Practice partners show how they succeeded

How can cities and municipalities remain capable of acting even with tight budgets, develop new sources of revenue and make their community more attractive for citizens, businesses and visitors?

This topic will be discussed by practical partners from rural areas who have driven their communities forward with great dedication and raised their profile nationwide. Representatives from the energy-independent village of Feldheim in Brandenburg and from the award-winning Smart Village Etteln in North Rhine-Westphalia will demonstrate how projects in the areas of renewable energies and digitalization can provide concrete impetus for municipal development, location attractiveness, and local value creation.

Image: AI-generated

Following the successful launch of the project in Zgorzelec (Poland), the second part of the German-Polish exchange on cross-border energy communities is now taking place in Görlitz (Germany). The European Commission has selected the joint project of Europastadt GörlitzZgorzelec GmbH, storie.pl, and Entwicklungsgesellschaft Niederschlesische Oberlausitz mbH, "Energizing Borders: Building Awareness, Identifying Opportunities," as a pilot project.

The Lausitz Café is our event series where we regularly meet with you to actively engage with the region. Here, we don't discuss things theoretically, but rather in a practical, everyday way: Each café focuses on different key topics related to structural change, and our goal is to find answers together with you to questions that concern us all.

On Tuesday, October 6, 2026 , we cordially invite you to the HOLZ youth center in Niesky . That evening, we would like to talk openly with you about career guidance .