• to provide rural civil societies with an opportunity to discuss and express views on the current challenges of rural development in Europe and beyond it;
• to create a space for exchanging experience and ideas, in particular to stimulate an exchange between rural actors from those Central and Eastern European countries which are already EU members, and those which are preparing for accession, especially from the South Eastern European region;
• to promote dialogue between the public, private and NGO sectors.

PREPARE Gathering 2009

 30 June to 4 July 2009 in Slovenia and Croatia

Rural Economic Recovery and EU Enlargement in South-Eastern Europe

focusing on involvement of civil society in the new member states, accession countries and new neighbour countries

PREPARE – Partnership for Rural Europe – aims to strengthen civil society and promote transnational cooperation in rural development, especially in the new member states, accession countries and the “new neighbour countries” of the enlarged European Union. An essential component of the PREPARE programme are multinational events – the “PREPARE Gatherings”.

The PREPARE Gathering 2009 is a linked series of events in Croatia and Slovenia, aiming to bring together representatives of civil society, public and business sector, primarily from Central and South-Eastern Europe (SEE), on the issue of rural development. The main objectives are:

- to provide opportunity to rural communities to discuss and express views on the current challenges of rural development in Europe and beyond it;

- to create a space for exchanging experience and ideas, in particular to stimulate an exchange between rural actors from those Central and Eastern European countries which are already EU members, countries in accession and those preparing for accession, especially from the SEE region;

- to promote dialogue between the public, business and civil sectors.

The planned events comprise:

30 June (or 1 July by 8:30 a.m.):  participants arrive to Stubicke Toplice (near Zagreb)

July 1: a series of “Travelling Workshops” – study visits of small groups focusing on good practices in sustainable, bottom-up rural development in Croatia and Slovenia;

July 2: a conference in Slovenia focusing on economic recovery of the European rural areas, including actions and measures undertaken by the EU and member state governments; reports from the study visits;

July 3-4: PREPARE Gathering in Croatia, including:

- presentations of situation in countries, discussions on potential and needs of rural civil society, building of rural networks and strengthening cooperation between EU member countries, accession countries and neighbouring countries from the SEE region;

- exchange of ideas for future action of the PREPARE programme, with particular attention to the SEE region.

Throughout the event, the participants will be accommodated in Stubicke Toplice, a spa 40 km to the north-west of Zagreb, famous for its hot water springs.  As in previous years, cost of participants from Central and South-Eastern Europe, including a substantial part of the travel costs, will be covered by the organisers.

Invitation

Registration form and instructions

1. PREPARE Partnership for Rural Europe is a partnership of two pan-European NGOs and ten national rural movements or networks committed to the well-being of rural communities, particularly in the new member states and accession countries of Central and Eastern Europe.

2. We welcome the Health Check of the CAP, while noting its limited scope vis-à-vis rural development.

3. Purposes of rural development. We note the statement in the Explanatory Memorandum of the Health Check that:

“The strengthened rural development policy supports the protection of the environment and rural landscapes and creates growth, jobs and innovation in rural areas, especially those which are remote, depopulated or heavily dependent on agriculture.”

We strongly support this statement of purposes. However, we believe that the current Health Check proposals will not assist the strengthening of national efforts to achieve these purposes.

4. Funding of rural development. We welcome the proposals for increased modulation from Pillar 1 to Pillar 2, as part of the trend towards a true Rural Development Policy in which agriculture plays its important role in partnership with all players of an integrated rural economy. However, we note with discontent that modulation as suggested now will bring no benefits to the New Member States until at least 2012. These new member states need increased rural development funding from other sources if they are indeed to achieve the purposes quoted at paragraph 3 above.

5. Maintenance of farming throughout the EU.  We welcome the commitment expressed in the Health Check to maintain farming throughout the EU, including the less productive lands and the smaller producers. We note and welcome the exceptions which are proposed in order to help farmers in marginal areas, or small producers generally, such as retention of coupled payments for suckler cows, sheep and goatmeat, as well as retention of direct payments to small farmers in member states whose agricultural sector is mainly composed of very small holdings.

However, we believe that these measures alone will not ensure the long-term viability of the rural communities in these areas. We urge Member States to commit themselves to support strong local development strategies in such areas, implemented through measures which may include:
- direct payments, using the exceptions mentioned above;
- agri-environment payments, recognising the high quality of ecosystems biodversity and landscapes that have been created, and are maintained, by traditional farming systems;
- support to semi-subsistence farmers, focused on supporting their economic viability, rather than their competitiveness in a pan-European sense;
- exceptions, where appropriate, from the application of EU hygiene and other standards for the production and processing of local products;
- support, through Rural Development Programmes, but also through other public programmes such as those co-funded through the ERDF and the ESF, for the strengthening and diversification of rural economies, social facilities and infrastructure, and for improving the quality of life of the whole rural community.

We believe that such an integrated approach at local level is essential in order to prevent a vicious cycle of out-migration, depopulation, further loss of services, decline in bio-diversity and landscape quality, and the adverse impact upon the cities of mass migration from rural to urban areas. Local development of this kind can contribute to all three of Europe’s prime missions – competitiveness, cohesion and sustainability.

