Euromontana
Euromontana
Euromontana est l’association Européenne multisectorielle pour la coopération et le développement des territoires de montagne.
ID: 5446623780-39
Lobbying Activity
Meeting with Gordan Bosanac (Member of the European Parliament, Shadow rapporteur)
21 Jan 2026 · Exchange of views on the safeguards of mountainous regions in the new MFF
Meeting with Borja Giménez Larraz (Member of the European Parliament)
14 Jan 2026 · Prioridades políticas en las zonas de montaña
Response to Generational renewal in agriculture
13 Jul 2025
Agriculture is a mainstay of mountain areas. Yet our agricultural sectors are struggling to attract young people to take up or start farming activities. This is despite the fact that these jobs are tangible, essential to food security, and carry high societal and environmental value. Therefore, Euromontana welcomes the Commission's intention to develop a strategy for generational renewal. In this context, we call for strong schemes to be integrated into the post-2027 Common Agricultural Policy and for further cooperation with the Member States and regions to work together on other mechanisms that could improve access to land, credit, knowledge and rural services, as well as generally improving the living and working conditions of the farmers who feed us. Land abandonment is three times more likely in mountain areas than elsewhere in the EU, with regions like the Alps and Mediterranean islands particularly at risk. This trend, driven largely by an ageing farming population and insufficient generational renewal, threatens up to 1.2 million hectares of pastoral land by 2030. The decline of traditional family farming not only endangers local food productionmountain farms represent 18% of EU holdingsbut also undermines vital ecosystem services like water retention, carbon sequestration, and wildfire prevention. Culturally, the abandonment of pastoral practices erodes iconic landscapes and weakens rural tourism. Structural challengessuch as natural constraints, lower incomes, difficult land access, climate change, demographic decline, and poor rural servicesfurther discourage young people from entering the sector, deepening the crisis and threatening the long-term sustainability of mountain farming. In this context, Euromontana recommends focusing on the following priorities: - Focus on priority territories, with measures specifically tailored to mountain areas. Such an approach would align with art. 174 and 175 of the European treaties. - Focus on target profiles: young farmers, new entrants, women, but also the retiring farmers who are an essential part of the "renewal" process. - Focus on living and working conditions, including replacement services, better social protection, and digital innovation. The future CAP must also be better geared towards supporting generational renewal: - Allocate 15% of the post-2027 CAP budget to Areas with Natural Constraints - Increase funding for generational renewal, which is currently insufficient. - Boost support for young farmers through income aid, installation and investment aid, with extra help in constrained areas. - Improve access to advisory services for new farmers and land access. - Expand support for agricultural test farms to offer training and reduce setup risks. - Strengthen measures to help retiring farmers pass on their farms. - Adapt CAP measures to better fit mountain contexts, encouraging more regions to provide top-ups. - Promote cooperation tools like producer groups to build resilience and innovation. - Tailor support for young, new, and women farmers through specific bonuses and training. - Improve outreach and promotion of existing support tools, especially for new entrants. Outside the CAP, action is also necessary: - Allocate at least 25% of EU Structural and Investment Funds to art 174 areas, including 10% for mountain regions. - Maintain strong and stable cohesion policies to support rural vitality and services. - Apply rural proofing to all policies affecting rural and mountain areas, especially social ones. - Ensure transparent access to land data to guide better policy decisions. - Invest in education that promotes farming careers, lifelong learning, and practical schools like shepherding. - Create a mobility and internship programme for young farmers across mountain areas in different countries. - Improve the public image of farming through campaigns linked to education, food, and environmental policies. Please see our full position attached.
