The Southern Sparsely Populated Areas network (SSPA) has travelled to Brussels to hold several meetings with those responsible for the regional policies of the European institutions. In particular, Carlos Torre, President of CEOE Teruel, represented the founding partners of the SSPA together with Aris Tasios, representative of the government of the region of Evrytania (Greece) and the coordinator of the network, Sara Bianchi.
Last Thursday, the members of the SSPA held a first meeting with Jan Mikolaj Dzieciolowski, member of the Cabinet of the European Commissioner for Regional Policy, Corina Cretu. He was informed of the conclusions of the Scottish project and the proposals of the SSPA, which also supports the approach against the rural depopulation of MEPs Iraxte García and Florent Marcellesi. The SSPA requests the need for direct funds for areas with a population density of less than 12.5 inhabitants per square kilometer and the creation of a territorial development agency to coordinate actions against depopulation.
These same premises were also transferred to the representative of Croatia before the European Union, Daniela Tomaševi? Dena?i?, with whom they held another meeting.
In the words of the CEOE CEO Teruel, Carlos Torre, “we are satisfied with these meetings in the European institutions because they have made it clear that, in one way or another, they will take our demands into account in the regional policy proposals of the European Commission for the member states. ”
In addition to these appointments, the SSPA also met with Spanish representatives in the European Union such as Carlos Gómez, head of the Aragón office in Brussels and two members of the Spanish permanent representation before the European Union, Encarna Rodríguez and María Yolanda Ortiz. All of them, in addition to the above, were presented with the SSPA proposal for Spain, which proposes concrete actions in various areas: in the institutional and financing environment, fiscal and legislative, business, infrastructure and cultural measures.
In addition, they have also presented the aspects to take into account for a diversified rural development as the need for a financing system that responds to the needs of the territory. According to Torre, “not only in the public sector but also in the private sector, that is, with the support of financial entities connected to the territory, as is the case of rural banks”.