GENERAL ASSEMBLY 2015

Transcription

1 GENERAL ASSEMBLY November 2015 Brussels, Belgium Chairman: Juanan Gutierrez, President of Euromontana Report: Ana Popartan, interim director *** MEMBERS PRESENT OR REPRESENTED: 1 Adrien Eric Conseil Général du Gard 2 Agapi Ioan FAM Dorna 3 Amador Rosa ADVID 4 Andonovski Vlatko MAKMONTANA 5 Arnesen Tor Eastern Norway Research Institute 6 Azevedo João IPB/CIMO 7 Balbinot Stefano Centro Consorzi 8 Bertović Danijel Local development agency PINS 9 Borodine Geneviève Conseil Régional de Rhône-Alpes 10 Carlos Cristina ADVID 11 Chalumeaux Dominique Assemblée Permanente des Chambres d'agriculture 12 Clarke Robin Highlands and Islands Enterprise 13 Cornelissen Tony SIDAM 14 Cruege Matthieu Parc Naturel Régional des Pyrénées Ariégeoises 15 Diterich Sybille Rhone Alpes bureau Brussels 16 Douniès Bruno Association Porc Montagne 17 Egger Thomas Groupement Suisse pour les Régions de montagnes (SAB) 18 Eriksson Monica Oppland County Council Authority 19 Fayel Dominique FNSEA 20 Fernandez Jone HAZI 21 Fouché Emilie Conseil Régional d'auvergne Society for the Development of the 22 García Beatriz Province of Burgos (SODEBUR) 23 Geneix Léa SIDAM 24 Giorgi Anna Universita della Montagna (UNIMI) 25 Gning Théo FNSEA Development Centre of the Heart of Slovenia 26 Gradišek Aleksandra 27 Grillo Mario CIA 28 Gutierrez Juanan HAZI/Euromontana 29 Hoffmann Christian European Academy of Bolzano (EURAC) 30 Hove Aud Oppland County Council Authority 31 Hustveit Lars Sogn og Fjordane County Municipality 32 Kjellevold Thrond Telemark County Council 33 Kjelsnes Aashild Sogn og Fjordane County Municipality 34 Kristan Miro Posoški razvojni center 1

2 35 Lentini Gianluca POLIEDRA - Politechnico di Milano 36 Luis Elizondo Basque Government 37 Maier Thomas Federal Office for Agriculture (Mission of Switzerland to the EU) 38 Maiz Damiana HAZI 39 Marcon André MACEO 40 Marmier Sylvain FNSEA 41 Masotti Daniela ERSAF 42 Myrland Trond Buskerud County Authority 43 Parravicini Elisabetta ERSAF 44 Percie Du Sert Thierry ARPE Midi Pyrénées 45 Pizarro Ricardo Society for the Development of the Province of Burgos (SODEBUR) 46 Podgornik Jana Posoški razvojni center 47 Price Martin University of the Highlands and Islands (UHI) 48 Roberts Dave The Highland Council 49 Rønning Dag Hedmark County Council 50 Savšek Ana Development Centre of the Heart of Slovenia 51 Sinclair Audrey The Highland Council 52 Talo Michele Centro Consorzi 53 Vaagen Kjell Hedmark County Council 54 Valentini Filippo Confederazione italiana agricoltori (CIA) 55 Vernières Laeticia APCA 56 Zilio Emanuela Universita della Montagna (UNIMI) SENATORS: Frank GASKELL SECRETARIAT: Marie CLOTTEAU Ana POPARTAN Alice DOS SANTOS *** Minutes of the ordinary General Assembly Welcome and opening- Juanan Gutierrez Feedback on the main highlights and achievements of the new programming (European Parliament s intergroup, Civil Dialogue Groups) and overview of the main challenges for the network in the years to come Juanan Gutierrez first recalled that on the 4 th March 2016, Euromontana will celebrate its 20th anniversary: he invited all members to celebrate this key moment during our next European Mountain Convention (EMC) in Bragança from the 3 rd to 5 th October He presented Euromontana s priorities, the the most recent changes in the European context and how Euromontana has dealt with them. He i emphasised in particular the links created with three different types of organisations. 1. The European Parliament and the new RUMRA (Rural Mountains and Remote Areas) parliamentary Intergroup: Euromontana is one of the three associations officially supporting the intergroup; a structure that allows Euromontana to work closely with MEPs on issues of interest for the mountain areas. Though created in 2015, the RUMRA 2

