Minutes from Board meeting 7/2010

Transcription

1 Minutes from ESIN Board meeting no 8/2016 Date and time of meeting Location Tuesday 13 th of December 2016 at 10-11:15 AM GMT Telephone conference 1 Opening Members attending Chair Approval Croatia: not attending Denmark: Dorthe Winter Estonia: not attending Finland: Pia Prost France: Denis Bredin Greece: not attending Ireland: John Walsh Italy: not attending Scotland: Camille Dressler Sweden: not attending Åland: Christian Pleijel Camille Dressler Quorate The agenda was approved 2 Approval of minutes from last Board meeting 9/2016 (November29) Approval of minutes Minutes from Board meeting 7/2010 The minutes were approved 3 News from the members France Finland Ireland New funding for energy measures on the islands, Ferry fares experiment for the coming years to be decided next week. ESIN has written a letter of support (attached). A major change in an existing system which will have severe implications for farmers and others. See Inishmore ferries were deadlocked for three days The letter to be published on ESIN site (besides being sent to the Finnish Minister) 1

2 Scotland Denmark because of dispute with Galway Council concerning levies introduced in 2011 on passengers travelling to and from the island. Islands overcosts are at 40% mainly due to transport of goods. Funding for the Island Pass obtained to launch the popular pass in several languages. 4 Finances Travel costs Financial statement Chairman Camille Dressler has spent 171,69 on traveling to Brussels for meetings on November. Details and receipts sent to our Financial Officer. The very reasonable costs were approved. The Financial Officer was asked to send us a written statement before the end of the year. 5 Discussion issues Smart Islands Declaration Kostas Komninos, Director of the DAFNI Network and former Project Manager of SMILEGOV, writes: Dear all, I hope this finds you well. With some of you we have met the last period and have discussed further on the Smart Islands Initiative, with others we haven't been in contact after the 1st Smart Islands Forum. We have been trying to conclude on a date for the Smart Islands Event in Brussels. This was a long and difficult process but finally we got a date. The event will finally take place in the Parliament on the 28th of March. This gives us the essential time to plan a successful event. The lead host Greek MEP will be Eva Kaili, member of the ITRE committee. We got a room for 120 people from 8:30-13:00. Booking that room was not an obvious exercise and we are happy to announce it. 2

3 The purpose of moving backwards the event was to ensure budget availability by the MEPS to cover expenses for participants travelling to Brussels. Towards the end of the year there wouldn't be any budget availability. Besides that we have made some updates on the Declaration signing procedure, we have produced some preliminary dissemination material and have promoted the event to key stakeholders. The feedback we have received up to now is very positive and we are looking forward to take the initiative some steps forward. Alkisti will contact you tomorrow about all the details for the next period. I would like to ask you to do your best the next few months to support and promote the Smart Islands Initiative. We believe that the initiative can deliver significant results both in terms of policy making and funding for our islands. Kind regards, Kostas See appendix 1. ESIN Chair Camille Dressler suggests: A reference ought to be made to us - ESIN - as a Pan-European island organisation in the document as it would then help identify us as one the actors in the actions following the Declaration. This suggestion has been sent to the board of DAFNI and they are looking at it. Meeting with Brendan Devlin of DG Energy ESIN Chair Camille Dressler and General Secretary Christian Pleijel met with Brendan Devlin of DG Energy on 14 th of November in Brussels. Mr Devlin sees the Smart Islands Declaration mentioned above only as a stepping stone. The support from DG ENERGY to islands as smart energy actors is shown in the speech Marie Donnelly of DG Energy made during Our Greek member HSIN has written a reply to DAFNI (attached), emphasizing the need to address island representatives that are on a local level of governance than local authorities, energy and environment agencies, namely local community boards and pointing out that ESIN represents 1,354 islands with 430,579 resident islanders, 4-5 million summer residents and ten times as many visitors, which is why we need to be part of the Smart Islands Initiative. We have had no reply to our letter, yet. No reply either to Chair asking DAFNI to add reference to Pan European Island Organisations in the text as was recommended by Olof Gill. Chair to go back to DAFNI on this. Scottish Islands Councils already contacted, but not possible for Ireland, France and Denmark to act on this before January. 3

4 the FOP22 meeting in Marrakech. Her desire to make islands self-sustainable with energy is to be translated into a more sustainable source of funding for the islands of Europe through the setting up of an island convention on the model of the existing Alpine Convention. This would include not only small islands but all the islands and would be much bigger as it would include the islands which are overseas territories. It would also need to have a frilly exclusive focus on energy. This may certainly have real potential for the islands but requires commitment from a number of countries with islands and obviously this is a more of a long term goal. Mr Devlin seems happy to use ESIN as "a helper" in disseminating this idea in the first place, and we discussed the possibility of brokering talks about this at our ESIN AGM for example, which he seemed to think might be a good idea. Meeting with Olof Gill Meeting with Olof Gill on 16 November to discuss way forward to lobby for small islands in Brussels. Olof had suggested a Small islands intergroup and now suggested a bit more through some blue sky strategic thinking. Like any stakeholder operating at pan- European level, ESIN should have as its ultimate aim a permanent presence in Brussels, where the key players for its work are located. Typically, organisations such as ESIN operate either in NGO, Trade Association, Lobby Group or Incorporated Business format. Having a "Permanent Secretariat" in Brussels need not be resource-heavy often smaller stakeholders have only one person in such a role, with the option of taking on interns to assist with certain tasks. (1) 2017: Associate ESIN closely with the Smart Islands Declaration Camille and Christian keep in contact with Mr Devlin. Mr Devlin has accepted provisional invitation to Orkney 2017 for OSF closing presentation on this idea combined with discussion with high level politicians (UK, other? ) 4

