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Modernisation and development of a small beekeeping farm in order to increase its profitability and its resilience to weather-related risks.

Learn how a beneficiary used EAFRD support targeting small farms to purchase new tools (such as feeding bottles for the bees), establish a hive system suitable for separating different types of honey and build new storage space. They also obtained an oxalic acid sublimator (or vaporiser) and thus introduced a new, more environmentally friendly method to apply acaricides to control against mites. Overall, 35 of the old hives were replaced and new colonies set up and the size of the bee stock grew from 40 families to 80; as a result, the amount of honey production has increased, thus reducing the farm’s exposure to weather-related risks which could impact its viability.

Find out more about this project here.

The winners of the ENRD Rural Inspiration Awards were announced by Janusz Wojciechowski, European Commissioner for Agriculture on the evening of 25 June during an online ceremony. These awards recognise the most inspiring initiatives funded by the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development (EAFRD), this year demonstrating the contribution of Rural Development policy in promoting rural climate action and the bioeconomy. The 2020 winners are:

• Bioeconomy: BRICKZ
• Climate change adaptation: EKOFARMA P. MARADA
• Climate change mitigation: FUMOBIL
• Popular vote: ČERNELIČ BIODYNAMIC FARM

An expert jury selected a winner for each of the three categories from the short-list of 15 nominees that you can find here. The Public Vote winner was selected by online voting. Check out these fantastic examples for yourself and get inspired!

Repair and prepare for the next generation: a €16.5 billion reinforcement for EAFRD. The European Commission has put forward its proposal for a major recovery plan aiming to ensure the post-COVID-19 recovery is sustainable, even, inclusive and fair for all Member States. It has also unveiled its adjusted Work Programme for 2020, which will prioritise the actions needed to propel Europe's recovery and resilience.

As part of the Next Generation EU recovery package, the European Commission has proposed a €16.5 billion (in current prices) reinforcement for the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development (EAFRD) to support rural areas in making the structural changes necessary in line with the European Green Deal and in achieving the ambitious targets of the new biodiversity and Farm to Fork strategies. These funds are to be programmed within the new CAP Strategic Plans in the years 2022-2024. The Commission’s revised Multiannual Financial Framework proposal of 27 May also foresees an additional € 5.4 billion reinforcement for EAFRD as compared to previous proposals.

Read more in the press release, the Multiannual financial framework and the Questions and Answers on the EU budget: the Common Agricultural Policy and Common Fisheries Policy.

A set of 24 country reports has been published by ‘fi-compass’, the ESIF technical assistance platform on financial instruments, analysing the financial markets in the Member States and estimating the financing gaps for agriculture and agri-food sectors. The reports support the planning and programming of EAFRD financial instruments in the CAP Strategic Plans 2021-2027.

Findings draw on the results of two EU-level surveys focusing on access to finance conditions of more than 7 600 farmers and 2 200 agri-food enterprises. The studies identified a significant financing gap of €19.7 – 46.6 billion for agriculture and more than €12.8 billion for the agri-food sector. Analyses of the banking systems and applicable financing options are also provided. Country-specific conclusions wrap up each report.

Discover more from the press release and read the Member State reports.

Recommendations for programming future CAP interventions are included in a report published this month by the European Court of Auditors (ECA) on the topic of farmland biodiversity.

This audit assessed whether the EU’s agricultural policy has helped to maintain and enhance farmland biodiversity. Recommendations from the ECA for EAFRD Managing Authorities include topics associated with tracking biodiversity-related expenditure, including ambitious biodiversity-friendly rural development interventions in the CAP Strategic Plans, and developing reliable indicators.

Learn more from the ECA report and from the European Commission replies.

The European Commission launched a public consultation on the European Union’s promotion policy for agricultural and food products. Part of an overall evaluation of the current policy, the consultation aims to gather feedback from citizens and stakeholders on the effectiveness, efficiency, and relevance of the current measures, as well as their coherence with EU action in other areas and the added value of this kind of policy being implemented at the EU level.

Deadline to contribute: 11 September 2020.

