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Final version

30 August 2018

This report is a synthesis of the activities of Euromontana during the year 2017 produced for the General Assembly on the 18th October 2017 and updated for the General Assembly on the 25th September

2018. Detailed information on each project or event described is available from the secretariat or on the web site www.euromontana.org

ACTIVITY REPORT EUROMONTANA

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Contents

I. Internal life of the network ...............................................................................................................................4

1.1. Evolution of the network in 2017 ....................................................................................................................4

1.2 The Brussels Secretariat in 2017 ......................................................................................................................4

1.3. The Board of Directors ....................................................................................................................................4

1.4. General Assembly ............................................................................................................................................4

1.5 Communication ................................................................................................................................................4

1.6 Development of a project brokerage platform ................................................................................................5

1.7 Development of the South East Europe (SEE) focus group ..............................................................................5

1.8 Encouragement of networking between members .........................................................................................5

II. Projects ..............................................................................................................................................................6

2. 1. PEGASUS Public Ecosystem Goods and Services from land management – Unlocking the Synergies ...........6

2.2 SIMRA - Social Innovation in marginalized rural areas .....................................................................................7

2.3 Silver Tourism ...................................................................................................................................................8

2.4 OREKA MENDIAN—Conservation and management of mountain grasslands in the Basque Country ............8

2.5 Projects submitted by Euromontana or where Euromontana is a partner ......................................................9

2.6 Development of new projects within Euromontana ......................................................................................11

III. Meetings, seminars and conferences of euromontana ..............................................................................12

3.1 Meeting with the Cabinet of Commissioner Phil Hogan (Brussels, 11 January 2017) ....................................12

3.3 KUPRES Event (Bosnia-Herzegovia, 8-9 February 2017) ................................................................................12

3.4 Event on “The Italian mountains, towards development: economic, social, environmental and institutional issues and perspectives” (Florence, 24 February 2017) .......................................................................................12

3.2 Training ISARA on mountain products (Lyon, 28 February 2017) ..................................................................12

3.5 South West Meeting (Natural Park of Pyrenees Ariegeoises, 6-7 April 2017) ...............................................12

3.6 RUMRA Breakfast (Brussels, 1 June 2017) .....................................................................................................13

3.7 Cohesion Policy in Mountain Areas: How to increase the contribution from mountains and benefits for mountain territories? (Brussels, 7 June 2017) .....................................................................................................13

3.8 ACAP: General Assembly (La Pierre St Martin, 28 June 2017) .......................................................................13

3.9 Mountain Food Products Meeting (Paris, 28 June 2017) ...............................................................................13

3.10 Mountain Business Summit (Tarbes, 5-7 July 2017) ....................................................................................13

3.11 AREPO General Assembly (Crete, 5 October 2017) ......................................................................................14

3.12 Mountain Food Products Meeting (Brussels, 18 October 2017) ..................................................................14

3.13 Silver Tourism final conference (Brussels, 19 October 2017).......................................................................14

3.14 Mountains Products event (Bulle, 1 December 2017) .................................................................................15

IV. Policy monitoring and positions ..................................................................................................................16

4.1. Future of the EU and Brexit issue ..................................................................................................................16

4.2 Future of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) ...........................................................................................16

4.3 Follow-up of the Cork Declaration .................................................................................................................16

4.4 Cohesion policy in mountain areas ................................................................................................................17

4.5 The Intergroup on « Rural, Mountainous and Remote Areas » (RUMRA) .....................................................17

4.6 Alpine macro-regional strategy - EUSALP .......................................................................................................17

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4.7 Follow-up of the product quality policy .........................................................................................................18

4.8 Network of European Mountain Research (NEMOR) and lobbying for the future FP9 .................................19

4.9 Innovation and Circular Economy in the Mountain Forest Supply Chain .......................................................19

4.10 Climate change .............................................................................................................................................20

4.11 Participation to the Family Farming Knowledge Platform of the FAO .........................................................20

V. External network : partnerships, representation, participation ......................................................................21

5.1 European Network for Rural Development (ENRD) .......................................................................................21

5.2 European Innovation Partnership for productive and sustainable agriculture (EIP-AGRI) ............................21

5.3. EC—DG Agriculture—Civil Dialogue Groups (CDG) .......................................................................................21

5.4 Alpine Convention ..........................................................................................................................................22

5.5 Carpathian Convention...................................................................................................................................22

5.6 International Partnership for the Sustainable Development of Mountain Regions ......................................23

