Guidance on Community-led Local development in European Structural and Investment Funds

Community-led local development (CLLD) is a tool for involving citizens at local level in  developing responses to the social, environmental and economic challenges we face today. CLLD is an approach that requires time and effort, but for relatively small financial investments, it can havea marked impact on people’s lives and generate new ideas and the shared commitment for putting these into practice.The Commission expects CLLD to facilitate implementing integrated approaches among the European Structural and Investment Funds (ESI Funds) concerned to achieve at local level the 11 thematic objectives set out in the CPR. The Commission encourages the use of CLLD as it alsoallows local communities to take ownership of the objectives of the Europe 2020 Strategy. In line with the Common Strategic Framework1: “Member States shall promote the development of local and sub-regional approaches, in particular via community-led local development […]”.The main purpose of this guidance issued by four Directorates-General of the European Commission2 is to help the authorities in the Member States to create the conditions for effectively using CLLD in their Partnership Agreements and to design it in their respective programmes.