Read full responseResponse to European Water Resilience Strategy
28 Feb 2025
Euromontana welcomes the intention of the European Commission to present an EU Water Resilience Initiative, especially in the context of declining water resources and increasing conflicts over their use. As the Commission has announced its intention to adopt a 'source to sea' approach, we would like to highlight the critical role of Europe's mountain areas in ensuring water resilience. The Alps alone provide 40% of Europe's fresh water. Our territories play an essential role in the great water cycle, storing water in the form of snow, ice or lakes in winter and releasing it into rivers in spring. Europe's supply of fresh water to its ecosystems, citizens and the industries that depend on it is thus largely dependent on mountain run-off. Among these economic sectors, agriculture, hydropower production and many industrial sectors depend on the water resources of Europe's mountains. In the face of climate change, a water crisis in mountain areas will therefore affect all European citizens. In order to repair the broken water cycle, it is therefore crucial that the Commission's strategy takes the mountains into account! Giving consideration to these territories will certainly help to restore and protect the water cycle. Furthermore, given the increasing shortage of fresh water in some villages and the lack of infrastructure management, it can help to ensure clean and affordable water and sanitation for all. Finally, looking at different uses and prioritising them will help promote a competitive EU water industry as part of a clean, water-wise circular economy. Furthermore, we are convinced that water resilience in Europe can only be achieved through a coherent set of policies and water-proof investments. In a context of competing uses, we believe it is particularly urgent to align environmental, agricultural and climate policies with territorial cohesion policies and investments. This is all the more important as the ongoing reforms of the post-2027 CAP and Cohesion Policy offer a real opportunity to steer policies towards a common goal of resilience. Similarly, Europe must support its Member States and regions in prioritising strategic water uses, taking into account the needs of local ecosystems and populations. Euromontana especially advocates for: -Ensuring that European structural and investment funds (ESI) are invested in tourism infrastructures contributing to a smart and rational use of water resources, in line with the EU do no significant harm principle. -Strengthening water-friendly farming measures in the post-2027 Common Agricultural, especially ANC payments and relevant eco-schemes. -Enhancing climate action to mitigate glacier melt and safeguard Europes water towers. -Taking advantage of the International Year of Glaciers Preservation in 2025 to strengthen the Europe's commitment to preserve glaciers, whose melting, particularly in the Alps, poses a serious threat to Europes water supply. -Supporting national and regional action, keeping in mind their needs for the future EU climate adaptation plan.
Read full responseResponse to Evaluation of the Public Procurement Directives
28 Feb 2025
The EU Public Procurement Directive aims to foster competition within the single market. However, its current framework does not always support local economies or environmental sustainability. In mountain areas, agriculture is a key pillar of the local economy. Our products are often produced using extensive farming practices and are of high quality (one-third of the EUs geographical indications originate from mountain areas). Despite this excellence, farmers in areas with natural constraints earn, on average, 20% less than their counterparts in the lowlands. While quality labels help promote mountain products, they are inevitably more expensive, making it difficult for local agri-food stakeholders to compete in public tenders. Furthermore, the current procurement rules do not adequately facilitate the participation of small economic operators and instead promotes large operators, who can bid for the entire public market at lower cost. At the same time, many regional and local authorities wish to further support mountain agriculture but struggle with the rigid criteria set by the Public Procurement Directive. Euromontana is therefore calling for stronger support for mountain food products to make them more accessible to public and private consumers. To this end, Euromontana is calling on the European Commission to revise the directive to better accommodate small-scale and local producers. Specifically, we call for: - Facilitating a preferential treatment of local producers to support local economies and sustainable food systems, - Facilitating the participation of small farmers in public tenders, even if they can only bid for portions of a larger contract. These recommendations stem from the 13th European Mountain Convention, where 250 stakeholders from across Europe gathered in Puigcerdà in October 2024 to develop strategies for more prosperous, sustainable, and resilient mountain economies. The revision of the Public Procurement Directive is a key demand of the Puigcerdà Declaration. This request also aligns with the EUs Vision on Agriculture and Food, which announced more measures to promote local, high-quality, and sustainable food through public procurement. By making these changes, the EU can ensure that public procurement serves not only competition but also sustainability, the development of rural economies and mountain farmers
Read full responseMeeting with Cristina Guarda (Member of the European Parliament, Shadow rapporteur)
3 Feb 2025 · Rural areas
Meeting with Herbert Dorfmann (Member of the European Parliament)
11 Dec 2024 · mountain agriculture and economy
Meeting with Hannes Heide (Member of the European Parliament)
21 Jun 2022 · Host-Event with RUMRA Intergroup: Rural brain drain: How can the Cohesion Policy help reverse the trend?
Response to Brain drain communication
20 Jun 2022
Euromontana welcomes the EU initiative and hereby submits the following recommendations:
1. General recommendations: to better cope with rural brain drain, Euromontana calls on the European Commission to:
► Analyse demographic challenges, including brain drain, at infra-regional level, below the NUTS3 level.
