Local Development, Good Governance and Inclusion

• Consultation with relevant stakeholders, including with local authorities’ associations, shall be carried out during the development of the Concept Note.
• Investment in infrastructure and equipment (hard measures) shall only be supported alongside capacity building, training, or experience sharing (soft measures).
• Measures supporting environmentally sustainable local development, including efforts to strengthen sustainable mobility and greener local infrastructure shall be explored.
• The maximum level of funding for investment in infrastructure and equipment (hard measures) shall be approximately 50%. The final level shall be set in the Programme Agreement.
• The possibility of pre-defining projects shall be explored when developing the Concept Note.
• The programme shall prioritise groups in vulnerable situations and under-served areas, including less‑developed regions, rural and peripheral communities, and groups facing barriers to participation or access to services. A gender perspective shall be integrated throughout the programme.
• The programme shall support greener, more inclusive and more sustainable local communities in Slovenia, addressing territorial disparities and strengthening local capacities based on municipal needs.
• The programme shall support local democracy and open local government, including measures that reinforce transparency, participation, information integrity and good local governance.
• The programme shall support social inclusion and digitalisation, including measures that support community participation and social cohesion, and measures that strengthen digital inclusion and digital skills. A call for proposals combatting hate speech shall be developed in partnership with the Council of Europe.
• The public institution(s) in the Republic of Slovenia in charge of the relevant policy area(s) shall be actively involved in the preparation and implementation of the programme.

No projects have been signed under this programme. That is a real state rather than a gap in the data: bilateral funds and newly agreed programmes both sit here.