Funded by the European Union, CLLD or “community-led local development” is a bottom-up approach to local development that brings local people together to decide how they want to improve their area. They do so by setting up partnerships of civil society, businesses and public bodies, called Local Action Groups (LAGs).
In areas where fishing and aquaculture are important activities, funds can be made available to fund Fisheries Local Action Groups (FLAGs) which also include the relevant fisheries-related stakeholders.
Designing their own local development strategies, each LAG or FLAG engages community members in thinking through the most pressing economic, social and environmental priorities for their area, and how best to tackle them. Staff are on hand to help people develop project ideas and a budget is available to fund local initiatives considered important for the area’s development (e.g. investing in new businesses, services, activities, training, awareness-raising, etc.). Under CLLD, local people are the ones managing this budget and deciding which projects should be supported in priority.
From LEADER to CLLD
Launched in rural areas with LEADER in 1991, successfully trialled in fisheries and aquaculture areas in 2007-2013, CLLD was integrated for the first time under all European Structural and Investment Funds in the 2014-2020 programming period.
EU Member States can choose to fund CLLD with:
CLLD is based on the 7 LEADER principles which are all equally important to ensuring the success of the approach and, in particular, responding to local needs in a targeted way that top down approaches to socio-economic development cannot.
Implementing CLLD - Legal basis and guidance
The Commons Provisions Regulation (CPR) No 1303/2013 lays down common provisions for CLLD for all funds implementing CLLD, see CHAPTER II, Articles 32-35.
The European Maritime and Fisheries Fund (EMFF) lays out the specific provisions for CLLD under the EMFF, including eligible operations for FLAG support, see CHAPTER III, Articles 58-64.
ENRD Contact Point LEADER Toolkit
DG REGIO factsheet on CLLD