On June 13th and 14th, the final conference of the Horizon 2020 MOVING -MOuntain Valorisation through INterconnectedness and Green Growth project was held in Brussels. The experience of UNIMONT, Alpine centre of the University of Milan, which coordinates numerous European projects from a small mountain village was brought to the attention of international experts and members of the European Commission, testifying a concrete way to promote the future of mountains.
The conference “A FUTURE FOR MOUNTAIN AREAS IN POST 2027 EU PRIORITIES” was an opportunity to raise a debate concerning mountains and their positioning in future European policies related to territorial cohesion. It was a high-level discussion, from which it emerged that the right way forward for mountains is to invest in people, skills and innovation.The approach, however, must respond to a “holistic” vision of mountains: a vision, going beyond the sectoral policies, such as the rural one, that deal with these territories, which rather requires the establishment of “integrated policies”, similar to what is already in place for the EU’s maritime areas.
This challenge calls upon all levels of society, from the local level of mountain communities to that of the urban centres, from the, regional to the national level with a coherent a coordinated approach. In light of this, the contribution of Universities and & research centres is essential, to build solid, credible and convincing strategies for the future. These strategies should be, based on data and, on clear monitoring processes necessary to bring the necessary innovation for lively mountain areas.
In this context, Prof. Anna Giorgi, head of UNIMONT, was invited to contribute to a high-level panel together with Eleftherios Stavropoulos of the EU Joint Research Centre and Klavdija Noemi-Ramsak of the European Commission’s DG AGRI, moderated by Carla Lostrangio of the European Association for Innovation in Local Development (AEIDL).
UNIMONT, is increasingly recognised as a good practice, a concrete and effective connection between the mountains and the centres of knowledge, services and power, which demonstrates that today it is indeed possible to move to the centre what has been put on the margins. It is ‘only’ a question of doing it….
