ASSET (Action to Strengthen Small European Towns)
Project Description
ANNEX D: INTERREG IVC
As a working hypothesis ASSET is considering the following as a synopsis of the scope of the aims of a bid:
Small towns have demand for energy and potential in their hinterland for production of renewable energy (e.g. Güssing).
The character of the landscape, its biodiversity and built heritage are key cultural elements in tourism and economic activity.
Adverse changes resulting from energy production (crops, timber, wind turbines, hydro, waste conversion, hydroelectricity brown coal and other mining ) need to be addressed.
The competition for agricultural and forestry land posed by renewable energy and threats to locally sourced food and timber processes also requires to be examined in terms of local and regional self sufficiency – local markets for local products, to avoid excessive transportation energy and costs in the context of climate change.
These are sustainability considerations.
The involvement of local citizens is essential to policy formulation and the implementation process. Small towns and rural areas cannot be viewed in isolation from each other and from the dominant larger urban areas in spatial policy terms.
Support from regional agencies to small towns and rural areas is needed to enable the municipalities and civic society to engage in a vision for the future of energy autonomy and economic self-sufficiency.
Small towns are ideal venues to carry out new projects and experiences in renewable energies because they have a critical density of an urban area, within a rural setting that offers potential for sources of renewable energy to be harvested using traditional techniques from the landscape in close vicinity.
The ability of small rural towns to achieve and sustain competitiveness in economic terms may rely on retaining the entrepreneurial spirit of younger people. For that, key issues are rewarding jobs, affordable homes, social and retail facilities and transport choices within the local area of each town.
Policies and action aimed at restructuring small towns will be examined, with the aim of positioning them as the backbone of rural regions through enhancing the attractiveness of the rural territory in support of socio-economic development and through sustainable tourism by protecting cultural heritage and landscape.
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