From Heritage to Growth: Revitalising Traditional Ecosystems in Europe’s Regions

1. Principado de Asturias (Spain) — Speaker: Guillermo PELAEZ
Strategic Focus: Industrial Decarbonization, Circular Transformation, and Strategic Autonomy
Core Challenges Facing the Industrial Model
Uncompetitive Energy Costs: High electricity prices—which drag behind international competitors by two to three times as highlighted in the Draghi report—threaten industrial viability. Guillermo emphasized that climate ambition requires a pragmatic, gradual transition, incorporating transitional backup technologies (such as alternative low-impact fuels, nuclear energy, and low-carbon hydrogen) until green hydrogen scales to affordable levels.
Regulatory Uncertainty and Bureaucracy: Multi-hundred-million-euro decarbonization investments require streamlined administrative procedures, regulatory predictability, and strong regional governance.
Unfair Global Competition: Global steel overcapacity exceeding 600 million tonnes of subsidized foreign production results in market distortions and price dumping within the European market.
Raw Material Security: The necessity of establishing circular economy frameworks to retain valuable raw materials within European value chains.
Key Policy Instruments & Strategic Projects
Asturias H2 Valley: A flagship project co-financed by the European Innovation Fund, converting a historic coal-fired power station into a 150 MW green hydrogen electrolysis hub to directly supply ArcelorMittal’s steel plant and the Tudela Veguín cement facility.
Industrial Water Regeneration (Villaperi Biofactory): A €70 million project funded by ERDF to transform the Villaperi wastewater treatment plant in Oviedo into a state-of-the-art biofactory. Supported by €20 million from the Just Transition Fund (FTJ) in industrial adaptation grants, this initiative aims to replace industrial potable water usage (which currently represents 57% of total regional consumption) with regenerated municipal wastewater.
Mine-to-H2 Pilot Project: An €18 million initiative at the former Pozo Fondón coal mine in Langreo, utilizing geothermal mine water and solar power to produce renewable hydrogen for public transit and heavy mobility.
Clean-Tech Capital Grants & PERTE Co-Financing: Allocation of €51 million in clean-tech manufacturing grants by 2026 under the Just Transition Fund, alongside national PERTE decarbonization injections for industrial leaders like Fertiberia and Asturiana de Zinc.
Regional Industrial Acceleration Law (Ley de Aceleración Industrial): A legislative framework designed to establish industrial acceleration zones, streamline permitting, and safeguard energy-intensive value chains.

2. Kujawsko-Pomorskie (Poland) — Speaker: Piotr CALBECKI
Strategic Focus: Cultural Heritage, Identity-Driven Development, and Rural Civic Engagement
Key Policy Instruments & Regional Initiatives
Local Action Groups (LAGs) & Craft Preservation: Utilizing EU regional funds, Local Action Groups mobilize rural populations by funding senior and youth clubs, folk music ensembles, and micro-business grants for vanishing traditional trades—including pottery studios, tailoring workshops, artisan bakeries, woodworking shops, and local cheese and wine producers.
Ecosystem Restoration & Anti-Steppification: Reallocating EU environmental funds to combat the drying and steppe-like transformation (stepowienie) of the Kujawsko-Pomorskie countryside. Interventions include restoring degraded wetlands, riverbeds, and small water retention ponds to safeguard biodiversity and preserve local agricultural ecosystems.
Innovation in Rural Governance (Council of Village Heads): Established in April 2024, the Kujawsko-Pomorskie Council of Village Heads (Rada Sołtysów) brings together representatives of the historic civic role of sołtys (dating back to the Middle Ages) across all regional counties. The Council acts as a permanent consultative body to the Regional Marshal, strengthening grassroots democracy and rural policy design.
Short Food Supply Chain Platform: Launch of a regional pilot project featuring an online e-commerce platform connecting local farmers directly with consumers, backed by a physical logistics and exhibition hub and a regional farm-to-table restaurant.

