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Euromontana calls on mountain actors to uptake the cohesion policy funds

19.05.2022

The European-funded Montana174 project has published a set of educational factsheets illustrating the resources that the 2021-2027 European Cohesion Policy will channel into mountain areas.

Mountain areas cover nearly 29 percent of the territory of the European Union (EU) and are home to 13 percent of its population. This means that about one in six EU citizens lives in mountains. These regions provide several ecosystem services to the EU’s entire population, such as quality food and freshwater. They are also carbon sinks and hotspots of biodiversity.

Today, mountains face many of the challenges of our century, from the alarming impacts of climate change to outmigration. However, mountains have also shown that they can address these challenges and become places of resilience and innovation. Their inhabitants have cultivated innovation, accelerated climate mitigation and adaptation, supported tourism, fostered youth and employment, and enhanced mobility. The EU contributed to this through the funds of the Cohesion Policy. Since 2009, the EU has decided to pay “particular attention to mountain regions” via Article 174 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the EU.

According to the Montana174 project’s new set of factsheets, some of the 2021-2027 Cohesion Policy’s resources will, for example, finance the transition of mountain tourism towards providing year-round tourist offerings, support investments to bridge the quality gap between educational facilities in rural and urban areas, and conserve mountain biodiversity. Some operational programmes, such as that of the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes Region in France, foresee specific interregional sections dedicated to the Massif Central. In other cases, cross-border, transnational and interregional Interreg programmes can be used to finance new projects in Europe’s mountains. Overall, a large part of the budget can be used to finance green and digital transition in mountains.

Euromontana believes the 2021-2027 Cohesion Policy represents a great opportunity for mountain regions and calls on mountain stakeholders in Europe to take advantage of these funds to meet the challenges of the region. Montana174 will organize a series of local workshops to prepare mountain stakeholders to uptake these funds between April and July 2022.

News and photo by Euromontana