► Provide updated data of post-COVID-19 populations flows in the European Union.
► Encourage the exchange of experiences between rural, mountainous, sparsely populated and remote areas on the issue of brain drain with the aim of exchanging good practices and replicating existing successful solutions. This exchange of knowledge could take place in the framework of: the Rural Pact Community and the Interreg Europe programme.
2. Diversifying the economy: to create more diversified employment opportunities in mountain areas, Euromontana invites:
► The European Commission to pay attention that the new Operational Programmes not yet adopted for 2021-2027 open economic opportunities for the most rural and mountainous areas of the regions. Many promising sectors, such as the bioeconomy, the circular economy or renewable energies, can contribute to create qualified jobs and attract young talents.
► Regions facing a brain drain to work in partnership with private actors to encourage job creation and the return of qualified young people through comprehensive support mechanisms.
3. Promoting existing opportunities and supporting professional integration: Euromontana recommends using the regional policy to:
► Promote existing opportunities and support professional integration of skilled workers using the European Cohesion Policy funds, especially the European Social Fund.
► Create subsidised contracts in rural areas targeting young skilled workers to encourage them to settle in these territories.
4. Attracting young graduates back after their studies and taking into account their life cycle: in the framework of the Long-Term Vision for Rural Areas, Euromontana:
► calls on the European Commission and public authorities at national, regional and local level to change the narrative about rural mountainous areas, emphasising the benefits they offer in terms of quality of life, including among university students.
► Invites the European Commission to deploy effort to bring universities in the Rural Pact Community in order to encourage them to take action for rural territories.
► Encourages local authorities to facilitate the emergence of “diaspora” networks to maintain a link with those who left rural areas and provide them with information that might trigger a return to the place of origin.
Euromontana also calls on Universities to:
► Create incentives for their graduates to envisage working in rural areas, for instance by creating rural internships programmes, by including in their career orientation courses some information about employment in the surrounding rural areas.
► Create, where there is potential and demand, decentralised campus in mountain areas offering training opportunities in key sectors.
5. Supporting rural entrepreneurship: to better support entrepreneurship, Euromontana:
► Calls on the European Commission to ensure that rural stakeholders are well-informed on the funds available to support entrepreneurship, especially through the rural revitalisation platform.
► Invites concerned regions to create one-stop-shops at regional level and to develop support mechanisms for rural entrepreneurs.
6. Tapping into the potential of teleworking: teleworking can encourage some skilled workers to work in rural mountainous areas. Therefore, Euromontana:
► Calls on the European Commission to maintain the digitalisation efforts in rural Europe and especially through the support provided by the Broadband Competence Office.
► Invites concerned territories to use the Cohesion Policy funds to finance the creation of well-equipped coworking places and third places, as part of a global territorial attractiveness strategy.
Read full responseMeeting with Deša Srsen (Cabinet of Vice-President Dubravka Šuica)
25 May 2022 · rural brain drain
Response to Green Paper on Ageing
9 Dec 2020
The European Commission ambitions to address seniors’ needs and to reflect on the impact of ageing for European regions and for territorial cohesion. Euromontana welcomes the objectives fixed by the European Commission and brings some proposals to help in achieving them and in improving the quality of life of mountains’ ageing populations.
As reminded by the EC in its roadmap, “different regions are affected differently by population ageing, which will have implications for regional cohesion”. Mountain areas are among the territories being very affected by demographic change, in particular in rural areas losing attractiveness and experiencing a strong youth out-migration and depopulation. Of the 6 oldest regions in Europe, 4 are mountainous: Evrytania (Greece), Ourense (Spain), Creuse (France) and Alto Tâmega (Portugal) all have more than 30% of their population over the age of 65 (Eurostat, Ageing Europe, 2020).
Based on the recent findings of the Report on the Impact of Demographic Change and Eurostat statistics, the European Commission must therefore take into account the territorial dimensions and challenges of ageing in its Green Paper in order to implement territorial development strategies that address older adults’ needs.
