Month: May 2011

No Picture
Recent updates

Update on the European Parliament’s ‘Dess’ Report

May 13, 2011 ARC

The European Parliament’s Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development is currently working on an own-initiative report “CAP towards 2020: meeting the food, natural resources and territorial challenges of the future” and the different political groups are now trying to find a common ground. This is done by agreeing on compromise amendments to the draft report which are meant to reduce the large number of amendments tabled by the committee members. The current draft compromise amendments, proposed by the rapporteur Albert Dess, are expected to reduce the number of amendments to be voted from 1300 to around 1000. But the staff of political groups continues exchanging views and believes that more work needs to be done in order to further reduce the sheer number of amendments and achieve a substantially shortened text. The report will need a concise structure and an unmistakable wording if the European Parliament, with its new co-decision powers, wants to send a clear and strong message to the European Commission and the Council of the Member States. Unsolved key points are the […]

No Picture
Recent updates

The Future of LEADER – An inside view by Robert Lukesch

May 13, 2011 ARC

From 27 – 29 April 2011,  the second conference of LINC (LEADER Inspired Network Community) took place in Bad Schandau (Sachsen, Germany). At the LINC conference, representatives of Local Action Groups (LAGs), stakeholders in rural development and for the first time also representatives from the European Network for Rural Development and the European Commission were present in this vibrant cooperation and networking event. ARC Core Group member Robert Lukesch (ÖAR Regional Consulting, Austria) attended the conference and summarised for us the main ideas of the European Commission’s plans for the future LEADER programme which were presented by Rob Peters, Head of the European Commission’s Unit “European Network for Rural Development and Monitoring of Rural Development”. The Commission expects initiatives and projects at sub-regional level to be crucial in achieving smart, sustainable and inclusive growth. The relevant legislative proposal is expected to be adopted by the Commission in autumn 2011 along with all other CAP post 2013 proposals. In this framework, LEADER is considered to become the main development instrument at sub-regional level and the Commission […]

Newsflash

ARC NewsFlash 2 May 2011

May 4, 2011 ARC

Rural development and the linking of EU Funds The CAP debate in Brussels: An inside view by Michael Dower For the last year, ARC has been calling for the CAP post 2013 to be focused on a Paradigm shift in agriculture and a Rural Renaissance. We urged that the current second pillar of the CAP, which contains the rural development measures, should be succeeded by a true Rural Policy, and that this Policy should have a strong element of local delivery, building upon the LEADER experience but able to draw down funds not only from the CAP but also from the Regional, Social and Fisheries funds of the EU. So, we were delighted when, in August last year, the Commissioners for Agriculture, Regions, Employment and Fisheries wrote a joint letter to the President of the Commission proposing that, from 2014 onwards, there should be a joint strategic framework for the rural, regional, cohesion, social and fisheries funds. In the ARC Communication, published in November 2010, we suggested how this link between the main developmental funds […]