3 intergroup has already registered significant achievements. The presentation of the Declaration on high speed Internet for rural and mountain areas and the request of a White Paper on Rurality handed to Commissioner Corina Cretu were accomplished through RUMRA. The existence of this Intergroup is a major achievement for Euromontana. The Intergroup will be active until 2019 and it is Euromontana s mission to animate and take advantage of this entry point to the EU Parliament. 2. The European Commission and the Civil Dialogue Groups (CDG): Euromontana managed to maintain one seat in the CDG on Common Agriculture Policy, one seat in the CDG on Rural Development and one seat in the CDG Quality and Promotion until This is another key achievement that will enable Euromontana to influence the European Commission. 3. The European network of rural development (ENRD) and the EIP-AGRI: Euromontana has managed to secure a seat on the General Assembly and a rotating seat on the Steering Group up to 2020: another important asset to follow-up rural development, in particular regarding innovation. Thanks to these three major accomplishments, Euromontana can be an important EU actor in rural development. On the newly approved funding programmes ( ), Juanan Gutierrez explained that Euromontana has tried to influence the content of these funding schemes through public consultations (such as for INTERREG EUROPE). This new programming can provide several interesting options for mountain people. Now we have to seize these opportunities and submit project proposals. The Secretariat has participated in several project proposals in 2015, despite the low success rate in EU projects. Among them the most promising were MOUNTAGRINNET, Water4Agri and SIMRAall submitted under the Horizon 2020 programme. He mentioned some of the latest successful proposals like the PEGASUS project on ecosystem services (Horizon 2020) and the Silver Tourism (Erasmus +) on tourism for elderly people, where Euromontana is a partner. There are several other programmes like the Alpine Space, MED or SUDOE programmes to which the Euromontana Secretariat will encourage the members to participate. Regarding the context of Euromontana as an organisation, Juanan Gutiérrez explained that the network has increased by 11 additional members in 2014, while in 2015, 4 new members have joined. Connections between members have been reinforced thanks to a survey and the work of the Secretariat to help members to elaborate project proposals in Alpine Space, MED or SUDOE programmes. To face the difficulties encountered in 2015, Board members have been asked to reinforce their support and their work on the different areas of thematic of interest. Juanan Gutiérrez thanked all Board Members for their involvement and their help. In conclusion, Juanan Gutierrez detailed three key challenges for the coming years: 1. The need to maintain a balanced, united and representative network all over Europe: some geographical areas face more difficulties to maintain members within the network. The creation of the South Eastern Europe (SEE) focus group in 2014 should for instance be revive despite the difficulties to find the necessary resources to animate it. 2. How to be better organized to influence political decision? Urban lobbies are well organised and can rely on substantial resources. Even if we have less financial means, our arguments are as good as theirs. Thus, how can we maintain contacts with all the different actors with a limited team at the Secretariat? How can we better use the means and connections available at each member s level? Overall, a more efficient organisation and communication is needed for better influencing politically. 3. Projects: calls for proposals are more and more competitive and the resources of Euromontana secretariat are limited, so the Secretariat can take the lead in only a limited number of project proposals every year. Therefore a good mobilization of all the network s resources - apart from those existing inside the Secretariat - is needed. In addition a transversal challenge is linked to the consolidation of Euromontana. The network has a solid and healthy structure despite the financial difficulties faced in But these difficulties 3

