The ninth meeting of the ENRD Thematic Group on Smart Villages took place in Finland, one of the countries that has advanced the most in preparing the support framework for Smart Villages in the next programming period.
Participants visited two of the villages participating in the Finnish Smart Villages competition, Vähikkälä and Teuro-Kuuslammi villages, and heard about their vision for the future. The Finnish Managing Authority presented their proposal for supporting these and other villages in fulfilling their vision by designing a dedicated framework for Smart Villages in the future CAP Strategic Plan. LEADER/CLLD, various complementary forms of village level cooperation, the networking of rural innovation brokers and Simplified Cost Options are at the core of the proposal.
The meeting also showed that there are many Member States exploring how to programme Smart Villages in the future CAP Strategic Plans and that further exchanges and networking are needed to learn from each other.
