1. LEADER / CLLD State of Play in Finland
Workshop on Local Development Strategies:
How to assure innovative and flexible implementation?
Tartu 23rd Nov 2016
The Village Action
Association of Finland

2. 54+1 LAGs operational since May 2015, covering the whole rural area of the country
Hundreads of new community & business development projects launched
Wider target group helps to involve more rural businesses & other new stakeholders like migrants
Use of LDS selection criteria brings more transparency and comparability to the project selection
10 FLAGs operational on lake and coastal regions + several urban CLLD initiatives (e.g. Kotka, Pori, Joensuu)

3. Issues
Electronic application system ”Hyrrä” still not fully functional  long delays in final decision making & payments
Growing bureaucracy & complicated processes make LAGs civil servants? (e.g. separation of LAG animation and running costs)
New types of business development projects not very usable/ well received  need to support company growth, service/product development & part-time entrepreneurs
ESF / ERDF cannot support real, bottom-up project based CLLD

4. Solutions & learning points
More customer oriented, user tested e-application systems in the future
LEADER / CLLD renewal to be linked with the on-going public sector governance reforms (municipality & region)  LAGs to remain independent public-private- third sector partnerships
Wider CAP target audience  better tools for business & new jobs support
ESF / ERDF rules in must enable true CLLD also on urban neighborhoods