ENSURE ACCESS TO BASIC SERVICES
Many of the challenges related to ageing are cross-cutting issues, affecting all segments of the mountains’ populations and are all the more important to help older persons in living at home. Access to healthcare and transport for instance are essential components of the quality of life. The Green Paper should propose concrete measures to end medical desertification, facilitate patient care in cross-border regions and develop telemedicine when no alternative is possible
The Commission must also propose solutions to develop a transport offer adapted to the needs of older people, through proximity operators and home services addressing the need for reversed mobility. This would also help to reinforce communities’ social cohesion and to fight isolation. On-demand transport should in particular be encouraged and adapted to older adults’ needs, with different booking options that not only comprise digital ones and easily accessible vehicles in order to be fully inclusive and age friendly.
SUPPORT THE SILVER ECONOMY IN RURAL AREAS
Beyond basic services, the Green Paper should bring solutions to improve the overall quality of life of older adults. The Silver Economy can play an active role in providing older people with adapted services in mountain areas but remains underdeveloped outside major urban innovation centres.
The Interreg Europe SILVER SMEs project, in which Euromontana is involved, collected 70 good practices demonstrating how important SMEs from the Silver Economy are for the well-being of rural seniors. The Commission should thus promote its development in mountain areas, including the most remote regions. Support to the sector should be addressed by Rural Development Programmes of the Common Agriculture Policy, Operational Programmes of the Cohesion Policy and by the SMEs competitiveness policy of the European Commission.
Developing the Silver Economy sector will be critical in our regions. Not only will these companies provide older adults with adapted services, but they will also create employments in our territories in various sectors that do not only comprise care but also accessible leisure activities, ICT solutions and adapted housing.
PROMOTE SENIORS’S ROLE IN RURAL LIFE
Finally, the Green Paper should present a comprehensive vision of the role of older people in our societies. The Commission must recognise the contribution they make to our villages and encourage the preservation of social cohesion, e.g. through volunteering and social innovation.
The Green Paper should also look at how to maintain the participation of active older people in a dynamic rural life and how our communities can support the more vulnerable and dependent older people too.
Read full responseResponse to EU Forest Strategy
3 Dec 2020
Forests are the most common land cover of mountains in continental Europe, covering 41% of the total area (EEA, 2010). Mountain forests provide multiple functions, essential for human activities. These include not only the production of wood but also the provision of ecosystem services, such as protection against natural hazards, conservation of fauna and flora, landscapes, regulation of water supplies, and carbon storage.
Our attached contribution insists on the need to have a balane and place-based approach and it covers the following aspects:
- Protection of forests habitats and species
- Protection of landscapes
- Protection of mountains’ local economy
Read full responseResponse to Long term vision for rural areas
2 Sept 2020
Mountains areas cover nearly 29% of EU27 countries and host 13% of its population. They are the continent’s ecological backbone containing a huge reservoir of natural resources. They can bring a lot not only to mountain inhabitants but also to all citizens. Mountains face permanent and structural handicaps (climate change, slopes, altitude, problems of remoteness and accessibility) that require a specific and dedicated attention to unleash the (innovative) potential of mountain areas and keep living mountains with inhabitants in them.
To face the recent Covid-19 crisis, mountain areas have resources to be resilient, to adapt and develop new ways of working. But this can only be done through a dedicated approach taking the mountains specificities into account while strengthening their resilience and encouraging regional value chains.
A REAL ATTENTION PAID TO AREAS WITH GEOGRAPHICAL SPECIFICITIES
Euromontana welcomes the prospective vision for rural areas announced by the European Commission (EC) and believes that a development strategy by 2040 can help to create more synergies between the different EU policies which relate to rural development, territorial cohesion, transport, services, agriculture, environmental protection etc. Yet, it is essential that the developed vision also takes into account the diversity of situations in rural, remote, sparsely populated and mountain areas.
Based on article 174 TFEU, the EC’s vision should therefore look at how the Cohesion Policy can better integrate the needs and specificities of mountain areas, with stronger support to Managing Authorities to better inform potential beneficiaries of the funds and tools available and with a real emphasis is given to article 174 regions in the next Territorial Agenda for instance.
SUPPORT (SOCIAL) INNOVATION
Both technological and social innovations are already vibrant in European mountain areas and drive the creation of investment opportunities, business incubators, private-public clusters and partnerships with cities located in valleys or other regions. The EC’s vision must empower rural areas to increase their potential for innovation. It is essential to strengthen, before 2040, digitalisation in rural areas, including in the most remote ones. The EC should also look at how to further encourage social innovation, beyond the Smart Villages concept, promote a multi-funds approach and ring-fence funds for rural areas.