5.7 The United Nations Committee on Non-Governmental Organisations..........................................................23

VI. Financial balance 2017 ................................................................................................................................24

VII. Members of Euromontana 2017 .................................................................................................................24

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1.1. Evolution of the network in 2017 Six new members were recruited to Euromontana’s network in 2017: - The Autonom Provinz Bozen Sudtirol (Italy) - ACI - Alleanza Cooperative Italiane (Italy) - Western Norway Research Institute (Norway) - Diputacion de Avila (Spain) - Diputacion de Lleida (Spain) - Region of Crete (Greece) Contacts have been established with BIOFORSK (Norway), Sila Natural Park (Italy) and SRUC (Scotland). Highland Council and the Board of Mountains is Norway will leave the association in 2018 and APEM had to stop all of its activities in 2017 and thus will leave in 2018. For the members who have not paid their membership fees for 2015 and 2016 (Regional Administration Smolyan from Bulgaria, Chernivtsi Region from Ukraine, Parco Nationale dei Monti Sibilini in Italy, Municipality pf Pljevlja from Montenegro, Soektaler Nature Park from Austria, ADH Association Depresiune a Horezu from Romania and Federatia oierilor de munte from Romania), their membership and access to Euromontana’s services were suspended in 2017, as required by the association statutes. Taking these changes into account, the network comprised, on the 31st December 2017, 67 members. The list of these members is at the end of this report.

1.2 The Brussels Secretariat in 2017 In 2017, Euromontana’s Brussels Secretariat consisted of Marie Clotteau, Director, Lauren Mosdale, Project Officer with a “VIE contract” (International Volunteer in Enterprise) and Florence Tornincasa, Communication Officer, who arrived on the 3rd April 2017 for a one-year contract. Vincenzo Capocasale worked for three months (end of September - end of December) at Euromontana to start preparing the European Mountain Convention. Euromontana has also welcomed several trainees: Sarah Whitaker from Emory University (USA) arrived in July 2016 for 10 months to work on mountain food products and forestry. She left at the end of March 2017. Her internship was supported by ERSAF, our Italian member. Orge Castellano from Bilbao University arrived in November to work as a communication intern and stayed until February 2017. His internship was funded by the Basque government.

1.3. The Board of Directors The Board of Directors met on the 5th April in Toulouse (France), 8th June in Brussels and on the 17th October in Brussels.

1.4. General Assembly The 2017 General Assembly took place on the 18th October 2017 in Brussels, Belgium.

1.5 Communication Euromontana continued the now well established active communication practices including the weekly on-line publication of news combined with information on Euromontana events, European events and

I. INTERNAL LIFE OF THE NETWORK

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events organised by members themselves. A strong presence on social media has been maintained. In this way, most key counterparts of Euromontana are updated about our activities in a time efficient way. Social media therefore provide a way to increase external communication without generating too much work. The maintenance of this intense level of publication during periods when the Secretariat is in limited number however remains a very big challenge. In addition, Euromontana’s website has been updated to make it responsive and facilitate its use from a smartphone or a tablet.

1.6 Development of a project brokerage platform The Secretariat has developed a project brokerage platform on Euromontana website in order to facilitate the creation of consortia among members for different EU projects focusing on sustainable mountain development. This platform will allow partners to exchange on project ideas and to look for partners in a more direct and interactive way that this is the case for the moment. The platform was launched for the 2017 General Assembly. A manual for the members was sent to facilitate its use.

1.7 Development of the South East Europe (SEE) focus group There was no specific activity in 2017 for this SEE focus group.

1.8 Encouragement of networking between members When regional calls have been launched (such as SUDOE, MED programmes, Alpine Space, Central Europe, Danube), the Secretariat has facilitated the links between members of the region by listing the eligible members, their priorities or the projects they have already worked on. It has facilitated the development of project proposals between the members.

