and adapts them to the current situation. The authors – Peter Mehlbye, Peter Schön, Derek Martin and Kai Böhme – summarise their key observations and […]
Cohesion Policy Capacity Index (CPCI)
What makes EU funding work effectively on the ground? Strong programmes need more than funding: they also depend on the capacity of the authorities managing them. The new Cohesion Policy Capacity Index (CPCI) provides a data-driven framework to assess and compare the administrative capacity of Managing Authorities across the EU. It looks at several dimensions […]
European Local Government Report 2025
The European Local Government Report 2025 provides a comprehensive assessment of local government systems across EU member states. It examines structural data, financial trends, expenditure patterns, revenue sources, and functional responsibilities of municipalities. The report was authored by Thomas Prorok and Sofia Calzola and was published by KDZ – Centre for Public Administration Research. The report […]
Policy brief: Europe closer to Citizens – Community-led Local Development
This Policy Brief, from the Policy Learning Platform for a Europe closer to Citizens, was published by Interreg Europe in May 2026, authored by James Ling and Astrid Severin. As a territorial tool to implement PO5 (Europe closer to Citizens) funds, CLLD can be applied to a wide range of policy areas such as urban […]
Policy briefs: Urban Interest Representation in the EU & Local and Regional governments representation in the EP
Two policy briefs were published in May 2026 on the EU-level advocacy of cities, authored by Dr Balázs Brucker, Research Fellow at ELTE CERS Institute for Regional Studies, Pécs (HU). The executive summaries of the briefs are presented below with links to the full documents. Urban Interest Representation in the EU: Opportunities, Channels, and Constraints – […]
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 […]
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 Cohesion Policy, supported by dedicated funding […]
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 on simplification, flexibility, territorial and thematic concentrations, and Interreg, while […]
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 out—building on more than 30 years of successful LEADER/CLLD as a participatory approach to urban and […]
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 of research contributions in this field. Citizen […]