The past year has certainly been a particularly difficult one for the strength and cohesion of the European Union. The outcomes of local and national elections in many countries unveiled not only the emergence of new populist and nationalist movements and governments all across the Union, but also a growing disbelief in the European project and institutions. In an … [Read more...]
A powerful new contribution on the future of local development in the EU
A major new contribution by Yves Champetier has been published by AEIDL entitled Europe: a major player in the development of territories. In this Yves offers a personal account and an overview of the progress that has been made over the last 40 years and the challenges facing us today. In his article he concludes: A vast project that requires the involvement of everyone My … [Read more...]
LDnet at RSA Annual Conference, Santiago de Compostela, 5-7 June 2019
LDnet is organising a special session at this year's annual conference of the RSA in Santiago de Compostela on the topic of "Strengthening the impact of research on EU local development policies". One of the objectives of the next period’s EU funding is contributing to a Europe closer to citizens by fostering the sustainable and integrated local development and … [Read more...]
CLLD/Leader: Past, present and future
In this wide-ranging paper Robert Lukesch goes back to the precursors of Leader and looks at each stage of its evolution, highlighting the complex principles behind this approach (“more than the seven features and usual clichés”) and discussing success factors. He takes us to the current CLLD/Leader period and looks at what lies ahead. He debates whether CLLD/Leader has become … [Read more...]
Local strategies for retaining and attracting talent
The workshop on "Local development strategies: retaining and attracting talents in the regions" took place on Thursday 11 October 2018 in the framework of the European Week of Regions and Cities. Organised by LDnet as lead-partner, in cooperation with ELARD, CIM Alto Minho and AEIDL, it offered a forum for the presentation of concrete experiences from different countries … [Read more...]
CLLD post-2020: Main proposals and changes
The proposals of the European Commission regarding Community-led Local Development (CLLD) and Leader were published before the Summer. In the following note Urszula Budzich-Tabor distils the main proposals and offers a comparison with the 2014-2020 period. However, not everything is 100% settled and, as Jean-Pierre Vercruysse has commented, there are some proposals in the … [Read more...]
Preserving the specific features of CLLD post-2020
In May 2018, the European Commission published its proposals for CLLD/LEADER in the post-2020 period. The overall impression is that these proposals, broadly speaking, amount to a continuation of the approach and rules applying to CLLD/LEADER in the current, 2014-2020 period. But as already noted by Robert Lukesch in his 'LEADER RELOADED' paper, there will be a fundamental … [Read more...]
LDnet at RSA Conference in Lugano: the debate on the interaction between research, policy and practice in local development
The RSA Annual Conference 2018 took place in Lugano, Switzerland from 3rd to 6th June on the theme of "A World of Flows: Labour Mobility, Capital and Knowledge in an Age of Global Reversal and Regional Revival". As part of the Conference, "Policy Tuesday" on 5th June focused on issues and inputs concerned with place-based policies. LDnet organised a special session on "What … [Read more...]
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 to offer in this … [Read more...]
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 Local Development Strategies (LDS): planning … [Read more...]
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 Development, … [Read more...]
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 behaviour”. He … [Read more...]