Why & How

2013 -2015 Leader project – Birth of EMM Network

In 2013 we started with the creation of an International network of EMM (network of Emblematic Mediterranean Mountains)

Created in October 2013 by actors from around Europe, meeting in Canigó (France) to share their ambitious network. This Network was launched under the initiative of three rural areas from France, Greece and Bulgaria working within the framework of local Leader programmes (funded by European Agricultural Fund of Rural Development).

This creation was motivated by the will to address specific common challenges:

  • To preserve patrimonial values from endogenous and exogenous threats.
  • To share positive experiences and good practices.
  • To increase international recognition.

Partners decided to use the term EMbleMatiC to characterize the experience associated to the unique and exceptional nature of their mountains territories and to create a common charter summarizing their common values and their 6 common emblematic criteria.

2016-2019 EMbleMatiC Interreg MED Cooperation project

In 2015, we applied for an Interreg MED Cooperation Project for the 2016-2019 period

The partnership was expanded in 2015 with new mountains identified; sharing commons issues in relation to unbalanced tourist flow concentrations and confirming their will to propose a new positioning for their tourism development policy.

The EMbleMatiC project’s overall objective was to create and test a NEW and radically different tourism offer based on the features of the involved mountains and offering an alternative to the traditional holiday by the sea.

The project’s strategic objectives were:

    • To re-balance tourist flows concentrations between the sea and the mountain, to extend the season and to improve economic returns for the territories.

    • to co-build and experiment a slow tourism offer located in the hinterland coastal mountainous area (by the creation of 9 eco-itineraries based on the emblematic singularities of each territory)

    • to improve the international recognition of our singularities: shared communication actions should lead the territories toward the definition

2021-2022 EMbleMatiC PLUS Interreg Med transferring project

In 2021, we were selected to transfer our knowledge within Interreg MED

The partnership expanded in 2021 with four new mountains identified; to transfer them our output “Transferability guide for the implementation of an eco-itinerary”.

The Interreg MED programme provided the perfect framework for this new shared ambition and the successful outcome of the evaluation gave the opportunity to implement the EMbleMatiC PLUS project.

In Future

After 2022 the network should evolve

Should the evaluation of our work prove positive, more mountains that satisfy our criteria could join the network to evolve their tourism policies.