The first EUSALP Annual Forum took place last week in Munich. At the EUSALP General Assembly high-level representatives of States and Regions adopted a “Joint declaration” welcoming the progress achieved to date in the implementation of the Strategy and its Action Plan at all levels, particularly in the Action Groups, and calling for a closer cooperation with regional and local stakeholders for the sustainable success of the Strategy.
The EUSALP Annual Forum included a variety of events, which ranged from an interactive youth conference involving the Deputy Secretary General of the Alpine Convention Marianna Elmi, workshops interlinking different Action Groups to exchanges with the European Commission and sessions involving the Alpine Space Programme. The Citizens Forum, which was organised in form of a Market Place, featured the Alpine Convention, all 9 EUSALP Action Groups, the European Commission and the Alpine Space Programme. The Forum allowed the public to achieve concrete insights into the work of the mentioned stakeholders.
Action Group 6, co-led by the Permanent Secretariat of the Alpine Convention and the Land Carinthia, presented at its market stand its activities on the three sub-topics of spatial development and soil conservation, future oriented farming and forestry and integrated and sustainable water management. In addition, the project “Next Generation 2030” on youth and mountain farming, initiated by the Bavarian presidency, as well as the project “PureAlps” on hardly degradable pollutants from the atmosphere in the Alpine Region contributed to attracting many visitors to the market stand of Action Group 6.
On 22 November, also a EUSALP Executive Board meeting took place. In this context two projects of Action Group 6 submitted to the Alpine Region Preparatory Action Fund (ARPAF) were approved: CirculAlps on circular economy, elaborated in cooperation with AG2 and Alpjobs on demographic changes, jointly prepared with AG3.