3. Peso da Régua / Douro Region (Portugal) — Speaker: José GONÇALVES – Member CoR , Mayor of Peso da Régua
Strategic Focus: Douro 2035 Strategy — Transitioning from Compensation to Valorization
ore Challenges & Structural Paradox
The Douro Paradox: Despite hosting one of the most recognized landscape and wine brands globally, too little of the generated economic value remains in the hands of local grape growers and workers.
Pressures on the Viticultural Model: Decreasing consumption of fortified Port wine, grape market prices falling below steep-slope production costs, severe population loss and aging, climate change risks (drought, extreme heat, wildfire), and excessive reliance on a single agricultural sector.
Pillars of the Douro 2035 Action Plan
Viticulture & Landscape Remuneration: Shifting from volume to value by showcasing indigenous grape varieties, old vines, and terraced vineyards. Treating the hand-crafted stone-walled landscape as a public good whose maintenance must be directly remunerated.
Integrated Tourism & Regional Value Capture: Expanding river cruise tourism (generating an estimated annual economic impact of €350 million to €450 million with over 750,000 passengers in 2025) into multi-day stays. Enforcing local supply chain integration so that hotels, restaurants, and cruise operators source directly from regional wine producers and artisans.
Peso da Régua as an Economic Hub: Positioning Peso da Régua not merely as a transit port, but as a distribution platform connecting visitors to the entire valley while delivering affordable housing, professional training, and career prospects in enotourism and vineyard management to retain youth.

4. Extremadura (Spain) — Speaker: María Ángeles MURIEL – Director General for Rural Development Junta de Extremadura Government
Demographic & Territorial Diagnostic: The Geography of Dispersal
The Territorial Paradox: Spanning 41,635 km²—a landmass identical to that of the Netherlands—Extremadura holds a population of 1.05 million people (a density of 25 inhab/km² compared to the Netherlands' 429 hab/km²). In strictly rural areas, density drops to a critical 19 inhab/km², with 89% of the land area housing only 67% of the population.
The Depopulation Mechanics: Historic deficits in rail and air connectivity sparked a downward spiral: agricultural abandonment, shrinking labor pools, rapid aging (23% elderly vs. 15% youth), 14% rural unemployment, and a historic exodus that forced over 500,000 Extremadurans to reside outside the region.
Statistical Misclassification (AUF Distortion): European Functional Urban Areas (AUF) guidelines classify extensive rural municipalities like Cáceres, Badajoz, and Mérida as "urban" due to administrative borders, misrepresenting the territory and erroneously excluding 76,466 rural residents (7.2% of the region's rural population) from targeted EU Cohesion Funds.
Strategic Transition: Turning Assets into Integrated Value Chains
Extremadura possesses major strategic assets for the European Union: surplus renewable energy generation, vast continental water reserves, high-quality agri-food production, and a resilient business fabric of 22,550 companies and 58,316 self-employed workers. To leverage these assets, the region deploys a three-stage transformation model:
Baseline Assets: Water, land, agri-food capacity, and renewable energy.
Transformation Engines: Smart Specialization (RIS3), the PREMIA investment acceleration network, and supercomputing power via COMPUTAEX and the Lusitania supercomputer.
Regional Outcomes: High-value business hubs, skilled employment, and talent retention.
Key Policy Instruments & Regional Initiatives
360º Rural Proofing & Sello de Garantía Rural: A pioneer governance framework in the EU that subjects all draft laws, budgets, and regulations to an ex-ante territorial impact loop through the Rural Observatory and the Demographic Challenge Index. Qualifying initiatives receive the Sello de Garantía Rural.
5-Pillar Ecosystem for Talent ("Project of Life"):
Housing: The Rehabita program for rural home recovery combined with youth rental subsidies.
Connectivity: Full fiber optic coverage and rural 5G expansion, backed by Espacios Digitalex (€3.1 million in 2026 across >200 towns).
Care: Contigo en Casa advanced telecare system.
Mobility: On-demand rural transport, school transit, and healthcare routes.
Training: Rural Collaborative Programs tailored to local production chains.
Digital Nomad Attraction & Rootedness: Expansion of the Digital Nomad program budget from €2 million to €4.25 million due to overwhelming demand, coupled with local integration services to convert short-term stays into long-term residency.

6. MEP Elena Nevado del Campo. She intervened via video recorded message. Focusing on the position that EP has towards a stronger cohesion policy counting with regions and local territories.