5 (including, where possible, specific references to the organisation). This will make clear the organisation's role as a key partner in delivering the Declaration's targets. (2) 2018: Elaborate a Small Islands Convention, similar to the Alpine Convention, as "a framework that sets out the basic principles of all the activities of the Small Islands Convention and contains general measures for the sustainable development in the European Small Islands". The convention would serve as an updated ESIN "Manifesto" and would link the islands to specific current and future EU priorities. Member States with ESIN islands would be lobbied to sign up to the convention, and MEPs as well as national and local elected representatives would be called on to support it. (3) 2019 (following May European elections): Establish a Small Islands Intergroup in the European Parliament. This would require signatures from MEPs in three of the EP's political groups. This is a significant lobbying exercise which would require years of work in advance of the 2019 European elections. Entrepreneurship project Notes from ESIN telephone meeting November 29 th : We all need to take a careful look at the programme manual (appendix 2). From the advice received from Interreg Europe, what we need to do is to go through the four steps of the following process: 1 Identifying the problems: for example, not enough young people and women getting into enterprise start-ups. We are not talking about education or employment barriers, here, but barriers in the application of It seems we need an ESIN engagement strategy short-middle- long term. Work group set up to look into this: Camille, Pia,Denis, Christian 5

6 policies. In our case, we need to look at step 2 first, and then go back to step 1! 2 What policies do the region (county, municipality) have in place to encourage young people and women to get into enterprise, through what policy strand? SME competitiveness for example, how does it translate on the ground for our islands and their fragile population? 3 Who are the bodies that are responsible for the policy: we presume this is the regions, but we need to understand better who is involved, so that we can see where the problems arise 4 We must persuade the bodies responsible of the policies that we can be involved in an advisory capacity and also facilitator on the ground so that a meaningful exchange programme can be put in place between the bodies responsible of implementation of that policy on the ground through Interreg Europe, and that we qualify as partners in the project. Water Saving Project Goal: to increase the number of local communities using technological and behavioural water saving measures for achieving cost and environment impact reduction. Indicators: Number of local communities that have included innovative technological and behavioural water saving measures in their water management plans. Outcomes: #1 Improved water management systems and policies on 8 islands #2 Number of participating island communities with drafted water saving plans implemented [80% in 4 years] #3 Percent reduction of yearly water usage Denis Bredin argues that this is a good project idea, but we should skip Interreg Europe as a possible source of finance. Links to the Smart Islands Declaration? Is Leader International a possibility (good references from Ireland, Denmark and Åland). Focus is still on youth and women. Everyone checks on their own Leader statutes and focus areas until next meeting. 6

7 #4 Number of days per year with water reduction measures Partners from ESIN would be two islands from HSIN/Greece, two islands from Otocni Sabor/Croatia, two islands from AIP/France and two islands from IIA/Ireland. Each island will participate with two people: its Mayor and its water management company CEO/Director. A project booklet with smart water saving measures will be published and a public conference in Brussels will be held (September/October 2017). ESIN has three important roles in the project: (1) it is our members who are the benchmarks, (2) we should attend the Brussels conference (financed by the project), and (3) we should disseminate the results among our islands. Draft budget: 124,000. Ferry fares It was proposed to make a comparative study of island ferry fares in ESINs 11 nations. Such a study would need to: 1. Have reliable figures on what the transport costs are, divided into ship cost (financial cost), staff cost, and bunker 2. Consider that ice-breaking ships are more expensive as is high sea transports compare to coastal traffic 3. Know to what extent the ferry traffic can capitalise on tourism income in high season 4. Understand the different, national systems for providing subsidies to different types of transport 5. Take into account what the cost level is in different countries and how large part of an islander s disposable income goes to ride the ferry (which mainlanders do not have to do) After this, you can make a comparison. Finally, you might come to The project planning has been running for some time now. It has not yet been presented to its mentor Tonino Piccula in Brussels. If he supports the idea, we will get funding to have an initial partner meeting, possibly in January. 7

8 conclusions. It is also important to see each system in its national context. For example, in Finland, the cost for businesses has suddenly increased enormously. Such major changes in an existing system makes people think it is unreliable and that they do not dare to live and work in the archipelago. So, it is not only the cost level but also the level of change that is important. Everyone interested should send Christian basic facts to start such a study. 6 Next AGM AGM 2017 Dates: September Parallel to the Orkney Science Festival. The first day (11/11) would be dedicated to the Orkney and its cultural landscape. The second day (12/11) would include a study visit to Westray, famous for its energy solutions, and a focus on island transport. The third day (12/11) is meant to be an energy day with contributions from France, Samsø and with the participation of Mr Devlin from DG Energy. Chair to send a basic summary of AGM outline & interface AGM/OSF of proposed 4 day event (arrival Sunday 10 Sept leave Thursday 14 Sept) Must ensure connexions with last year s theme. 7 Next meetings Topic Date and time Notes January 10 th 10 AM (GMT) February 21 st 10 AM (GMT) Camille Dressler Chairman Christian Pleijel Secretary 8