4 obliged the Secretariat to be reduced to only one person for several months, thus Juanan Gutiérrez called on the members to be innovative. He invited them to send staff to the Euromontana offices in Brussels: this win-win approach has already worked in the case of HAZI, who for two years supported the work of Damiana Maiz at the Secretariat. Both the members and the Secretariat benefited from this arrangement: HAZI gained a trained person, knowing how EU institutions and projects work and with good contacts; Euromontana gained a person to help working on innovation, rural development and mountain food products. Finally, Juanan Gutiérrez again invited all members to celebrate Euromontana 20th anniversary during the tenth European Mountain Convention that would take place from the 3 rd to the 5 th October 2016 in Bragança, Portugal and invited all members to have a fruitful discussion during this 2015 General Assembly. Session 1 1) Presentation of activity reports 2014 and draft 2015 and envisaged activities 2015/2016 Opening the assembly, the President invited members to comment on the minutes of the Bilbao General Assembly in Members having no comments, minutes were approved. Marie Clotteau, the Acting Director, presented actions carried out in 2014 and 2015 and actions foreseen in 2015 and The most important points were the following. Network Development Marie Clotteau reported that the network continues to attract new members every year. At the end of 2014, there were 70 members. The new members are: - Centro Consorzi de Belluno (Italy) - POLIEDRA (Italy) - Region of Navarre (Spain) - SODEBUR (Spain) Heart of Slovenia, a development agency in Slovenia had finalised its negotiation for the General Assembly in Brussels. Thus, the target to have 5 new members for 2015 is achieved. Two members have officially left the association in 2015: Fundatia Adept Transilvania (Romania) and the Scottish Natural Heritage (UK). Three members have informed us that they will leave in 2016: ROMSILVA (Romania), Irrotko Natural Park Association (Hungary) and the General Council of Lozere (France). Taking these changes into account, the network comprised, on the 30th September 2015, 70 members. For 2016, some interesting contacts have already been taken with the region of Andalousia (Spain), Croatian Wood Cluster, UNCEM Toscany (Italy), Bioforsk (Norway). Members can contribute to enlarging the network. To help with this task, the Secretariat has elaborated a communication kit (powerpoint /factsheet) to better explain Euromontana activity. Lobbying activities Euromontana is using different tools and methods to exert influence at EU level. Among them are the following: - the DG Agri Civil Dialogue Groups (CDG). CDG offer the possibility to have direct contact with the EC officers, to be informed in advance on EC new legislation, or to suggest modifications. - RUMRA EP intergroup through which Euromontana has direct contact with MEPs and can more easily mobilise them on mountain issues. - Direct contacts with EC officers - Responding to public hearings and consultations to share Euromontana s views and to be in direct contact with members of the Committee of the Regions, and European Economic and Social Committee. 4

5 - Sharing information on Euromontana s website and on social media. All these tools are mobilised to promote the interests of mountain populations on the different subjects (for instance on mountain products). For Agriculture and rural development, Marie Clotteau reminded the meeting that the new CAP ( ) has included measures of interest for the mountain areas and for small farmers, even if they are not always implemented at national level. Euromontana s strategy is to continue promoting mountain specificities through the CDGs, the RUMRA intergroup, as well as through the EIP-AGRI and ENRD networks. Euromontana has secured its participation in three different Civil Dialogue Groups on CAP, Quality and Promotion and Rural Development in Euromontana has continued its active participation in meetings with other relevant networks such as ENRD (European Network of Rural Development), EIP AGRI (European Innovation Partnership on Agriculture) and ECM (European Countryside Movement). For mountain food products: Euromontana is following the implementation of the delegated act at national level and is updating the Charter of mountain food products, as requested in the last European Mountain Convention in Bilbao in Marie Clotteau thanked members that provided inputs to this work. Euromontana is following closely and contributing to the initiative of the FAO Mountain Partnership to create a global mountain labelling. The labelling should integrate elements of control and quality and be applied to more than food products. This initiative is dedicated to mountain areas outside Europe. For RUMRA activity On the 22 nd September 2015 during a RUMRA event, a request for a White Paper on rurality washanded to Commissioner Corina Creturesponsible to Regional Development. The initiative developed by the European Countryside Movement (ECM) and supported by Euromontana, should be further developed into concrete actions and proposals (one networking session of the General Assembly aims to provide inputs on the contents on a future White Paper on Rurality). An EP written declaration on high speed Internet in rural and mountain areas was presented by MEP Jozo Rados. It would be necessary now for half of the MEPs should sign it in order for the EP to endorse it and call for the European Commission to take action. For forestry For the second time, Euromontana is one of the organisers of the Innovation Forestry event programmed for the 24 th November 2015 in Brussels. In collaboration with PINS (local development agency in Croatia), Euromontana is planning to organise a conference on forestry supply chain in mountain areas at the end of May 2016 in Croatia. An intern from our Italian member ERSAF may come in 2016 to work on forestry issues. For sustainable tourism The DANTE project on tourism and ICT finished in 2014 with the creation of a pilot web platform facilitating the use of an efficient website to promote mountain tourism. Euromontana is a partner in a new project on tourism called Silver Tourism, to start in November The project s objective is to develop a MOOC (Massive Open Online Course) to train silver tourism specialists. For climate change Euromontana has signed the declaration on climate change for mountain areas, initiated by the Mountain Partnership for COP 21. The next European Mountain Convention (EMC), planned for the 3 rd to the 5 th October 2016 in Bragança (Portugal) will address climate change and mitigation measures. The event will follow the same structure as the previous event in Bilbao (2014), focusing on practical and innovative solutions. For energy 5

