This is the second in a new 2025 series of LDnet webinars. It is open to practitioners, researchers and policy administrators. All the LDnet webinars are free. Registration will open shortly. Title (provisional): “Citizen participation: From Sherry Arnstein’s ladder to Co-everything” Date: Tuesday, 21 January 2025 Time: 17.00 CET (to be followed by the LDnet […]
Webinar (19.2.2025, 16:30 CET): “A new architecture of EU policies and funds post-2027 – what place for local development?”
This is the second in a new 2025 series of LDnet webinars. It is open to practitioners, researchers and policy administrators. All the LDnet webinars are free. Registration will open shortly. Title (provisional): “A new architecture of EU policies and funds post-2027 – what place for local development?” (part 1) Date: Wednesday 19 February 2025 […]
LEADER: Where it came from and what’s still in it
LEADER has a long history and is still going strong. Robert Lukesch gave a talk in the final conference of the transnational project ‘LEADER/CLLD: Our common future’ on 4-6 November 2024, in Cheleiros/Mafra, Portugal, on the topic of ‘LEADER: Where it came from and what’s still in it’. This was based on a treatise in […]
Post-2027 EU funding for local development under threat
The debate has started about the next MFF of the EU. Although there are no formally proposals in the public domain, informal briefings have raised concerns about the possible implications of a new MFF archtecture for the local and regional level. These concerns stem mostly from two features highlighted in two recent news items: The […]
CoR: Programmes led by local action groups and communities must be reinforced and simplified
The Commission for Natural Resources (NAT) of the European Committee of the Regions (CoR) discussed at its meeting on 27 November 2024 a draft opinion on “How post-27 LEADER and CLLD programming could contribute to better implementation of the long-term vision for the EU’s rural areas” (Rapporteur: Thibaut Guignar, Mayor of Plœuc-l’Hermitage). In this opinion […]
25 years of LEADER: What impacts?
The Austrian LAG Styrian Volcanic Land (Steirisches Vulkanland) wanted to know what its local development efforts stretching over a quarter of a century have been ultimately good for. This groundbreaking impact study was entrusted to an ÖAR team assisted by students from the Vienna University [1] Robert Lukesch The study aimed to evaluate the intended […]
Insights into LEADER evaluations
Evaluating LEADER under CAP presents a substantial challenge. It is not just about measuring LEADER’s contribution to the CAP’s Specific Objectives, but also uncovering the added value generated from the application of the ‘LEADER method’. To help find a path forward, the European Evaluation Helpdesk for the CAP is working with experts to extract best […]
LEADER European Congress 2023: LEADER, the Rural Pact & rural-urban interaction
The 2023 European LEADER Congress took place in Brussels on 18 and 19 December 2023 at the European Parliament, the Committee of the Regions and the European Economic and Social Committee. This Congress is the first event to bring together as many European LAGs as possible in more than 15 years. It brought together more […]
Assessing the Added Value of LEADER
On 23 and 24 November 2023, some 60 evaluators, representatives from managing and paying authorities, LEADER networks and LAG managers met at the Kirchberg in Luxembourg city, at the invitation of the European Evaluation Helpdesk for the CAP and the Ministry of Agriculture, Viticulture and Rural Development of Luxembourg. The central topic of this Good […]
Workshop: Multi-funding opportunities expand LEADER’s potential
This workshop of the EU CAP Network on LEADER and multi-funded CLLD approaches was held on 18-19 October 2023 in Ljubljana (SI). It was attended by participants from 20 Member States who exchanged experiences and discussed the challenges and practical solutions in the implementation of multi-funded CLLD at the policy and operational level. The LEADER […]
European Commission and Council responses to the ECA report on LEADER/CLLD
We have already published our review of the special report of the European Court of Auditors on LEADER and CLLD, in response to the overall message from the ECA that “LEADER and community-led local development facilitates local engagement but additional benefits still not sufficiently demonstrated”. We now publish the formal responses of the European Commission […]
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 […]