The Network of Southern Sparsely Populated Areas (SSPA) travels next Monday, June 4, to Croatia to meet with one of its partners, the representatives of Lika-Senj County.
This is a meeting where the problems presented by both territories will be addressed and will also serve to transmit to the Croatian government the proposals of the network, which focus on the need to integrate the rural areas into European policies and the areas that are scarcely populated areas of southern Europe are considered as such.
The city of Gospic will be the venue for this meeting which aims to add sensitivities of the member states on the negotiations for the new European post-2020 period while at the same time highlighting the need to continue working to transmit a positive image of the rural environment, able to value its advantages and virtues, and contribute to the fixation and attraction of population.
For the SSPA, the European Union should articulate measures that seek true cohesion, integration and sustainability of sparsely populated territories with serious and permanent disadvantages. With a view to this objective, the SSPA Network has prepared a position paper with several measures aimed at successfully tackling the demographic challenge in the most disadvantaged rural areas. A document that will continue to be presented to the member states to add more allies in the fight against depopulation.