Seminar on the implementation of AXIS 4 in Italy Palermo Sicily 17/18 September 2009

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1 Seminar on the implementation of AXIS 4 in Italy Palermo Sicily 17/18 September 2009 On the September around 40 representatives from 13 Italian regions gathered in Palermo Sicily for a seminar on the implementation of Axis 4. The event took place on the initiative of the Italian Ministry of Agriculture and the European Commission. It was hosted by the Region of Sicily and the content was organised by FARNET Support Unit. Mr Sparma, from the region Sicily welcomed the participants and stressed that Sicilian authorities were eager to develop all opportunities available to the fisheries sector by building on the experience of fishermen and on Sicilian knowledge of territorial development. He was followed by M Gasparri, from the Italian Ministry of Agriculture who gave full support to the Axis 4 initiative which, he said, represents an important policy shift in the fisheries sector in the sense of developing participatory types of activities rather than direct aid policies. Mr Samaras from DG Mare then presented the Commission s expectations for Axis 4 in Italy and reminded participants of some elements of the context. He argued that the fisheries sector is in decline throughout the world and in the EU, and that there is a need for revitalising coastal regions and developing added value. The main principle at work behind Axis 4 is the bottom up approach which focuses on local participation, the creation of partnerships and cooperation. He reported that 21 Member States will implement Axis 4 with 220 Fisheries Local Action Groups (FLAG s) expected to be set up all over the EU. Some FLAG s are already up and running while other countries are in the middle of the selection process. The total public budget for Axis 4 amounts to around 800 million EUR (of which 567 comes from the EFF), devoted mostly to small scale local projects. This public money should be complemented with a similar amount of private funding. Mr Samaras said that there is a real need for Italy to get Axis 4 under way as fast as possible as local development is a slow and deep process. This seminar has the aim of kick starting the process of selecting the groups and areas. The pressure of time is indeed high as from previous experience between 8 to 10 months are necessary between the first call for proposals and the actual setting up of the groups. Where available, the LEADER experience is a priceless asset and can help speeding up the implementation process. Regions are strongly encouraged to make the best use of the LEADER experience that can easily be mobilized through the use of the Technical Assistance (TA) budget. 1

2 The successful implementation of Axis 4 is especially important in the context of the CFP reform. The future EFF and maritime policy are very likely to tend toward more integrated support approaches, which would put Axis 4 type of initiatives at the centre of the future CFP. It is therefore in the interest of the Member States to gain expertise on the Axis 4 at an early stage while support is at hand. Paul Soto introduced the FARNET Support Unit which he has been heading since May. The Unit is made up of a 10 person team based in Brussels as well as of 21 geographical experts that serve as national antennas throughout the EU. The FARNET team has the aim of supporting national and regional authorities in their implementation of Axis 4. Direct support to FLAGs will also be one of the key missions of the team. Paul Soto reminded participants of the key principles underlining territorial development, which is based on three main building blocks: the strategies, partnerships and territories. These three elements interact with each other to ensure the focus of development work is the territory and not an isolated sector. He stressed the difference between the notions of territoire guichet where the territory is treated like an office for handing out grants and a territoire projet, where the local actors themselves take an active role in developing their own vision and project for the future. The following interventions dealt with these three crucial aspects of Axis 4. How to select viable areas, build efficient partnerships and develop an effective local strategy Gilles van de Walle, fisheries development expert of the FARNET team presented some key issues regarding the selection process for fisheries areas. The size and coherence of the area, the importance of fishing communities, employment levels in the fisheries sector, population densities and administrative boundaries are all criteria one has to take into consideration in order to strike the right balance when selecting an area. The FARNET geographical expert for Italy, Carlo Ricci gave an account of the experience of building effective partnership under the Italian LEADER initiative. He argued that the selection of partnerships should be made on well balanced criteria that ensure adequate representation and participation of public and private actors, financial and administrative capacity and effective decision making. Members of partnership should be reminded that being a member includes rights but also involves obligations. Turning to the development of strategies, Paul Soto highlighted the specificity of the territorial approach which focuses first on the objectives - where the territory wants to get to in the future - and then develops the architecture to achieve it. A more conventional approach fixes administrative boundaries, a standard budget and then allocates this to filling the main gaps or problems. Paul Soto stressed that the development strategy should be integrated at a local level, rather than being a list of projects and should stem from a bottom up process with the majority of operations led by the private sector. The Italian LEADER experience, a pool of knowledge to tap into The second day of the seminar started with the presentation of the Italian LEADER experience by Raffaella di Napoli, responsible for the LEADER task force in the Italian Rural Network. She insisted on the importance of managerial capacities in the FLAGs. Without a dynamic and efficient management team the FLAG will not lift off the ground. 2

