Minutes from the meeting of the Initiation
Board of the
" Formal Rural Development Network of Croatia "
Meeting was held of May 18 at 10.00 o'clock in ZOE premisses on which
initiative the meeting was called. Meeting ended at 12.00.
Meeting attended: representatives of ECOVAST (Valerija Kelemen Pepeonik and Tihana Stepinac Fabijanić), representative of SMART - Slađana Novota, Representative of the Center for Civil Initiatives - Drago Vručinić, representative of Odraz - Lidija Pavić and representative of ZOE - Ivana Laginja.
Suggested topics:
1. Agreement on the way how network will be formalised, establishment of the
vision and the goals of the network, definining the nework members
2. Agreement about the possible membership in the PREPARE
3. Feedback on Mr. M. Dower's proposal for the organisation of the Conference in autumn 2005
4. Preparation of the action plan with tasks
At the beginning of the meeting Drago Vručinić gave a short introducion connected
to the recent visit of the few Croatian representatives to LEADER's + European
Observatory. Main messages from the meeting can be summarised on the facts
that right now is the right time that in Croatia intensifies work on the problems
of rural development and that major role of the Croatian civil society should
be to pressure Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry to deal more with «real
rural development issues» since without their involvement no serious steps
in obtaining pre-assession funds, programing etc. are possible. However, representatives
of LEADER Observatory stressed that, inspite the Croatian status at the moment,
Croatian representative can participate on the conferences and seminars organised
within the framework of their network.
Ad 1 - it was agreed that Valerija will distribute to all today's participants text of the tekst ECOVAST strategy that may be used as a starting point for the preparation of the platform of the netwrork. Platform should be used as a fundament for the establishment of the network and the legitimacy to the outside world.
It was also agreed that participating organisations will form a initiative board of the network and that this board will prepare vision and the mision of the network and the statute of the new organisation. Initial Board would remain with the same composition until the new nework establishes.
Next meeting of the Initiative Board is planned for the beginning of July, when the founding assembly of the new network should be held. Founders of the network will be organisations not individuals. In order to prepare the Statut, it was agreed that Tihana will provide Slovenian status and translate it in order to be used as a foundation for the new statut of the Croatian network. After the establishment of the network all relevant institutions will be informed. In order to keep close contact with the National Foundation for Civil Society, Drago Vručinić will informally inform Cvjetana Plavąa Matić about this initiative.
Ad 2 -it was agreed that the new network should become a member of
PREPARE, only this will be possible after it become formal network, that is
planned for the mid July 2005.
Ad 3 - all participants showed interest in organising Conference, according
to the draft of Mr. M. Dowera, but due to the tight shedule, it was suggested
for the Conference to be held in the second half of October. I. Laginja stress
importance of sharing all forseen tasks among members of the Initial Board
- for the establihsment of the network and preparation of the Conference.
About the Conference and the details will be further discussed at the next
meeting in July. Suggested participants: members of the Academia, EC representatives
in Zagreb, LEADER representatives from Bruxelles, members of the PREPARE network,
local economy - important state companies, representatives of churc and others.
Ad 4 - Action plan was not prepared separatly. All tasks are already described in the above text, including dates.
Minutes prepared by Ivana Laginja, ZOE