(19 November 2021) – Yves Champetier (AEIDL) was honoured at the “LEADER Awards for innovation and experimentation in rural areas” ceremony organised on 8 November by Leader France, in the presence of representatives from the Spanish, Hungarian and Romanian LEADER networks, as well as Marion Eckardt (Sweden), President of ELARD, the European association of LEADER Local Action Groups.
Created in 1997 on the initiative of rural territories involved in the European rural development programme LEADER (Liaison entre Actions de Développement de l’Économie Rurale), Leader France represents the 339 LEADER territories in mainland France and overseas for the 2014-2020 programming period.
With a jury made up of local and European practitioners and elected officials, the LEADER 2021 Awards ceremony highlighted the dynamism of these rural territories through seven thematic categories and over 150 projects submitted.
A specialist in the community-led approach to rural development, Yves Champetier was director of the European LEADER Observatory for ten years. He is an expert for FARNET, the European fisheries areas network, as well as for the European Network for Rural Development, and sits as treasurer on the AEIDL board.