Transcript Diapositive 1 - Irish National Rural Network

Adrian Neal
Contact Point of the European Network for Rural Development
Irish NRN Meeting, 1st December 2009, Dublin, Ireland
1.
EAFRD- European framework for cooperation
2.
What is cooperation?
3.
Why cooperate?
4.
What is a good cooperation project?
5.
Cooperation and networking
6.
EN RD CP and its tools to support Cooperation
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Axis 1
Axis 2
Axis 3
Axis 4
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Funded under Axis 4 (Leader) of the EAFRD through national or regional rural
development programmes from 2007-13
> Part of implementation of local development strategies by local action
groups (LAGs)
Transnational cooperation is promoted by the European Commission, but not
mandatory
> All rural development programmes have foreseen a budget for cooperation
within the Leader-axis
Was also part of Leader II and Leader+ initiatives
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TOTAL (expected) NUMBER OF LAGs

LAGs already selected:
2,003

Expected LAGs to be selected:
2,432
LAGs selection process: state of play

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18 / 27 Member States have completed selection process
7 Member States will close the selection process by end
2009
RO and BG will complete the selection process by end
2010 & 2011, respectively
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€265 million = 4.8% of the EAFRD budget for
Axis 4 (Leader), Inter-territorial and
transnational cooperation
Italy (45,7 million), Spain (33,8 million) and
Germany (30,2 million) are the Member States
with the highest amounts for cooperation
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2. What is cooperation?
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1.
Inter-territorial cooperation - cooperation between
different rural areas within a Member State:


2.
Requires at least one LAG selected under the Leader axis
Open to other local groups using a similar participatory
approach
Transnational cooperation - cooperation between
different rural areas from at least two Member States:
Requires at least one LAG selected under the Leader axis
Additional partners may include other local groups using
similar participatory approaches
 Also possible to extend cooperation to groups in third
countries following a similar approach


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The partner from a third country could be:

Public-private partnership

Local group active in rural development having the
capacity to prepare a local development strategy

An open partnership in which wider participation
of local actors is encouraged (i.e. from various
socio-economic sectors, including associations)
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Ireland: USA, Canada
Italy: Switzerland, Azerbaijan, Lebanon, Canada, Georgia, Syria, Turkey
Spain: Argentina, Bolivia, Colombia, Guatemala
Portugal: Angola, Argentina, Brazil, Cape Verde, Morocco, Uruguay
France: Morocco, Tunisia
Austria, Germany, Greece: Switzerland
United Kingdom: FYROM, Russia
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3. Why cooperate?
A luxury or a necessity?
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

Strengthening territorial strategies & local partnerships:
Can help to better meet changing needs and challenges
in cooperating areas
Reaching critical mass:
Pooling resources and expertise, the total benefits are
much greater than the sum of individual achievements

Improving competitiveness:
Finding new business partners & positioning on new
markets help promote local products & area of origin
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
Promoting innovation through new skills & approaches:
Adopting new & improved operational approaches can
generate knock-on socio-economic and / or
environmental benefits
Developing territorial identity and raising awareness:
Helping local people discover their area and history
(thereby becoming true ‘ambassadors’ of their areas)
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Following a territorial approach, thereby ensuring
local relevance and added value
Having a strong and clearly defined project idea that
will directly contribute to realising local
development strategic objectives
Going beyond simple information exchanges, to
include common actions which create tangible results
Planning properly for human resources
Building a strong partnership that will endure
beyond the project life
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Taking the time to establish
relations between actors
Step-by-step approach
Build on common issues/challenges
Early involvement of local decisionmakers
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1 . Getting ready to start

Give local stakeholders a reason to get interested/involved in cooperation

Consider creating a local ‘cooperation think tank’ to identify cooperation ideas
2. Preparing a cooperation project

Finding trans-national partner(s)

Meeting your partner(s) and agreeing to cooperate

Preparing a trans-national cooperation application for funding

Preparing a project monitoring framework
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Negotiating the financial aspects
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Bringing together the required resources (knowledge and technical); and
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Getting the financial, legal and administrative structures right
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3. Implementing the project
Ensure:
 Cooperation partnership organised (action plan accepted)
 Partnership formalised (validated/shared common goals)
 Cooperation partnership animated (guide and move project
forward)
4. Evaluation and valorisation
 Monitoring (agree and use target indicators) and evaluation
 Dissemination of results of the cooperation project (so that
others can benefit from the experiences)
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5. Cooperation &
Networking
Effective networking can help in:
 Finding suitable partners
 Preventing groups from
needing to reinvent the wheel
 Distributing ideas, innovations
and information
 Making issues and challenges
transparent and building
connections
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Article 67 of Regulation 1698/2005 establishes a European Network for
Rural Development

To collect, analyse & disseminate information on RD
measures/programs

To consolidate good rural development practice
To provide information on developments in rural areas
To support rural expert networks (notably for evaluation);
To support national rural networks
To support trans-national co-operation initiatives
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DG Agriculture
Coordination
Committee & Leader
Sub-Committee
Thematic Working
Groups
NRN
Support
Services
ENRD
Contact
Point
ENRD
Policy
Support
Services
National
Rural
Networks
ENRD
Information
Services
Managing
Authorities
Rural
stakeholders
including
LAGS
• Thematic Networks
• Events & workshops
• Information services
• Capacity building
NRN
Support
Services
• Coordination Committee
• Leader Sub-Committee
• Thematic Groups
ENRD
Information
Services
ENRD Policy
Support Services
• Publications
• Newsletter &
newsreel
• Information services
• Communication
tools
Developing an integrated European
Guide to Cooperation – recent survey:
Results revealed differences in MS’s in:
 Timing of decision-making, administrative
approaches and solutions.
 Format and detail of project applications
 Financial support provided for the preparation of
TNC projects
 Level of technical support provided for the
preparation of TNC projects
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Currently only examples from previous programming period:
•
•
•
•
Leader+ database of transnational cooperation projects
Leader+ database of Best Practice
Publications of the Leader+ Observatory (Magazine and
‘Best practice’ publications:
http://ec.europa.eu/leaderplus
Copies of the publications can be ordered for free via
[email protected]
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ENRD:
http://enrd.ec.europa.eu

DG AGRI – Rural Development:
http://ec.europa.eu/agriculture/rurdev/index_en.htm

Summaries of legislation – Rural Development:
http://europa.eu/scadplus/leg/en/lvb/l60032.htm

European Evaluation Network for Rural Development:
http://ec.europa.eu/agriculture/rurdev/eval/network/whatwedo
_en.htm
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