ATTRACTIVENESS: ENABLING CONDITIONS TO ENCOURAGE PEOPLE TO LIVE IN MOUNTAINS
Mountain areas attract people, including young ones, especially for the quality of life. Despite the stronger desire for natural environments expressed since the beginning of the Covid outbreak, rural areas, and especially mountainous ones, can only remain attractive for people if residents can enjoy the essential elements that make up the quality of life.
Thus, based on the findings of the Report on the Impact of Demographic Change, it is essential that the EC addresses the issue of rural depopulation and attractivity by proposing concrete measures to develop basic services, mobility offers as well as education and skilled employment opportunities. The EU vision should focus on youth and newcomers and pave the way for a territorial strategy that showcases the strengths and assets of rural territories.
ENCOURAGE A SMARTER GOVERNANCE
Rural development policy and funds must be better articulated with other EU policies in order to achieve its objectives. In particular, an integrated and territorial approach should be encouraged. This is particularly relevant in mountain areas where situations can vary a lot within a few kilometres (from one valley to a mountain to a basin catchment).
To encourage more synergies and a placed-based approach, the EC should announce the creation of a European rural agenda, and encourage simplification in the Structural and Investment Funds, in particular for beneficiaries.
Read full responseMeeting with Jorge Pinto Antunes (Cabinet of Commissioner Janusz Wojciechowski)
12 Jun 2020 · Long Term Vision for Rural Areas.
Meeting with Astrid Dentler (Cabinet of Vice-President Dubravka Šuica)
15 May 2020 · Green Paper on Ageing; elderly population in mountainous and remote areas; challenges and opportunities in particular with regard to health care, mobility and the silver economy; impact of COVID-19 on those regions
Meeting with Carole Mancel-Blanchard (Cabinet of Commissioner Elisa Ferreira)
7 May 2020 · Mountain issues in Cohesion Policy
Meeting with Catherine Geslain-Laneelle (Cabinet of Commissioner Janusz Wojciechowski), Roberto Berutti (Cabinet of Commissioner Janusz Wojciechowski)
24 Apr 2020 · To present suggestions on improving the implementation of the optional quality term for mountain products.
Response to European Year of Rail (2021)
8 Apr 2020
The European Year of rail: make it work for mountainous regions
The density of permanent population in mountainous regions is often under the EU average and some mountain areas are facing depopulation challenges, mostly resulting from the lack of attractivity and services, like in Spain or Romania. This low density greatly reduces the economic viability of public transport lines - a viability that is furthermore very much reduced due to the high cost of infrastructures to cross mountains, such as tunnels.
The natural, geographical and sometimes demographic handicaps of mountain areas thus lead to a high dependency on road transport, both for permanent residents, who often need to travel a certain distance for work, education, services and leisure activities and for seasonal tourists. Road transport dependency is also a challenge for fret. In the Alpine Space for instance, one-third of the 40 million tons of goods transported each year is conveyed by trucks through mountain areas , with heavy consequences on mountainous ecosystems due to emissions. This dependency is worsened in cross-border territories, which are often mountainous, due to a lack of train offers and a bad coordination of the different train companies in these regions .
Rail in mountain areas: a challenge for people, businesses and the environment
Reducing emissions with rail transport must be an opportunity for all territories in view of the European Green Deal. It is thus essential to maintain a dense train lines network, including small rural ones. Multimodality should be further encouraged by a stronger coordination between different national and regional transportation schemes in cross-border regions as well as between operators from the same region to provide adapted transport connections with common prices and tickets, as illustrated by the regional transport strategy implemented in the former Auvergne region in France .
Opportunities to increase freight transport have also recently been demonstrated by the Alpine Space AlpInnoCT project. Encouraging goods transportation through rail for instance needs more investments for multimodality. Other recommendations, such as better harmonizing freight and passenger transport and prioritizing freight transport at certain non-peak times, can support a transition towards sustainable transportation and help to decrease the pollution in valleys.
