The first seminar of the European Network for Rural Development (EN RD), entitled “Capacity building for national rural networks: the challenges of national rural networks to efficiently support the implementation of EU rural development policy”, took place in Brussels on the 30th and 31st of March.
Presentations from the seminar are available here.
Background and objectives of seminar
The National Rural Networks (NRN) have a clear and crucial role to play in supporting the implementation of EU rural development policy. In order that networks carry out this role successfully, it is also important that the necessary networking methods and tools are developed at all levels involved. The role of the European Network for Rural Development will be key in giving impetus to this process.
Sound networking strategies, methods and tools are of course very much part of the Leader heritage, and while they served the Leader community well under the previous initiatives, networking under the new Rural Development policy throws up new opportunities and challenges.
All rural stakeholders, and in particular representatives of the beneficiaries of the EU rural development policy as well as administrations involved in the implementation of the programs, are to become involved in these new rural networks. The activities carried out should ensure not only exchanges of good practice and cooperation between the different actors and countries, but also build active links and guarantee a flow of useful information both ways between the local, regional, national and EU levels.
The seminar, as a kick-off event of the EN RD, will thus aim at examining how these interlinks can be built as inclusively and efficiently as possible.Such a platform for exchanges between the actors of the European rural development policy should provide support to practitioners as well as to policy makers in the course of the implementation of the rural development programmes and for the future.