The debate on the MFF 2028-2024 has taken a step forward with the publication of the Council's Negotiating Box, drawn up and developed under the responsibility of the Presidency. Serafin Pazos-Vidal offers a critical look of the battlelines in the upcoming MFF negotiations. . MFF Negotiating Box – numbers on the table, fault lines exposed For the first time, the Negotiating Box comes with figures—and with it, a clearer sense of where the … Continue Reading
Future EU budget: regions and cities set out their key requests to reform Cohesion Policy
"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
Building stronger links between researchers and practitioners
The general assembly of the LEDA Partenariat – Local Development Network association took place at on 10 October 2018 in Brussels in the offices of AEIDL at 260 Chaussée Saint-Pierre, 1040 Brussels. Among the topics discussed at the assembly was the strengthening links between practitioners and researchers. LDnet’s activities in the last year have much […]
A handbook on evaluating CLLD at the local level
FARNET and FAME Support Units have developed a handbook on evaluating Community-Led Local Development (CLLD) at the local level. This handbook is addressed to all Local Action Groups (LAGs) funded from one or several of the four ESI Funds and it provides them with easy-to-use tools and methods. It covers the main steps in evaluating […]
European Commission proposals for CLLD after 2020
The avalanche of proposals for the 2021-2017 period is continuing. On 29.05.2018 the European Commission published its proposal for a new Common Provisions Regulation [COM(2018) 375 final] which confirms the continuation of CLLD although uncertainties remain – and we’ll return with a critical review. Title III, Chapter II of the new CPR deals with Territorial […]
GDPR and LDnet
As new data protection regulations come into effect in the European Union, we’re taking the opportunity to explain that the only data kept by LDnet is email addresses used to mail monthly news (and any other data users of this website may have entered when registering). We do not share any data with any third […]
Social innovation and territorial development
In his contribution to the International Seminar Social Innovation in Public Policies in Brasilia, on 7 and 8 March 2018, Robert Lukesch discusses the essence of social innovation at the micro level and highlights the importance of governance (“the very notion of social innovation requires an institutional environment which is at least not punishing deviating […]
Towards an inclusive and sustainable CLLD: lessons from neighbourhood management in Berlin
CLLD is more often associated with a rural or fisheries context. In this paper by Pietro Verga deals with ‘urban CLLD’, which builds on experiences, particularly, from the URBAN Initiatives and the LEADER programme. His research is based in Berlin and is within the policy context of the German Soziale Stadt programme (Socially Integrative City, […]
Concept of locality: RELOCAL
RELOCAL is a research project funded under the Horizon 2020 programme, ‘Resituating the Local in Cohesion and Territorial Development’. It is a 4 years project involving 13 partners, coordinated by the university of eastern Finland and covering 12 countries, mainly in the Northern and Eastern parts of the EU. Its budget amounts to €4.9 million. […]
Social innovation, CLLD and the future of rural development
The debate on the future of EU policies and budgets post-2020 is hotting up. A new policy brief from SIMRA, makes a contribution in the context of the European Commission’s Communication on the Common Agricultural Policy post-2020, “The Future of Food and Farming”. The policy brief stresses that social innovation is a powerful manifestation of […]
Conference on “Using social innovation policy approaches to help cities and regions realise the potential of the European Pillar of Social Rights”
This Monday April 16th 2018, a networking conference was organised at the Committee of the Regions on the initiative of the REVES Network, the Social Innovation Community and the University of Bologna. The event aimed to reflect on “Using social innovation policy approaches to help cities and regions realise the potential of the European Pillar […]
Community Led Climate Action in the EU
LDnet is cooperating with AEIDL supporting a joint internernship in Brussels. Noémie Bessette, student of Sciences-Po Rennes (France) started her four-month internship working on a number of tasks. A key topic of her internship concerns Community Led Climate Action (CLCA) in the EU, as outlined below. Since its establishment in 1988, AEIDL has focused its […]
Showing the added value of LEADER/CLLD through evaluation
This good practice workshop is organised by the European Evaluation Helpdesk for Rural Development in collaboration with the Finnish National Rural Network and the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry. It will take place on 17-18 May 2018 in Helsinki, Finland. This workshop aims to: contribute to shaping a common understanding of the addedvalue of LEADER/CLLD […]
Conference on “financing the integrated development of rural areas”
On March 19th, 2018, the Commission for Natural Resources (NAT) of the European Committee of the Regions and the Rurality-Environment-Development network (RED) organised their fourth public meeting to discuss rural development post 2020, focusing this time on “financing the integrated development of rural areas”. During this session, participants discussed the necessity of a European interfund for […]
Events & activities
Webinar on “Environmental Risks & Citizen Science” coming in November 2026
The European Local Development Network Association (LDnet) in collaboration with the CS4Change project, is happy to be co-hosting a webinar titled 'Local communities and using citizen science in risk management' in early November this year. The webinar will share recent and ongoing studies that combine … Continue Reading
International Conference – A territorial approach to the SDG
This conference will take place on 19 June 2026 in Porto (PT). It aims to promote reflection and debate on the best solutions and the main success factors for the territorialisation of the SDGs, contributing to the formulation of recommendations that accelerate their implementation at the local level. The … Continue Reading
ELIF Webinar: Right to Stay – Understanding the drivers of territorial cohesion
This webinar took place on 4 June 2026 with some 160 participants - see HERE Background information This ELIF Webinar, follows on from the high-level launch on 6 May 2026 by the European Commission of a public consultation on the "Right to Stay". The Commission intends to put forward a strategy on … 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
Articles
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 … Continue reading
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
PUBLICATIONS
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 … Continue reading
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