Since 2014, the CLLD approach has been at the heart of the Interreg Italy-Austria Programme. By placing local actors at the center of cross-border territorial development, it fosters a bottom-up process that emphasizes trust in the capabilities of communities to shape and implement local development strategies tailored to their specific needs. This empowers communities living in border areas, allowing them to tackle everyday challenges and harness opportunities offered by European cohesion policy.
Through the implementation of small projects (up to €50.000) and medium-sized projects (up to €200.000), even modest investments have had a significant impact on territorial development, encouraging knowledge exchange and collaboration across borders. Small projects have demonstrated the power of local self-determination in creating innovative, citizen-focused solutions.
On 21st November 2024 a delegation of high political representatives of the partner – regions South Tyrol and Tyrol together with the European Commission (DG REGIO – Directorate General for Regional and Urban Policy), programme authorities and local actors from the CLLD-area Terra Raetica share insights in this multilevel government approach in the joint Representation office of the European Region Tyrol-South Tyrol-Trentino in Brussels.
“The CLLD approach, built on trust, partnership, and effective cooperation, has proven to be one of the most successful investment priorities in the Interreg Italy-Austria programme” underlines Arno Kompatscher, President of South Tyrol. “It aligns perfectly with the EU’s Cohesion Policy Objective 5: ʻA Europe closer to its citizensʼ".
Anton Mattle, President of the Land Tyrol – Tyrol provided the first inputs for this innovative approach - adds that “this innovative approach to cross-border governance has attracted international attention, with study visits from the European Commission and global researchers highlighting the added value and success of this model.”
The host of the event, Magdalena Amhof, Provincial Council Member in South Tyrol explains that “over the last 10 years, the CLLD areas within the Interreg Italy-Austria Programme have become true territorial laboratories, demonstrating the power of community-driven engagement to address local challenges”.
The President of the Tyrolean Parliament Sonja Ledl-Rossmann underlines how “CLLD - The Programme within the Programme has been a success model keen to encourage other authorities and programmes to try similar bottom-up approaches in the strategic development of local territories”.
Director Slawomir Tokarski of DG REGIO points out that "in these difficult times, where there are these divisive policies, there is a message of solidarity and empathy, of trusted hands reaching across the border, like in the CLLD-areas of the Programme Interreg Italy-Austria. CLLD therefore means prioritising local knowledge to address local problems with local solutions”.
The event sees also the participation of MEP Herbert Dorfmann, of Martha Gärber and Irene Covi for the Europe Department of South Tyrol and the Interreg programme, and of the local actors from the CLLD-area Terra Raetica Peter Luis Thaler for GWR (Genossenschaft für Weiterbildung) and Sebastian Vicoli for RegioL (Regionalmanagement für den Bezirk Landeck).
All involved authorities and partner regions are grateful for the continuous support from the European Commission and the chance to implement such an experiment in a cross-border collaboration programme and are ready to further develop this approach in post 2027. In the current programming period 2021-2027 this approach was declared to represent an operation of strategic importance and is co-financed with 15,5 million EUR from the European Regional Development Fund, representing 21,2% of the whole budget of the programme Interreg Italy-Austria in 2021-2027.
Looking to the future, the Interreg Italy-Austria Programme remains committed to further enhancing the CLLD approach beyond 2027, continuing its mission of fostering sustainable, community-driven regional development.
For more information discover the inspiring work being done in the Interreg Italy-Austria Programme on https://interreg.net/en/