Input paper for the Swiss strategy for development of mountain regions and rural areas. It identifies the main challenges for mountain and rural regions from a European perspective. It complements these insights with an analysis of particular challenges for mountain and rural regions in Switzer-land. The paper proposes the following six overarching challenges: 1) Global competition, innovation pressures and structural changes in the economy of mountain and rural areas; 2) Increasing social and cultural heterogeneity; 3) Sustainability of physical and social infrastructure investments; 4) Changing framework conditions for the exploitation of environmental goods and serves and the impacts of climate change; 5) Increasing physical and functional interdependence of rural and urban areas; 6) Increasing institutional complexity for coordinating sectoral policies.