A majority of traditional markets are nowadays experiencing a serious decline, thus threatening a tradition that stretches back to medieval times and in some cases even beyond. Markets have indeed been the backbone of many towns and city centres as well as the oldest form of commercial exchange. They still can play an important role in the regeneration of city centres and promoting 'greener' lifestyles among citizens.The basic idea of the project CENTRAL MARKETS is to help re-discovering the attractiveness of markets in eight target cities/regions by developing new and innovative market revitalisation strategies in order to reinforce and balance the relationship between city/regions and markets. Achievements: The CENTRAL MARKETS project aims to improve market attractiveness in 8 target cities/regions by developing new and innovative market revitalisation strategies in order to reinforce and balance the relationship between city/regions and markets. The CENTRAL MARKETS partners will implement 8 pilot actions for traditional market strategies that will strengthen cooperation among market stakeholders and test the methodological and analytical approach chosen. The project started in July 2012 under the coordination of the Lead Partner, City of Venice and with the cooperation of 8 partners from the Czech Republic, Slovak Republic Hungary, Poland, Italy and Slovenia.The first phase of the project was dedicated to the analysis and study of Central Europe market regulatory framework and on the evaluation of the Bolkenstein Directive impact on the market sector.This research activity continued with the collation of data on markets and on their governance systhem of legislation, policies, strategies and potential of the markets in Central Europe which draws a picture of city and regional markets in central Europe. A further output of this phase was the Draft strategy for the revitalisation of markets highlighting policy recommendations to animate and revitalise traditional markets in the urban/regional context. The Draft Strategy marks an important passage between the first phase of activities focusing on research and the second phase dealing with the implementation of Pilot Actions against which the effectiveness of the proposed revitalisation strategy will be tested. To link the Draft Strategy and the Pilot Actions, partners prepared Local Action Plans describing market activities contributing to the attainment of Strategy’s objectives. The implementation of Pilot Actions will focus on at least one of the following topics identified in the Draft Strategy: • improvement of market governance & related services; • adoption of efficient communication strategies for markets • development of innovative concepts for the creation of new markets in urban and peri-urban areas Different local dissemination events have been organised by partners in order to draw the attention of the general public on the issues faced by the project. In addition, project partners have constantly worked to ensure project visibility: the website is always updated with news and activities and different articles about the project appeared in the local press and in a magazine at EU level. Regarding the capitalisation of project results and networking activities, close relationships have been strengthened with other market-related EU projects (URBACT MARKETS, Marakanda, Medemporion) with reciprocal attendance at project meetings and the planning of common initiatives and EU level.