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2. 1. PEGASUS Public Ecosystem Goods and Services from land management – Unlocking the Synergies This Horizon 2020 project, coordinated by the Institute for European Environmental Policy (IEEP), started on the 1st March 2015 and will run for three years. The partnership consists of 14 partners: IEEP (UK), University of Gloucestershire Countryside and Community Research Institute (UK), DLO Foundation (NL), Institute for Rural Development Research (DE), CRA-INEA (IT), Institute of Agriculture Economics and Information (CZ), JRC (EU), INRA (France), Federal Institute of Less Favoured and Mountainous Areas (AT), Evora university (PT), Ljubljana University (SI), Centre for Ecological Engineering (EE), BirdLife Europe (EU) and Euromontana (EU). EU's agricultural and forestry land provides a wide range of public goods (PG) and ecosystem services (ESS) on which society depends, yet land use decisions and society often under-value these goods and services. PEGASUS will develop innovative, practical ways of making PG and ESS concepts accessible and operational: it will identify how, where and when cost-effective mechanisms and tools for policy, business and practice can most effectively be applied, increasing the sustainability of primary production in pursuit of the EU2020 vision of 'smart, sustainable and inclusive growth'. PEGASUS will adopt participatory action research with public and private actors and stakeholders to better understand the range of policy and practical challenges in different case study contexts (localities, sectors, management systems, etc.). New datasets, transferable methods and tools that are fit-for-purpose and sensitive to the plurality of decision-making contexts will be generated. By improving recognition of the social and economic value of PG, PEGASUS will promote improved and innovative approaches to PG provision by businesses and communities and highlight specific policy improvements. Partners met several times in 2017: - 14-17 March 2017 in Reggio Calabria (Italy) to have the Annual General Assembly and prepare the

work on policy recommendations. - 22 June 2017 in Brussels for a European-level workshop designed to collect feedback on preliminary

emerging findings for policy recommendations. - 16, 24 & 30 November 2017 respectively in The Hague (the Netherlands), Lisbon (Portugal) and Vienna

(Austria) for a series of 3 regional seminars. These events explored what the findings emerging from the project meant for future policy and for stakeholders on the ground. The Austrian seminar focused in particular on mountain areas.

A study was done focusing on socio-political, economic and institutional drivers. This study aimed to investigate the range of drivers and factors that have an influence on the provision and delivery of environmentally and socially beneficial outcomes (ESBOs) in different countries and to identify the types of policy instruments that play a major role in providing the necessary conditions to stimulate or permit collective or other innovative action by farmers and foresters in relation to ESBO provision. 34 case studies in the different countries have been done by the partners to analyse the main ESBOs and their provision in the different contexts. Several case studies are based in mountain areas. The

II. PROJECTS

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project then moved on to 12 more in-depth case studies. 11/34 of these case studies focus on mountain areas in Austria, Czech Republic, France, Italy, Slovenia and UK. Several Euromontana members like Andreja Borec from the University of Maribor or Frank Gaskell, Senate member, have been involved in the national workshops organised to discuss the findings of the national case studies. Emerging findings were elaborated for the EU-level workshop that took place in June 2017 and draft policy recommendations have been written. Euromontana notably contributed to the organisation of 2 regional roadshows in Lisbon and Vienna in November 2017. The last one being on remote and high nature value areas was particularly interesting for Euromontana members. The regional seminars enabled the consortium to refine the messages to be delivered in the final PEGASUS policy briefings, as well as to test the toolkit intended for practitioners who wish to implement local projects improving the delivery of public goods and ecosystem services. Euromontana has been tasked with activities related to dissemination and communication, such as writing a newsletter, publishing items of news, animating social networks, organizing events, giving feedback on outputs of the project (i.e. the toolkit) and supporting the other partners in their communication commitments. More information @ www.pegasus.ieep.eu or @ https://twitter.com/PEGASUS_eu

2.2 SIMRA - Social Innovation in marginalized rural areas This Horizon 2020 project, coordinated by the James Hutton Institute, started on the 1st April 2016 and will continue for four years. The partnership consists of 26 partners in Europe and in the Mediterranean Region. Four members of Euromontana participate: UHI Perth, ENRI, EURAC and SAB. Andreja Borec from Maribor University is part of the project’s Social Innovation Think Tank (advisory body). The project aims to advance understanding and promote social innovation in agriculture, forestry, and rural development, particularly in marginalized rural areas of Europe and the Mediterranean region. It will create a classification of social innovations in rural areas, create an integrated set of methods to evaluate social innovations and their impacts, and synthesise and disseminate new and improved knowledge of social innovations and novel governance mechanisms. SIMRA partners are finalising two deliverables of relevance for Euromontana members interested in social innovation in marginalised rural areas: a database of examples that is available on the SIMRA website and to which anyone can contribute with their own example, as well as a wide variety of maps characterizing marginal rural areas. 12 case studies were launched in October 2017. Euromontana is the co-leader of the Work Package on Communication and Dissemination. As such, it has already delivered a Communication, Dissemination and Impact Strategy and Plan in the first months of the project. Euromontana participated in a conference on Social Innovation in Grenoble, France, on 11-13 January 2017, attended various workshops and events organised by ENRD and EESC, and secured an article in the ENRD review “Rural Connections”. Euromontana also coordinated the publication of a collection of Social Innovation examples (focusing on our project case studies) targeting policy-makers and aiming at illustrating the diversity of Social innovation in rural areas. A policy brief including recommendations for the next CAP will follow in 2018. The Director also presented SIMRA to the ENRD thematic group on Smart Villages on the 7th December 2017. Partners met physically for the first General Assembly in Barcelona, Spain, on 16-19 May 2017. The Executive Board met again in Brussels on 5-6 December 2017 for the mid-term review and a policy workshop with DG AGRI to present preliminary results.

