The event featured two distinguished speakers:<\/p>\n
Eleftherios (Terry) Stavropoulos<\/strong>, Policy Officer at the European Commission, presented the EU Rural Toolkit<\/em> \u2014 a valuable resource that helps rural communities understand and combine EU funds for cross-sectoral development projects. \u201cEven small rural areas can combine different EU funds to support cross-sectoral projects,\u201d he emphasized, encouraging local actors to take bold steps in shaping their development strategies.<\/p>\n Clive Peckham<\/strong>, European Projects Manager at Ni\u00e8vre Num\u00e9rique (France), shared the story of Lormes<\/em>, one of the Smart Rural 27 lighthouse communities. With over three decades of experience in community-led innovation, Clive stressed the urgency of transformation: \u201cIf they don\u2019t innovate, if they don\u2019t change, rural areas simply die. And you can\u2019t reinvent them if there are no people left. That\u2019s why we need people \u2014 to involve them in projects that bring real value.\u201d<\/p>\n The event was moderated by Dr. Emilija Stojmenova Duh<\/strong> from the University of Ljubljana, who ensured a dynamic and engaging discussion while framing the contributions within a broader vision of inclusive and innovative rural development.<\/p>\n This event was part of the Interregional Learning Event<\/em> series within the Interreg Europe<\/strong> project Digital Rural<\/em>, which promotes peer learning and exchange of good practices among European regions and stakeholders working on smart and inclusive rural development.[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row type=”in_container” full_screen_row_position=”middle” column_margin=”default” column_direction=”default” column_direction_tablet=”default” column_direction_phone=”default” scene_position=”center” text_color=”dark” text_align=”left” row_border_radius=”none” row_border_radius_applies=”bg” overlay_strength=”0.3″ gradient_direction=”left_to_right” shape_divider_position=”bottom” bg_image_animation=”none”][vc_column column_padding=”no-extra-padding” column_padding_tablet=”inherit” column_padding_phone=”inherit” column_padding_position=”all” background_color_opacity=”1″ background_hover_color_opacity=”1″ column_shadow=”none” column_border_radius=”none” column_link_target=”_self” gradient_direction=”left_to_right” overlay_strength=”0.3″ width=”1\/1″ tablet_width_inherit=”default” tablet_text_alignment=”default” phone_text_alignment=”default” column_border_width=”none” column_border_style=”solid” bg_image_animation=”none”][vc_gallery type=”flexslider_style” images=”35224,35225,35228,35238″ onclick=”link_no” img_size=”full”][\/vc_column][\/vc_row]\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" [vc_row type=”in_container” full_screen_row_position=”middle” column_margin=”default” column_direction=”default” column_direction_tablet=”default” column_direction_phone=”default” scene_position=”center” text_color=”dark” text_align=”left” row_border_radius=”none” row_border_radius_applies=”bg” overlay_strength=”0.3″ gradient_direction=”left_to_right” shape_divider_position=”bottom” bg_image_animation=”none”][vc_column column_padding=”no-extra-padding” column_padding_tablet=”inherit” column_padding_phone=”inherit” column_padding_position=”all” background_color_opacity=”1″ background_hover_color_opacity=”1″ column_shadow=”none” column_border_radius=”none” column_link_target=”_self” gradient_direction=”left_to_right” overlay_strength=”0.3″ width=”1\/1″ tablet_width_inherit=”default” tablet_text_alignment=”default”…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":35220,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[49,48,50],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-35231","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-events","8":"category-news","9":"category-recent"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ltfe.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35231","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ltfe.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ltfe.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ltfe.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ltfe.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35231"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/ltfe.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35231\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":35239,"href":"https:\/\/ltfe.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35231\/revisions\/35239"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ltfe.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/35220"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ltfe.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35231"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ltfe.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35231"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ltfe.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35231"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}