--- title: "§ The second scale — EU" lang: "en" canonical: "https://syntrociety.org/en/alignment/eu" datePublished: "2026-04-22" dateModified: "2026-05-02" --- # § The second scale — EU Five European frameworks, and how the federation addresses each as a starting condition rather than a target. ## § EU 1, European Green Deal — Climate-neutral, biodiverse, fair Europe by 2050. *The European Green Deal is our roadmap for making the EU's economy sustainable.* — European Commission · COM(2019) 640 · December 2019 The federation's daily operation is already aligned with the climate-neutrality target. Solar systems eliminate operational fossil-fuel use. Soil rebuilt by syntropic agroforestry sequesters carbon. Biodiversity returns where the canopy returns. The Green Deal target is 2050; the federation runs as if it were already 2050 in the places it can. What the federation contributes beyond its own footprint is the demonstration that climate-neutrality at the scale of a community is feasible without austerity, with food on the table, with dignified work, with people choosing to stay. The Green Deal will need many such demonstrations before it can persuade entire member states. The federation's task is to keep one available for reading at all times. ## § EU 2, Farm to Fork Strategy — Sustainable, fair, healthy food systems. *Putting our food systems on a sustainable path also brings new opportunities for operators in the food value chain.* — European Commission · COM(2020) 381 · May 2020 The federation produces food on the land where its members live. The supply chain is short by design: from soil to kitchen, often within a hundred metres. Surplus enters local circulation rather than crossing borders. The fair compensation Farm to Fork describes is not a promise to producers; it is the structural arrangement of a cooperative. Organic and regenerative are not labels here, they are practice. Each Lab keeps its own register of inputs, outputs, and methods. The mapping between what Farm to Fork asks for and what a federation Lab does is direct enough that the SYFERS records can be read as Farm to Fork compliance documentation, not a separate exercise on top. ## § EU 3, Long-term Vision for Rural Areas — Stronger, connected, resilient, prosperous rural areas by 2040. *Rural areas need to be at the heart of our actions. They have a vital role to play in achieving the Green Deal and a fair transition.* — European Commission · COM(2021) 345 · June 2021 Federation Labs settle in rural areas as a matter of principle. They bring qualified residents, multi-family commitment, and a long-term horizon to territories the market has marked as marginal. The Long-term Vision for 2040 describes what such territories need; federation Labs are already an instance of it. This is the territorial cohesion that the EU's binding instruments call for. Connectivity is treated as both physical and social. Internet access at the Lab is real; the cooperative form ties members to each other in ways no village arrangement could promise. The federation does not compete with rural revitalisation programmes; it shows what one form of rural revitalisation looks like when it is held by the people doing it rather than designed for them. ## § EU 4, New European Bauhaus — Beautiful, sustainable, inclusive design and habitation. *The New European Bauhaus is creative and interdisciplinary, connecting the European Green Deal to our living spaces and experiences.* — European Commission · COM(2021) 573 · September 2021 NEB is the framework the federation was made for. Beautiful, sustainable, inclusive: each Lab tries to be all three at once, as a matter of how the days are spent. Architecture is regenerative and material-light. Aesthetics emerge from competence rather than from imposition. Inclusion is the practice of receiving who arrives and supporting them well. What the federation offers NEB is not a project but a place. Visitors can come and stay. Residencies can be hosted. The integration of beautiful work with sustainable work with inclusive work happens in the kitchen, the workshop, the Council. The federation is one of the worked-out answers to the question NEB asks; one of many such answers Europe will need to develop. ## § EU 5, ORRI — Open and Responsible Research and Innovation. *Responsible Research and Innovation means anticipating the consequences of research and aligning it with the values, needs and expectations of society.* — Horizon Europe ORRI Working Group · 2024 ORRI is the framework SYFERS was built against. Each federation Lab registers its practice openly: members, decisions, methodology, ecological data, financial flows where appropriate. The records flow into the public SYFERS repository where researchers can read, cite, and verify them independently. Openness is not a virtue claimed by the federation; it is the architecture of how the work happens. What ORRI asks for, the federation provides as a default. Public engagement, ethics, governance, openness, anticipation: each is a structural feature of the cooperative form. For research projects looking for ORRI-compliant Living Labs, the federation is one of the few environments where ORRI is built in rather than added on. The connection between this page and the SYFERS portal at /research/syfers is direct: where ORRI is detailed, that is where the documentation lives. ## Sources - - - - -