3 The Italian experience of LEADER is very rich. Some LEADER Local Action Groups have been active for 20 years with close to 200 LEADER groups in existence in Italy today. They represent an important reservoir of experience that can assist in the implementation of the Axis 4 in Italy. Raffaella di Nappoli mentioned that the selection process of the groups can be a long and tiring procedure for the administration. One might want to look for external support for this. The criteria for group selection have to be objective and measurable and the procedure has to be written down and clear, specifying the type of documentation to be provided. Cross territorial cooperation among groups is crucial to foster exchange of ideas and skills. Regional experiences and state of play After this session various Italian regions presented their ideas for the implementation of Axis 4. Franco Manzini from the region Friuli-Venezia-Giulia explained their strategy for the regeneration of a former industrial area located on the coast of a town heavily dependant on fisheries activities. They were exploring the use of Axis 4 to redevelop a part of the site in a way that reflected certain fishing interests. Mr Samaras argued that while this project is interesting it seems to refer to a single project within a pre-existing regeneration programme. Axis 4 should develop an integrated territorial strategy over a coherent area involving multi sectorial actions and actors and not just focus on a single project. Uriano Meconi presented the strategy for Axis 4 of the region of Marche. With a budget of around EUR 2 million, Marche has decided to focus on two main zones - North and South. Pockets of fisheries dependant areas are localized in these two main zones and even if they are not contiguous they are still connected through their link with the sea and their focus on fisheries activities. Calls for tender for groups selection are expected to be launched very soon. They have some doubts regarding the criteria for selecting groups. In particular they have had difficulty in getting groups to respect specific percentages for the distribution of activities by type of measure. So they have decided to use these percentages as guidelines and to give the groups more freedom in their actions. On the other hand, the region Campania decided to select Axis 4 areas that fit with environmental protection areas. Four protected areas, distributed along the coastline, have been chosen. The idea is to create links and synergies between the local management plans for these protected areas and the Axis 4 strategies of the groups that will be selected from these territories. Special measures will be developed under the local management plans that will deal specifically with Axis 4 type of action. Given the small size of the budget available for Axis 4, they propose that this budget be used as a kind of governance arm which animates, advises, trains and involves the fishing sector in the resource management plan. Mr Samaras from the Commission argued that it was very important to maintain a clear distinction between the Axis 4 strategy and existing local management plans to be implemented through the different other OP axis, even if efforts were made to ensure that both were complementary. Regional working groups 3

4 The second part of the day was devoted to group work on the development of the strategy for Axis 4 in each individual region. Each region was offered the chance to share the main elements of their strategies by preparing posters, making small presentations and raising key questions to the Commission. The EU Commission, the Ministry of Agriculture and the FARNET expert were at hand to answer the questions and assist the regions to elaborate their strategies. All questions that arose over the course of the two days are being up-loaded into the new FARNET website, along with the answers that were provided during the seminar. This will be available on the FARNET website ( Conclusions To end the seminar, Mr Stephanos Samaras from the European Commission drew some of the main points from the discussions of the previous two days. He argued that the seminar had again shown that the context faced by the areas developing Axis 4 varies enormously. This leads to different methods and paths for selecting areas, groups and development strategies. In tune with the basic philosophy of Axis 4, area boundaries, partnerships and strategies have to be tailored to the needs of the territory and cannot follow a single model. According to the regional working groups, between 15 and 20 FLAGs are likely to be created throughout Italy for a total Axis 4 public budget of around EUR 45 million. He insisted that there was a real danger in some regions that groups with too small a budget would not achieve the critical mass required to develop a genuine integrated local strategy or to be able to afford the running cost of the partnerships. In these cases he strongly recommended regions to consider increasing the budget available for Axis 4. It was not worth trying to implement Axis 4 if the budget was insufficient. Mr Samaras insisted that the rapid deployment of technical assistance was very important to overcome the significant delays in the implementation of Axis 4. Without adequate TA to support the launch of Axis 4 in all countries and regions, it will be difficult to meet the very tight timetable that MS and regions are facing. He urged the participants to use the expertise available in their country particularly in the form of previous experience with LEADER. Groups should be in place by 2010, as otherwise there is a risk of decommitment of money due to the N+2 rule. On a political level, Mr Samaras said that a new Commission will be in place soon and this will lead to new priorities and strategies. Axis 4 is likely to become considerably more important in future policies so Member States and regions are strongly recommended to develop expertise in this field. Mr Gasparri from the Ministry of Agriculture confirmed that the use of TA was important but insisted that the regions also had their own budgets for this. He also agreed that it was possible to shift resources between different priority axes but insisted that this was a lengthy process. 4

5 Paul Soto reminded the participants that the FARNET website will have a Frequently Asked Questions section that will build on the very useful questions and answers dealt with during this event. On behalf of the region of Sicily, Mr Sparma expressed his gratitude for the organisation of this seminar and also voiced his concerns regarding the readiness and motivation of the fisheries sector to face the challenge of territorial development and the FLAGs. 5