In February 2020, during the first plenary session of the recently renewed European Committee of the Regions (CoR) members adopted the opinion “Towards sustainable neighborhoods and small communities – Environment policy below municipal level” by rapporteur Gaetano Armao (IT/EPP). Euromontana is pleased to see that the rapporteur integrated its suggestions on the role of mountain areas such as on the importance of social innovation and it thanks to the rapporteur for its explicit recognition of the role of Euromontana.

The opinion recognizes the crucial role of small communities, at sub-municipal level, in the implementation of the Green Deal due to their competences on the management of transports, waste, and resources such as water. Among these communities, the CoR stresses the need to take into account the specificity of some territorial situations, which encounter particular environmental challenges. “On account of their remoteness, these areas sometimes possess unique natural features that give them disproportionate ecological importance” like “sub-municipal communities in areas with specific geographic profiles, such as mountain”.