About Us

European Country Net (ECN) is the name of the EEIG formed by Local Action Groups and other partners and has branches in many different European countries. The acronym EEIG stands for European Economic Interest Grouping, a new legal entity based on Community law. It is a legal instrument developed by the European Union to promote and facilitate cross-border cooperation and to pool the knowledge, skills and resources of economic operators from two or more countries belonging to the EU. The European legislators intended this legal instrument to enable small and medium-sized enterprises to take part in projects bigger than their size would otherwise allow and provide strategic, logistic and legal support for members. European Country Net EEIG is headquartered in Sorsele, in Swedish Lapland. It was formed in March 2004, when a small group of founding members decided to adopt the EEIG instrument to optimize the management of their co-operative projects. In compliance with European procedures, European Country Net is registered in Sweden’s EEIG registry and notice was published in the Official Journal of the European Communities (S series).

Territories

Europe is a small continent with a surface area of only 10,400,000 km² (just a little bigger than Australia). With a population of 799,000,000 (2003 statistics), it is the third most populated continent in the world (after Asia and Africa), equal to one-eighth of the world’s population. A long stretch of sea defines the natural borders of Europe. To the north, Europe borders on the Arctic Ocean, to the west the Atlantic Ocean, to the south the Mediterranean Sea, to the south-east, the Black Sea and the Caucasus, to the east, the Caspian Sea, the Ural Mountains and the Ural River. The continent shows wide topographical variations over relatively small areas. The southern regions are predominantly mountainous while, going northwards, the land slopes down from the Alps, the Pyrenees and the Carpathian Mountains, towards hilly upland plateaus and then to the wide lowland plains of the north, especially vast in the east.

Italy, or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe, its capital is Rome. Traditionally called ‘the boot’ because of its characteristic shape, Italy comprises 20 regions and has a mild, moderate climate.

Sweden is a constitutional monarchy in Northern Europe, belonging to the Nordic region, and is situated in the eastern part of the Scandinavian Peninsula. At 449,964 km², Sweden is the fifth largest country by area in Europe, after Russia, the Ukraine, France and Spain. Its land is predominantly mountainous and its climate, despite its location in the far northern region of Europe, is surprisingly mild.