The founding act of the association of local leaders for small and rural European cities is signed in Purchena.
This Tuesday in the Plenary Hall of Purchena Town Hall, the founding act was signed with the intention of strengthening ties between the peoples of the Mediterranean to address a common problem; depopulation in rural areas.
The commitment to create the Association of local leaders for small and rural European towns was signed by representatives from Spain, Turkey, Greece, Italy and Portugal, who agreed on the need to create a network of small municipalities, whose aim is to give their inhabitants the same possibilities as larger cities.
The municipality has been working on this initiative since November 2020, but in countries such as Italy, where there are more than 300 integrated municipalities and 120 local leaders, the experience is 20 years.
The project in its initial phase seeks to obtain a diagnosis of the situation of depopulation in European rural areas, this being a common problem in rural areas of the continent, so the intention is that other countries outside the Mediterranean area will join the initiative later.
In the case of Purchena, a town which has been working on European proposals for many years, will hold the presidency of the new association, while Italy will hold the vice-presidency.
The mayor of the municipality, Juan Miguel Tortosa, said he was “proud to have the opportunity to host this meeting. We are a small town but with an important youth social life. We are confident that we can lead this project and I would like to thank our partners for this opportunity.
At the meeting, which was attended by local and provincial authorities, it was announced that Purchena will soon have an office for European projects which will operate in the old Town Hall building.