The Centre for Mountain Studies and the UNESCO Chair in Sustainable Mountain Development based in the Perth College of the UHI (University of the Highlands and Islands, Scotland) are searching for a Research Assistant and Support for the major international conference that will take place in October 2015.
Deadline for submission is Wednesday 18th February 2015 at 12 noon (GMT).
For any further information, please see here the offer
Euromontana participated in a public hearing on vocational education and training in rural and remote areas at the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC) on 28th January 2014. The objective was to collect the feedback of stakeholders to feed the EESC position, which should be published in the coming months.
ANEM (the National Association of the Elected Representatives in Mountain Areas in France) welcomes the implementation of the Act II of the Mountain Law decided by the French Prime Minister in France.
Laurent Wauquiez, Member of the Parliament elected in Haute-Loire, and Marie-Noëlle Battistel, Member of the Parliament elected in Isère, respectively President and Secretary General of ANEM, welcome the mission entrusted by the Prime Minister to two Mountain Members of the Parliament.
In France, mountain policy is based on the recognition of the specific characteristics of mountain areas by the law of 9th January 1985. In fact, this law is, directly or indirectly, at the origin of a large amount of measures connected with many different areas such as urbanism, tourism, agriculture, risks prevention and organisation of public services or tax incentive among others.
Thirty years after the adoption of the Mountain Law, two Members of the Parliament have been asked to give their report for mid-May 2015, aiming to obtain some concrete and operational suggestions in order to write a trustful Act II of the Mountain Law.
For any further information see ANEM’s press release
The 26th January 2015, the EU Rural Networks’ Assembly was officially launched first the 1st meeting gathering 196 governmental, non-governmental, local and innovation stakeholders. Euromontana is a member of this General Assembly.
The main aim of the creation of this Assembly is to advise the European Commission on how to better put Rural Development programmes into practice as well as to ensure coordination between the European Network for Rural Development (ENRD) and the European Partnership for Innovation in Agricultural Sustainability and Productivity (EIP-AGRI).
In line with this aim, the objectives of the 1st meeting were:
The digital divide is a key issue in mountain areas where access to broadband is insufficient or even not existent at all. The challenge is therefore to implement innovative solutions that allow the mountain population and businesses to benefit from the advantages linked to efficient ICT infrastructure to the same degree as those living in lowland or urban areas.
Euromontana attended a short presentation on “Digital divide in rural areas: satellite broadband solutions” at the European Parliament on 28th January 2015. Thanks to the satellites, the broadband could be accessible everywhere with a minimum speed above 2 Mbps. But this infrastructure has a cost: around 600€ per household is needed to install the required antenna to have access to the Internet through the satellites.
As everybody can’t afford this cost and as the need to have high speed Internet is more and more recognised as a key condition to have a better access to education, employment and to develop enterprises, some local authorities or development agencies have developed projects to take in charge these installation costs. This was the solution chosen by Eure et Loir Numérique in France for instance. This organisation has the goal to provide Internet solutions, with a minimum speed of 2 Mbps to all the inhabitants of the region. For remote areas, where there is no Internet so far and where it is not planned to have the fiber in the two coming years, Eure et Loir Numérique has taken in charge the installation costs of the antenna to provide Internet through satellites. In 2014, more than 100 households were equipped with this system.
Euromontana is strongly convinced by the absolute need to develop high speed broadband in mountain areas and has already signed the ENGAGE Manifesto on High Speed Broadband in rural areas, thus we welcome this initiative and we hope that it will inspire other local and regional authorities in mountain areas.