6. The ‘new’ challenges. We note the emphasis in the Health Check upon the ‘new’ challenges of climate change, renewable energy, water management and biodiversity. We accept that these are indeed among the priorities of the EU, although they are not really ‘new’ and are partly the result of unsustainable farming practices. We accept the potential, stated in the Explanatory Memorandum, for action through the RD programmes to address these priorities. However, we would like to point out that these challenges need to be addressed across the whole range of EU programmes, notably the Regional and Social Funds, research and development, as well as programmes and capacity building specific to energy, climate, water management and biodiversity. In this wide policy context, rural development policy is indeed (as stated in the Explanatory Memorandum to the Health Check) only ‘one of the possibilities to deal with these challenges’.

7. Maintaining the rural populations. We are gravely disappointed that the crucial challenge of maintaining the rural populations has not been mentioned in the Health Check. We believe that sustainable development of rural areas needs, above all, policies that would support the maintenance or creation of new sources of income for the rural people, both within the agricultural sector and outside it.

We are convinced that the people living in rural communities, who have to meet these challenges in their daily life, need much better support through capacity building and specific education, as well as opportunity to truly participate in the planning and implementation of RD programmes and projects. We believe that the LEADER method is in this context the best practice and needs to be used to strengthen rural communities in shaping their own future.

Thus, we urge for a stronger coordination and complementarity (not limited to ‘demarcation’) between measures and activities aiming at rural development and those linked to the cohesion policy, which can significantly contribute to improved livelihoods of the rural populations.

PREPARE response to the CAP Health Check proposal (PDF)

The idea of the exchange programme arose through contacts of PREPARE with its national partners and the perceived need to develop human resources and ensure better exchange of experiences within the PREPARE group of countries. It was supported by Fondation de France through Forum Synergies, a partner in PREPARE.

The first exchange programme was announced in late 2007, when the potential participants and hosts were invited to submit their profiles and work programmes. The interest was not very high, mainly due to the lack of language skills on both sides (trainees and hosts) and the short period within which the exchange had to be carried out. The second issue can be dealt with in the next round of scholarships, but the first one will remain a barrier to a more wide-spread use of this instrument.

Three pairs of trainees+hosts were approved:

- a trainee from Estonia visiting a Local Action Group in Finland,
- a trainee from Romania visiting the Slovakian Rural Parliament (the Slovakian partner in PREPARE);
- and a trainee from Serbia also visiting the Slovakian Rural Parliament.

The three exchange programmes have been successfully completed:

- Mai Kolnes from the Estonian Village Movement Kodukant visited the Finnish LAG Keski Suoment Kylat ry from the 14th to the 28th of March, 2008;
- Zsuzsanna Incze from Civitas Foundation for Civil Society in Romania visited the Slovakian Rural Parliament from the 26th of February to the 10th of March, 2008;
- Danijela Stajic from the Educational Centre in Leskovac visited the Slovakian Rural Parliament from the 14th to the 23rd of May, 2008.

The three trainees (young women actively involved in rural civil society) were received in organisations which are carrying out numerous projects dealing with rural development. In each organisation there was someone nominated to look after the trainee and ensure that the learning process was smooth. The trainees participated in the normal activities of the host organisations, but they also took some time to get acquainted with project reports and documents. The number of field visits in which both of them participated is quite striking and it shows that the host organisations really made efforts to show the trainees a wide range of projects and to enable them to meet various actors and communities.

The trainees prepared their work programme in advance and they looked for specific answers to questions which would be relevant to their communities. In the Romanian-Slovakian case the main focus was on the preparation of the Slovakian rural areas for Leader (which, in the framework of EU funding for 2007-2013, is new both to Slovakia and to Romania; however, in Slovakia many preparatory activities and Leader-type actions have already been carried out). In the Estonian-Finnish case the main focus was the organisation of village activities and the preparation for training of village leaders. The Serbian trainee was particularly interested in work with community leaders and local governments.

It should be noted that all three trainees state clearly that the goals of their visits have been fulfilled and that they obtained the information and experience they were looking for. They also indicate in their reports concrete ideas on how to utilise this information and experience in their everyday work at home. The fact that the trainees note differences in organisational style and culture of their host organisations compared to their home country seems to indicate that they got a good understanding of the local conditions and have benefited from the exchange also as a cross-cultural experience.

There were some (very few) negative aspects of the exchange: in the Romanian case the main barrier is limited communication in Slovakia because of the language; in the Estonian case the learning possibilities were limited because the host organisation in Finland did not receive grant for a project which it was hoping to show to the trainee. However, the overall impression of the exchange was in all cases very positive, and the hospitality and good organisation by the hosts was highly appreciated.

All three trainees wrote full reports describing activities and visits carried out on each day, as well as a summary of their main learning points. They also provided the full list of expenses and all the receipts, tickets and other financial documents in original to the PREPARE Coordinator.