Pressure groups and the defense of European mountain areas

The debate over the possibility of implementing a European mountain policy has been ongoing since the mid 1980s. Numerous pressure groups have been working to turn this possibility into reality by lobbying the different authorities in Brussels. The purpose of this article is to identify these groups, certain of which have been active for some thirty years. In most cases, they are made up of groups from national organisations. The diversity of the representations of the place occupied by mountain areas within the different European countries has for a long time hindered the emergence of convergent approaches. Significant changes have taken place, however, since the beginning of the 1990s. The diffusion of ideas relating to sustainable development at the Rio Conference of 1992, underlining the specific situation of the mountain areas of the world, has played a most important role. Analysis shows that the defence of sectional interests has evolved towards a defence of the mountain areas of Europe. At the same time, a Europeanization movement is gaining ground within the international organisations for the protection of nature. Will the recent grouping together of certain pressure groups into networks move us further along the road to an overall policy for the defence of the mountain areas of Europe

Diversity (politics) · Economic geography · Economy · Geography · Political science · Regional science · Cross-Border Cooperation and Integration · Law · Rural development and sustainability