Young researchers attended the "Green Living Areas Thematic Community" event

Nineteen projects from the Interreg EUROMED program, working under the mission of "Green Living Areas", have embarked on a journey to improve the sustainability of territories and, consequently, the quality of life in the EUROMED region, supporting local and regional authorities and key stakeholders in this transition.

Thematic projects are not alone in facing these challenges and will be accompanied by a mission task force composed of two governance projects that will support them in various dimensions:

The "Community for Living Areas" project (C4LA), on the one hand, will establish a strong community among the mission's projects, facilitating the creation of synergies among their activities and results. The C4LA project will support the results and impact of thematic projects, enabling collaboration with other EU programs working in the same direction and on the same topics. Additionally, the C4LA project will provide a common direction for the 19 thematic projects, directing their results towards a common main goal.

The "Dialogue for Living Areas" project (D4LA), on the other hand, will enhance policy transfer by fostering dialogue between policymakers and public actors, focusing on continuous policy improvement and transformation.

The kick-off event of the "Community for Green Living Areas", organized by the C4LA project in collaboration with the D4LA project, aims to create the Green Living Areas Community - GLA, by introducing partners from different projects to each other's activities in order to build all types of synergies, from technical to policy exchange. This initial meeting of all community members represents the first of several steps that community members will take together during the project, or during the current programming period.

The event was held over two days:

• Day 1: was entirely dedicated to community building, with mutual presentations, a co-creation workshop, and activities focused on community building.
• Day 2: was open to actors outside the community, especially policymakers, for exchanging best practices related to tools, strategies, and policy instruments for promoting greener territories and engaging citizens in the transition.