Cooperation for rural governance and Rural Proofing in Spain under the Coop4RURALGov project
On 26th and 27th of February 2026, a conference on the topic “Cooperation for rural governance and Rural Proofing: case studies and good practices for knowledge transfer between Navarra, Estonia, Bulgaria and Ireland” was held in Pamplona, Spain, within the frame of Coop4RURALGov project – “Rural Proofing. Cooperation for better sparsely populated rural, coastal and mountain focused governance”, co-funded by the Interreg Europe Programme 2021-2027. The event was attended by over 50 participants, including representatives from local administrations, national authorities, research institutions and other stakeholders from different partner countries.
During the first working day, the meeting started with a welcoming speech by the Spanish partners. After that, a round table was organised, which was divided into three different panels on the following topics:
- Lessons learned by the project Coop4RuralGov during this phase of exchange of experiences, and the progress that was made in each region;
- Rural Proofing in Navarra. Experiences of rural proofing and cooperation for rural governance and territorial cohesion in Navarra;
- Rural Proofing and cooperation for rural governance beyond Navarra.
On the second day of the event, the project partners delved deeper into best practices in Navarra. The good practices were focused on a new territorial diagnostic tool – a multidimensional indicator in Navarra, a study of floating population, as well as methodology and main results.
The event concluded with a participatory workshop to work in contrast with studies from other territories on possible improvements and applications to the “Guide for introducing the Depopulation variable into public policy planning”.
