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
Conference: Social innovation policy approaches for cities and regions
This conference is organised by the REVES network and will take place at the European Committee of the Regions on 16 April 2018 on the theme: Using social innovation policy approaches to help cities and regions realise the potential of the European Pillar of Social Rights. In this one-day interactive event, key city and regional […]
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 […]
Retention of young people as territorial development factor
The objective of this international conference was to reflect on the issues of attracting and retaining talents in the territories as a factor for the development of the endogenous potential of these territories. The conference took place on 7 February 2018 at Viana do Castelo, Portugal. A follow-up event is now envisaged for October 2018, […]
What does “community led” really mean?
In the 2014-2020 programming period “community-led local development” (CLLD) has become embedded in the terminology all those working on local development. But while we are already starting debating the future of CLLD beyond 2020, there are still uncertainties about the basics of this approach, including what we mean with “community led”. This question was raised […]
LDnet joins the Cohesion Alliance
The LDnet association has joined the Cohesion Alliance. LDnet is actively supporting a strong and effective EU Cohesion Policy beyond 2020 and is participating in the debate on appropriate ways for supporting CLLD as part of the Cohesion Policy – see recent posts. The Cohesion Alliance was launched during the EWRC 2017. On 11 October, […]
RELOCAL conference: How to strengthen the involvement of places and communities in European cohesion policies
The international research project ”Resituating the Local in Cohesion and Territorial Development–RELOCAL”(2016-2020), funded under the H2020 Programme of the European Union organised its first scientific conference on 14-15 February 2018 in Barcelona, Spain. The broad topic of the Conference was Spatial Justice in Europe, and addressed issues such as the effectiveness and the perception of […]
The Emergence of Social Innovation: A Translocal Perspective
This paper is an output of TRANSIT, an international research project that develops a theory of Transformative Social Innovation that is useful to both research and practice. TRANSIT is co-funded by the European Commission and runs for four years, from 2014 until 2017. The paper investigates how spaces and places play a role in the […]
Evaluation of CLLD: concerns raised by local practitioners and a practical response
Practitioners from different countries have been commenting on the new guidelines on the evaluation of LEADER/CLLD. These guidelines, published by the European Evaluation Helpdesk for Rural Development complement the legal requirements relating to LEADER/CLLD evaluations and aim to clarify the common elements related to LEADER/CLLD evaluations and to offer a wider set of recommendations on […]
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 […]
Reinventing Europe – with and for its people
The CARMEN Group is made up of people with significant experience of the LEADER approach and territorial development, who have decided to make their ideas and proposals available to all who wish to draw inspiration from them. They met in CARMEN, Alentejo (Portugal). The following proposal emanates from this meeting: [bsk-pdf-manager-pdf id=”24″] The group welcomes […]
Circular economy and CLLD
This draft report has been developed as part of LDnet’s cooperation with HAWK Göttingen University under Erasmus+. It outlines the main concepts and policy position, presents 20 local examples examples of circular economy experiences in urban, rural and maritime contexts, and discusses the links between the circular and the sharing economy, and the circular economy […]
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