To ensure that no one is left behind in the transition towards more sustainable transport, Euromontana calls upon the European Commission to address the issue of rail in mountain areas during the European Year of Rail, by:
• Involving DG REGIO in the work of DG MOVE to ensure the organisation of events in all territories, including in the most rural and remote mountain areas, in close collaboration with regional authorities and local communities and to reflect on the opportunities for rail under the post-2020 Cohesion Policy objectives for a greener and more connected Europe.
• Building on the OECD study, expected for late 2020, on the cost of public services in rural areas, to explore opportunities to improve the viability of rural train lines, such as mixed passengers/fret train lines, to maintain quality of life and protect the environment.
• Organising debates with citizens addressing the issue of rail freight transport in mountain areas to reduce the pollution in valleys.
• Organising events in mountain areas to debate the issue of sustainable mobility in the tourism sector with last mile transport thanks to rail and combined transport.
• Encouraging the organisation of cross-border events to accelerate the harmonization of rail transport schemes between mountainous regions.
• Proposing solutions for mountain rail in the expected Smart and Sustainable Mobility Strategy.
• Presenting data on rail networks at NUT3 level in its assessment of the European Year of Rail.
Read full responseResponse to Evaluation of the EU agricultural promotion policy
10 Aug 2018
Euromontana est très satisfaite de voir l'évaluation de ce programme de promotion, qui a permis d'apporter une contribution importance à la promotion des produits alimentaires. Afin d'augmenter encore son efficacité, nous recommandons:
- Renforcement du budget dédié aux Sigles d’Identification d’Origine et de Qualité (SIQO) . Le renforcement de la notoriété des SIQO – à date trop peu reconnus par les consommateurs - passe par des programmes de promotion ambitieux et donc d’ampleur budgétaire conséquente. Si Euromontana reconnait l’importance des deux lignes de travail actuellement dédiées aux SIQO (pour les programmes simple et multi), nous regrettons néanmoins que leur montant reste encore trop faible au regard des objectifs de promotion de la Commission européenne. Ces enveloppes, diluées sur tous les SIQO (AOP, IGP, bio, RUP…), sur tous les pays de l’UE ne permettront pas des progrès significatifs pour améliorer la notoriété des SIQO (cf. données Eurobaromètre n°389).
Euromontana suggère donc une augmentation de la part financière de la ligne dédiée aux SIQO et d’avoir des sous-catégories spécifiques pour les différents schémas : AOP, IGP, bio, produits de montagne, RUP afin de faciliter leur valorisation et leur reconnaissance par les citoyens européens. Cela permettrait également de mieux répondre à l’obligation qui est faite dans le règlement 1144/2014 de porter de prendre en compte les handicaps des régions montagneuses, insulaires et ultrapériphériques.
- La majorité des IG enregistrées en UE ont très naturellement un marché très local. Peu d’entre elles ont une capacité à exporter intra UE et vers des pays tiers. Idem pour les produits de montagne. Aussi, la majorité de ces produits de qualité ne profitent pas des augmentations budgétaires pour les actions dédiées aux pays tiers. Ce qui renforce la nécessité d’augmenter le budget des lignes de travail dédiées aux programmes simple et multi car peu de schémas de qualité iront candidater sur les lignes pour les pays tiers. Plus précisément, la ligne programme simple doit être renforcée puisque peu de produits de montagnes ont une capacité à mettre en marché des produits au-delà d’une échelle nationale.
- Il pourrait également être intéressant de pouvoir cumuler les critères (ou les topics) (ce qui ne semble pas possible aujourd’hui). Par exemple si un projet simple sur une IGP régionale (donc dans un seul pays) concerne en même temps un produit de la filière porc, alors ça pourrait améliorer le ranking. Il semble qu’aujourd’hui on doive choisir : soit proposer un projet simple dans le topic « quality schemes » soit proposer un projet dans le topic « filière prioritaire porc ».
- Sur l’aspect pratique, nous souhaiterions avoir une plus grande lisibilité du calendrier en avance afin de connaitre la date de soumission des candidatures. Cela faciliterait le travail notamment des petites structures, qui ne peuvent pas forcément mobiliser de nombreuses ressources pour répondre à ces appels et qui doivent pouvoir s’organiser et connaitre en avance les dates de soumission.
Read full responseMeeting with Christiane Canenbley (Cabinet of Commissioner Phil Hogan)
11 Jan 2017 · Cork Declaration