The Open Days 2015, organised by the Committee of the Regions, were the occasion for Euromontana to get to know the latest research and policy developments of the European Union (EU) regions to improve territorial cohesion and foster local-based innovation. How to create sustainable societal change was a recurrent topic throughout the three days of the event. The workshops attended by the Euromontana’s secretariat treated this issue through different perspectives: community-led local development, regional innovation systems, food sovereignty, the Silver Economy, smart development for rural areas and integrated versus sectoral approach to territorial development. The workshops shared common conclusions on the need to:
- upscale the successful local initiatives by exchanging good practices and by facilitating their adaptation to other territories;
- adapt the EU policy framework to make it more flexible and involve local communities and so to stimulate innovation based on local assets;
- (re-)organise actors in order to create dynamic and sustainable networks and platforms for innovation.
The Open Days also gave us some updates on the latest works of the European Commission (EC) on the followings:
- Silver Economy or the “economic opportunities arising from the public and consumer expenditure related to population ageing”. The EC released the background paper ‘Growing the European Silver Economy’ that gives a state-of-the-play of the current developments on the topic. To know more about the subject, have a look to the results of our project PADIMA and particularly to our brochure on ‘Increasing the attractiveness of mountain areas for retired people’.
- The Interreg Europe new digital platform is online. Discover it here: http://www.interregeurope.eu/. A ‘Policy learning platform’ will be also accessible in the first semester of 2016 and will contribute to disseminate knowledge on the Interreg programme.
For more news on the Open Days, check as well the Euromontana article on the EUSALP event.
4 November 2015