The Bio-based Industries Consortium (BIC) has partnered with the European Committee of Regions (CoR) to develop a new platform connecting the bio-based industries and European regions.

Over forty European regions currently participate in the platform, representing a broad geographical diversity of regions from the north, south, west and the east of Europe.

The ENRD is continuing its work in collecting examples of projects and initiatives launched primarily by rural communities in coping with the COVID-19 emergency.

This page aims to disseminate examples that can inspire other rural stakeholders and also provides information about European Commission initiatives aimed at alleviating the current difficulties faced by rural Europe and contributing to the recovery. To submit your contributions, contact: publication@enrd.eu.

Update: the ENRD CP office in Brussels remains closed until further notice due to the COVID-19 outbreak. However, our team remains fully operational and available via email, social media and our website. We invite you to keep an eye on the Upcoming Events section of our website, where we list all events - indicating if they are planned to take place, happen online or are cancelled. We do our best to ensure this section is up-to-date. Feel free to contact us at any time!

This edition focuses on EAFRD funding good practices and provides an overview of different approaches to the collection and dissemination of EAFRD-funded projects at the national level. It also features articles on topics such as populism in rural areas, agro-ecology, networking, and Results Based Payment Schemes.

This is the highlights report of the 11th ENRD Thematic Group meeting on 'Smart Villages' organised in the context of the ENRD Thematic Group 'Smart Villages'.

The report addresses ways to design support for Smart Villages in the future CAP Strategic Plans and Cohesion Policy based on the ideas being discussed by Poland. There is also an Annex report which provides an overview of the questions and ideas for discussion from the Thematic Group.

This thematic Briefing is part of the series developed by the ENRD to assist Managing Authorities and rural stakeholders in designing supportive frameworks for Smart Villages initiatives in certain key domains. It focuses on renewable energy communities.

This publication shows that smart rural communities are already providing inspiring examples of how to address each of the challenges identified in the European Green Deal at local level. It has been produced by and contains the personal reflections of Professor Bill Slee, an active member of the ENRD Thematic Group on Smart Villages.

This is the highlights report of the 4th ENRD Thematic Group meeting on 'Bioeconomy and climate action'. The meeting focused on the economic viability of climate change mitigating activities within the rural bioeconomy, and the report provides examples of rural businesses that integrate climate action and the low-carbon bioeconomy in their business models, through the circular use of wastes and by-products.

This is the report of the joint ENRD and Copa-Cogeca Workshop ‘Cultivating network connections’.
The workshop aimed to explore how networks can be increasingly interlinked, specifically focused on improving connections between farmers, farmer cooperatives and National Rural Networks (NRNs), highlighting existing good practice and identifying needs for future development.

After two Thematic Group (TG) ‘labs’ focusing on ideas for the support framework for Smart Villages in the future CAP Strategic Plans in Finland and Poland, the TG organised the last thematic lab to provide space for other Member States to share ideas and pose questions about how they are proposing to support Smart Villages in their own countries. The meeting focused on the ideas from Austria, Ireland and Slovenia

Presentations from the webinar and background documents can be found here.

This virtual Thematic Lab explored the role of LEADER and Local Action Groups (LAGs) in maintaining and widening stakeholder engagement in their local areas to develop short and long-term responses to local challenges now and for the future.

Presentations from the webinar and background documents can be found here.

The thirteenth meeting of the European Rural Networks’ Steering Group (SG) was the first Rural Network governance meeting to be held in a virtual form. It provided an update on the state of play of the CAP Reform and other relevant EU policy initiatives for the agri-food sector and rural areas, including relevant Commission initiatives to respond to the COVID-19 outbreak. The meeting also provided an update on planned and recent rural networks’ activities and SG members considered ideas for ENRD Contact Point activities in the following year.

Presentations from the webinar and background documents can be found here.

This online workshop, organised by the European Evaluation Helpdesk for Rural Development, reflected upon the 2019 experiences of data management in the context of the enhanced Annual Implementation Reports. This information will support preparations for the ex post evaluation of RDPs 2014-2020 and identify necessary lessons relevant for future monitoring and evaluation.

Presentations from the online workshop can be found here.