6 This is one of the transversal topics of the RUMRA intergroup. Euromontana has contributed to the public consultation launched by FREE (rural energy) within this intergroup. Euromontana participated in two project proposals in 2014 and 2015 addressing this topic, without success. EU projects: Two Interreg IV C projects, DANTE and MOVE on GREEN (MoG), finished in December A third project, New CAP Mountains of opportunities (May April 2015) was a communication campaign on mountain food products. Euromontana will work on three other projects in the coming years: PEGASUS (public ecosystems goods and services from land management), a H2020 project to better understand and facilitate the provision of ecosystem services in agriculture and forestry. Euromontana is particularly involved on communication activities (website, Twitter, communication strategy). Members of Euromontana also participated in national workshops to exchange views with practitioners. SIMRA (Social Innovation in Marginalised Rural Areas) will start in April 2016 and Silver Tourism (explained above) are two other projects in which Euromontana is involved. In 2015, 9 project proposals were submitted: MOUNTAGRINNET, SIMRA, MASTER, QUALIPSO, Water4Agri, FREECOP, FORESEE under H2020 funding scheme; Silver Tourism under Erasmus + scheme and OREKA MENDIAN under Life scheme. Only SIMRA and SILVER TOURISM were successful. For the South East Europe Focus Group It was recalled that the group created in 2014 together with members of the Green Mountain project has the objective of fostering territorial development in this specific area. The group involves 2 co-coordinators: PINS in Croatia and Province of Macerata in Italy. The Secretariat faced difficulties in animating this focus group due to its limited resources and the limited involvement of members of this focus group so far. The General Assembly will dedicate a session to this focus group to try to define again the priorities and involve members. EXPO 2015 The world exhibition took place in Milano (Italy) in 2015, under the name "Feeding the planet, energy for life". Euromontana ensured its participation through different events such as the Mountain Week: Mountain Cooperation for Food: initiatives in the Alps, the Carpathians and other mountain regions (4 June 2015) or Selling the mountain excellence: labels, marketing and internationalisation of mountain farming products (11 June 2015) or Copernicus satellites as sentinels" of environmental and economic changes: Trip from Mountains to Valley (20 October 2015) and Promoting European Local Food Systems ( 22 October 2015) Finally, Marie Clotteau recalled that there are areas in which the association is proactive e.g. on innovation issues through implication in the EIP AGRI, and ENRD, on mountain supply chains, and sustainable tourism. In other areas such as education and training, ICT, or transport or services of general interest Euromontana has rather a reactive position, meaning that it focuses on projects follow up and promoting its position at European level. Members were invited to comment on the 2014 and 2015 activity plan and the 2016 draft activity plan. Sylvain Marmier congratulated the Secretariat for all the good work done, despite the very small team. Following this debate, the General assembly voted and unanimously approved the 2014 activity report and the activity plan. The 2016 draft activity report, presented for information, will be updated at the end of the year and submitted to the 2016 General assembly. 2) Presentation and approval of accounts 2014 and related reports The Treasurer, André Marcon, presented the financial balance for He detailed the distribution of expenses and receipts between the different budget lines, the positive result of 2916 and main factors explaining this result, as they appear on preparatory documents sent to members before the assembly. The Treasurer then presented the report of the Account controller on year 2014 and the report of the internal control committee about the accounts and the official documents received. In 2014: - The accounts were well managed 6

7 - The benefit is well noted and linked to a good management of the projects of unpaid membership fees. The Treasurer reminded that there is a delay to withdraw from Membership t that needs to be respected. - The treasury advance that is available at the bank ( ) has a cost. - There is the need to find alternative funding schemes or alternative ways to fund staff, like members sending staff to the Secretariat for six months or one year. There was no remark from the Commissaire aux comptes on the veracity of the accounts. No conflicts of interest. Delegates did not have any comments following the presentations. The General assembly approved the operations referred to in the accounts and discharged members of the Board involved in the management of financial year 2014 and the account controller of the execution of their mandate for the financial year The general assembly decided to allocate the result of 2916 of financial year ended on to the account «reports antérieurs». 3) Presentation of provisional budgets 2015 and 2016 (emphasis on hypothesis regarding secretariat staff size, membership fees projections and project funding anticipation) The Treasurer presented the updated projected balance 2015 and main hypothesis applied for its elaboration. Due to a decrease of EU projects in 2015, the size of the Secretariat has to decrease too (only one employee for several months). The Treasurer underlined the good management of Marie Clotteau that helped to have an updated projected balance with a projected result of (the budget adopted last year had foreseen a projected result of ) The General Assembly unanimously approved this projected balance. The Treasurer presented a first draft for the 2016 projected balance and main hypothesis applied for its elaboration: Maintaining a team of 1 person (1 permanent employee on maternity leave up to the beginning of February, one fixed-term contract during the maternity leave) Continuity of project PEGASUS and SILVER TOURISM. On the basis of these hypotheses, the provisional budget is balanced with a projected deficit of The Treasurer also commented that Euromontana was in a difficult position in 2015, so the financial reserves will be mobilised. There are some worries on membership fees, especially for the members who are leaving without notifying the Secretariat in advance. Resources are still well below what would be needed to take all opportunities. Thus there is a need to attract more resources at regional, national and European level. With the approval of SIMRA project, it is expected to hire a second permanent person at the Secretariat. Martin Price added that it is difficult to understand the 2016 financial situation that employs several variables like a new project approval and the employment of a new person. He considered it useful to have an updated budget for Marie Clotteau answered that the updated budget for 2016 will be presented during the next Board meeting in March In addition, André Marcon explained that the Board has revised the calculation system of membership fees, to make the calculations more mathematic and based on objective criteria. For new members, the membership fees will thus increase a little. For this reason and as membership fees have not increased for the last 10 years (whereas permanent costs have increased, such as the number of activities and services provided to members), the Treasurer proposed a slight increase of 5% of the annual membership fee. Juanan Gutierrez added that the increase would not affect the new members that were already subject to the new calculation method. Genevieve Borodine (Rhone Alpes region in France) informed that her organisation would merge with Auvergne region (also member of Euromontana) in January So they would need some changes in the invoice. The General Assembly unanimously approved the 2016 project balance. 7

