An unusual political creature celebrates twenty years of cooperation between a wide range of committed government officials, rural and agricultural stakeholders and experts and rural communities and activists. On 14 May, Ohrid in North Macedonia saw a colourful gathering of all who had contributed to this remarkable success story of making worlds, often too far away from each other, meet and support each other in times following war and tensions in the region.
For two decades, the Standing Working Group on Regional Rural Development in South-Eastern Europe (SWG) has been dedicated to building a platform on which governments and experts can meet regularly to coordinate measures advancing agriculture and rural development. SWG serves as an interactive platform also including regional studies on key challenges for the Western Balkan region, including projects and NGOs working at local level.
With a network of around 200 professionals involved in working groups of regional advisory experts, SWG carries valuable knowledge to support better policy and decision making across the South-Eastern Europe region. The network has a strong commitment to the Green Agenda for the Western Balkans, addressing challenges such as climate change, soil protection, organic farming, demographic renewal and democratic community governance, and promoting sustainable rural economies.
Hannes Lorenzen spoke with Boban Ilic, co-initiator and Secretary General of the Standing Working Group on Regional Rural Development in South Eastern Europe, at the 20-year anniversary gathering in Ohrid, North Macedonia.
HL: You celebrate today 20 years of spreading a spirit of cooperation in rural regions of the West Balkans. Over these years, you and your team have made great efforts to bring together people and countries that were previously at war. You have mobilised ministers, experts and local communities to work together. Was it worth it, and where is SWG standing today?
BI: Indeed, we have come a long way. That we are today here in Ohrid together with such a strong crew of Ministers, European experts and enthusiasts for rural development is a true miracle and an amazing success story. We started as dreamers, became visionaries and then together started to cross borders: physical, emotional and political borders which had made our lives so difficult, especially for rural people. “Standing Working Group” may sound like a funny name today. But in fact, it is. We stand for political dialogue, expertise and cooperation between our countries, we work with ministries and rural people, and we have become a group despite the many diverse interests and challenges we face. SWG started in times of deep mistrust and bad weather here in Ohrid. We put our feet down in villages and our ears into the corridors of power. After 20 years we have reached a high level of trust and recognition. This is a good basis for struggling on.
HL: In an interview you gave us three years ago [for the book Rural Europe Takes Action – No More Business As Usual] you expressed disappointment about the process of accession of your Balkan region to the EU. Are you more optimistic now?
BI: Honestly, I cannot say that. And it’s not just me. It’s a general feeling of our people. The hope that our efforts to prepare for accession would be valued and that the process for accession would be accelerated has even further evaporated. Yes, there are still many problems to be solved in all our countries. But no, we do not feel that many EU member states and the Commission are ready to help us in. We are grateful for continuous cooperation with governments like Germany, and broad support from many Commission services. But the attitude to keep us in the waiting room, because the EU has too many internal patients in treatment, ignores what we have to offer. In Serbia students have been in the streets for months to challenge the government’s corruption and establish democracy. Where is Europe? Does interest in rare earth minerals and control of migration come before European values?
HL: Speaking of interests: the EU is running a rollback on its environmental and climate ambitions. The Green Deal has lost its teeth. Your countries have followed the EU’s former ambitions with your Balkan Green Agenda. Will you follow the new EU trend?
BI: No, we will not. We see the dramatic impact of climate change and loss of biodiversity on our farmland and in nature. We cannot ignore that. Over the past two decades we have done a lot of very useful studies and research in soil, forest and water management, which are supporting our governments in implementing the Green Agenda. We organise advisory work and training on better practices, but we also focus on our socio-economic problems related to that agenda, like empowerment of women and youth. Beyond collecting data and awareness raising we mobilise people to take responsibility and ownership of their problems and their solutions. That happens mainly on the farms and fields, not in offices.
HL: You have promoted and supported a bottom-up approach for cooperation in rural development like the LEADER initiative and Community-Led Local development. However, the key word for a future CAP now seems to be global competitiveness. That does not sound like cooperation. There are rumours that LEADER rural development funding could end up in young farmers’ investment schemes for competitiveness. What does your region need for future farming and rural?
BI: The LEADER approach is the best the EU has ever invented to strengthen innovation and self-governance in rural regions. We have indeed promoted and applied this method in the Western Balkans. However, we do not get relevant financial and structural support for LEADER measures as EU members do. It’s a bit like recommending to us sustainable fishing equipment but no net or boat to catch the fish. Should LEADER – and a strong budget for rural development, including infrastructure for sustainable farming and food production – be cut, that would be a very wrong signal. It would not solve the problems of demographic change and migration, or the problems of farmers and the protection of soils and our natural resources.
HL: Beyond the annual Policy Forum and Ministerial Meeting which you organise, SWG has supported civic networks like the Balkan Rural Development Network (BRDN) and national rural parliaments. You also support the Michael Dower Award for Rural Resilience, and initiatives for preservation and sustainable use of seeds. Are these worlds apart or can they join somehow to make the voice of the Western Balkans better heard in Europe?
BI: It is indeed not easy to make these worlds meet and trust each other. But why should that be different from the difficulties existing within these worlds? We are emotional and stubborn in the Balkans. That can be a hurdle or an asset, depending on how we use it. When we think “we” instead of “me”, like a good football team, then we can win. That is true in a village, in a diverse region like ours, and in Europe. To be honest, it is a constant struggle. But when you see how we can celebrate 20 years of SWG, across all cultural, political and governance differences, dance and sing together, that sounds like a very strong “we”. The EU should not miss that. We at SWG, and as Balkan people, feel like Europeans, and we would be happy if we could team up with other European-minded people to defend what we share as human and democratic virtues and values. They are so often quoted in speeches and conferences, they should be live with us.
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