Részletek

The seminar "Sustainable development on the local level - The Local ‘Periphery’ as Centre for Skills, Ideas and Attitudes for European Sustainable Renewal: Examples in North-East Hungary" consists of two preparatory meetings online with engaging and activating web seminars on basics of sustainability and local sustainability on June 13th and June 20th and a 5 day field-research-tour from Monday 27th of June till Friday 1st of July 2022.

Introduction

Not two communities are alike, every village, town or region is unique. The very relevant and actual challenges in Europe, clearly stated by the European Commission can bind us though, and encourage us to look over the fences, meet and learn from our neighbors and help us to forge strong multilateral relations. To meet new ideas, find good practice, get to know experts in the broad field of sustainability. To find inspiration, be enriched with learnings back and forth, or, if You would like: experience ‘cross pollination’. Last, our educational tour provides the participants also a network to fall back upon too, helping to be stronger together.

Regional communities are small worlds in itself battling challenges as wide as unemployment, moving away from the country side, lack of services, affordable and sustainable energy, social facilities, quality and healthy food production and consumption, sustainable production and waste management, finding the proper marketing strategy for the products delivered. Our programme aims for a compact but comprehensive programme where various themes, challenges and solutions are interlocked. Understanding that a real future can only be ecologically, economically and socially sustainable.

Another sequel of a successful series on local sustainability

Although many problems appear all to be somewhat alike, the real solutions work then alone, when tailor-made and adapted to the local, unique situation. Required and, paramount is a strong response to keep our way of life healthy, affordable, sustainable. Hence the Robert Schuman Institute Budapest will again, in a long tradition of previous study tours, organize an engaging and activating educational tour on best practices of local sustainability: A balanced programme, focusing on best-practices, often on a grass-roots level, especially zooming in on North-East Hungary, with local leaders in politics, civil society, business and the academic world. Actors and thinkers with excellent know-how and skill.

Less fuss, less bus, more to do and to discuss

Lessons of our previous tours, trainings and seminars thought us that besides the urgence and the relevance of the topic this edition will be: less time spent in the bus and more in the field. Also during the flow of the sustainability tour concrete take-aways, networking and active ‘to-do-listing’ will be facilitated. We aim to deliver : a realistic but hopeful approach also for those participants who are as local representatives of their communities often too busy with only ‘jobs-jobs-jobs’ trying to keep youth, young workers and families in the region against the tide of the all-to-well-known brain drain, and whom might tend to see sustainability as a luxury topic of lesser relevance.