ECOLISE recently joined the celebrations to mark 30 years of the EU LEADER programme. Former Council member and policy intern, Amelie Krug, represented the network at the event and spoke on the panel of ‘Future Leaders’.
Amelie drew attention to ECOLISE’s new action programme, Communities for Future, which is an invitation to civil society to get engaged into building localized, circular and sustainable economies through joining, developing and implementing CLIs focused on integrated and holistic approaches towards sustainability across Europe.
“The Local Action Groups (LAGs) of the LEADER/CLLD Program have a uniquely important role to play in this regard. LAGs are developing the regions from the bottom-up and should therefore strive towards an alignment of their Local Development Strategies with the #SDGs and #EuropeanGreenDeal,” she said.
“As the phase of the negotiation of the Operational Programs at the national level has been finished in some countries already and is about to come to an end in others, it is now crucial that CLIs get involved in the development of those LAG Strategies, which are moving into implementation phase on 1st of January 2023.”
ECOLISE was invited to join the event by Marion Eckhardt, president of ELARD aisbl, the European LEADER association for rural development.
Watch a replay of the event here