The Groupe de Bruges has given support to Schuttelaar & Partners to enter the tender for the setting up and management of the new network facility for the European Innovation Partnership (EIP) on ‘Agricultural Productivity and Sustainability’. The bid for the tender was submitted on October 15. At the beginning of April it became clear that the bid was won by the Flemish Land Agency (Vlaamse Land Maatschappij).
The EIP working group of the Groupe de Bruges will now focus on creating or giving support to operational groups as part of the Rural Development Programmes for the new period.
Following the success of the E-Learning Course on the CAP, the Groupe de Bruges is currently trying to find the funds to develop a complete update of the course and to make the course suitable for Smartphones. Unfortunately the application for a grant from the European Commission under the Information measures relating to the common agricultural policy was rejected. The Groupe de Bruges is currently assessing other possibilities.
Newsletter nr.5 Out now
Groupe de Bruges issued in May 2011 its 5th Newsletter. You can find the latest news regarding our organization`s involvement in the CAP reform process with useful insights in the projects that we are preparing for the upcoming year together with some of our present partners and some new ones.
Conference in Athens on April 8th
On April 8 the Groupe de Bruges, in collaboration with the MSc Programme "Integrated Rural Development & Management of Rural Space" of the Agricultural University of Athens, organized an international conference on the CAP Reform. The conference is entitled "Dilemmas of the CAP reform. Between competitiveness and public goods: can farmers deliver both?", that took take place on the campus of the AUA.
The conference was followed by a session of three parallel workshops, covering three of the main topics of the CAP reform: competitiveness, public goods and rural development.
The conference was webstreamed via the site www.ruraldevelopment.aua.gr. It was also possible to take part in the discussion through Twitter: @groupedebruges #DilemmasCAPreform.
The workshops programme can be downloaded here and the full conference programme can the downloaded here.
Newsletter 4, March 2011 out now
Groupe de Bruges issued in March 2011 its 4th Newsletter. You can find the latest news regarding our involvement in the CAP post 2013 reform together with useful insights into Groupe de Bruges‘ activity in the upcoming period.
Newsletter Nr. 3 now out
International conference on the future of the CAP
Interview Arie van den Brand for Jeunes Agriculteurs
Groupe de Bruges' president, Arie van de Brand explained the history of the Groupe de Bruges as well as its views on the CAP in the latest issue of Jeunes Agriculteurs, a monthly magazine with some 65,000 subscribers.
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Mr Dacian CIOLOS new Agriculture Commissioner
Since a few months, the European agricultural policy has a new boss: Mr Dacian CIOLOS, Minister of Agriculture of Romania in the years 2007 and 2008. It is expected that he and the other members of the new EU Commission will assume his new job on February 1st 2010. Although Ciolos was among all candidates campaigning exclusively for the Agriculture Department, he is also one of the most suitable for this portfolio.
Mr Dacian CIOLOS was born in 1969 and comes from the Romanian Zalau, about 50 miles northwest of Cluj-Napoca. He studied agriculture with a focus on horticulture. He graduated from the University of Agricultural Sciences and Veterinary Medicine in Cluj. In the 1990s, followed by further studies (e.g. "Production and Rural Development") at the Ecole Nationale Superieure Agronomique (Ensar) in Rennes and many months of practice at the regional organic organisation in Brittany and at the Agriculture Chambre of Aveyron. In 1997 he obtained his Master's degree from the Université Montpellier I. The National Institute (INRA) for agricultural research in Montpellierawarded him a doctorate in 2001.
In 2002-2003 the new agricultural commissioner was Task Manager for Agriculture and Rural Development at SAPARD and furthermore responsible for Romania's EU delegation. From 2005 to 2007 he was appointed as an adviser to the Minister and representatives of the Special Committee on Agriculture of the European Council to the Romanian Ministry of Agriculture. From October 2007 until December 2008 Dacian Ciolos was Minister of Agriculture of Romania and in this capacity as non-party candidate he offered a guarantee for the prevention of corruption in the context of the CAP money flow into Romania, that resulted from Romania's accession in 2007. As the government lost the election at the end of 2008, he was appointed chairman of the presential committee on agriculture and rural development for the Romanian president.
Mr Dacian Ciolos is a founding member of the organization "Agroecology", which was established in 1995, a globally oriented organization geared to develop sustainable food systems and to promote the application of agroecological research findings to solve global food and agri-environmental problems.
Ciolos became a member of the Groupe de Bruges in the year 2000. In the fall of 2008, still acting as Romanian minister for agriculture, Ciolos, in conjunction with the Groupe de Bruges, organized a conference that was devoted to an issue that is not only extremely important for central Europe, namely "smallholder agriculture". This showed, in contrast to the already here and there rashly expressed opinions about his possible European policy priorities (such as preference for the enlargement countries or large-scale agriculture) not only his personal affinities, but also offers a rather good starting point for the policy priorities of the new EU agricultural commissioner to come to a balanced, fair and common European policy for agriculture and rural areas.
By Dr. Franz Greif, member of the Groupe de Bruges