8 Regarding the increase of membership fees, Marie Clotteau provided additional details. The membership fees have not increased for more than 10 years, the last increase was of 10%, applying in Several costs have increased in the last 10 years, including some permanent costs (like rent, phone, the Internet) despite the huge efforts to use free technologies when possible or no printings. But salary costs have increased, especially for the insurance costs which are compulsory for instance. We have also developed our services: communication is much more important today that 10 years ago with the website, regular news, social networks. Our lobbying activity is also more important with participation in the EP intergroup, in 3 Civil Dialogue Groups, a recognised expertise at ENRD EIP Agri all these activities need some staff in order to maintain their quality and their frequence. We are too dependent on the EU projects and the success rate is lower and lower: around 10% whereas it was more than the double that level 10 years ago, so it demands a huge involvement of the Secretariat (more than before) to present high quality project proposals and with less chances of success than before. Juanan Gutierrez added that even with this increase, Euromontana will still be much cheaper than many of the similar European networks. Martin Price added that given that fees have not been raised in the past 10 years, a 5% increase is a reasonable one. The General Assembly unanimously (minus one vote against) approved the increase of 5% in the membership fees. 4) Annual member Achievement awards for distinguished services for Award Mountains 2040: Genevieve Borodine said she has been working with Euromontana since the preparation of the European Mountain Convention organised in Rhone-Alpes in She added that the Rhone Alpes region has been working for the past five years on a mountain policy and through the initiative Mountains 2040 they have established a Council of actors working on mountain issues. She explained that her organisation has labelled several projects that represented the value of mountains as based on the principles set out in the Mountains 2040 visions and perspectives position paper. She explained that so far 142 projects have been granted this label and that she gave this label to Euromontana for its work done on mountain areas. Juanan Gutierrez, president of Euromontana received this label and thanked Genevieve Borodine for this label, rewarding the work of 20 years for mountain people. Juanan Gutierrez took the chance to offer the awards to the members of the year: Jon-Andreas Kolderup (Sogn of Fjordane) and Anna Giorgi (Unimont) for their involvement in particular as speakers in EXPO ) Procedures and rules for the election of Board members for 2016 It has been proposed to utilise the same procedure as the one adopted for the last elections ( ), meaning a Board composed of maximum 30 members, based on the principle of balanced representation. In order to ensure geographic representivity, every country can have a maximum number of members established depending on the number of member organisations up to date with the payment of their membership fee on the 31 st December 2015 and of the amount of these membership fees paid in relation with year There is also a necessity to ensure a balanced representation of different types of organisations belonging to Euromontana membership: collective authorities, professional organisations, research institutes, agencies and of different sectors (agriculture, forestry, services, environment ), so that the Board of directors includes at least one relevant actor on each different topic. No quota has been decided in that respect. 8

9 It is not compulsory to have a representative in each country if no one is a candidate. It is not compulsory for a country to have as many representatives as the maximum number allows. For organisations from countries which can ask for support from Euromontana to pay for their travel costs to Board meetings, support is limited to one member/country. The number of seats per country will be communicated at the end of January 2016 and members will have until 29/02/2016 to express their interest to be part of the Board. The official elections will take place on the 3 rd October 2016 during the European Mountain Convention in Bragança. 9