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More information @ http://www.simra-h2020.eu/ or @ https://twitter.com/simra_eu or Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SIMRAeu/ or Scoop it!: http://www.scoop.it/u/simra-1 or ResearchGate: https://www.researchgate.net/project/SIMRA-Social-Innovation-in-Marginalised-Rural-Areas

2.3 Silver Tourism This Erasmus+ project, coordinated by the Chamber of Commerce of Badajoz (Spain), started on the 1st November 2015 and will continue for 2 years. The partnership consists of 6 partners: Chamber of Commerce of Badajoz (Spain), Fundecyt (Spain), ADR Nord-Est, (Romania), Zavod Novi Turizem (Hungary), Trusted Business Partners (Slovenia) and Euromontana. The objective of this project is to analyse and collect knowledge and best practices related to the Silver Economy and Tourism to spread at the European level, to design an ‘Expert Profile Framework’ aimed at providing a solid basis to develop training materials in the field of Silver Tourism, to develop training in key skills for the tourism sector in order to explore and exploit all opportunities offered by the Silver target. The final objective is to create a MOOC (Massive Open Online Course) to train experts on silver tourism. In 2017, Euromontana finalized the Unit 1 “Understanding the needs of silver-age tourists and accompanying people” (approximatively 60 pages) of the MOOC and developed its evaluation. Partners met on 30-31 March 2017 in Ljubljana, Slovenia, to discuss the launch of the MOOC on-line. A multiplier event was organized in June 2017 to present the MOOC. Marie Clotteau disseminated the project during the Mountain Business Summit in Tarbes, France on the 6th July 2017. The final steps consisted in inviting minimum 40 stakeholders to follow the MOOC. The final conference was organised by Euromontana on the 19 October 2017 in Brussels and gathered around 50 participants from regional representations, tourism organisations and other stakeholders from the silver economy sector. The conference set the political context of silver tourism in Europe, presented the results of the project and the Erasmus+ programme also and showcased 4 other European projects developing Silver Tourism products and services. The project ended on the 30th October 2017. Final reporting was validated at the beginning of 2018. More information @ http://www.silvertourism.eu/en/ or https://www.facebook.com/silvertourismErasmusPlus/ or https://twitter.com/SilverTourismST

2.4 OREKA MENDIAN—Conservation and management of mountain grasslands in the Basque Country Coordinated by HAZI, this Life project aims at restoring and maintaining a favourable conservation status for mountain grassland habitats and the grassland species that are of European interest, through the adequate management of grazing livestock. It will actively involve farmers in conservation, seeking synergy between the needs of livestock and grassland conservation. It will determine criteria for “best practices” to help managers in decision making, on issues such as authorisation of exploitations and traditional activities. The project started in September 2016 and will end in November 2021 (5-years-long). Project partners are: HAZI (coordinator), Diputación Foral de Gipuzkoa, Diputación Foral de Bizkaia, Diputación Foral de

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Alava, Neiker Teknalia, Euskal Herriko Laborantza Ganbara, Conservatoire d’Espaces Naturels d’Aquitaine, and Euromontana. Euromontana will be involved in communication activities, involve experts in participatory workshops and write a report on the management of pastures at the EU level. The literature review for the report started in the 2nd semester of 2017, following three strands: conservation ecology, attractiveness of pastoralism, and public policies at local/regional/EU level. An intern will continue this work in 2018. A questionnaire to collect views and data from different mountain regions, as well as best practices was prepared in December 2017 to be launched in the beginning of 2018.

2.5 Projects submitted by Euromontana or where Euromontana is a partner Euromontana participated in the submission of 7 project proposals in 2017. Among those 7 proposals, 2 H2020 proposals successfully passed the first step (28% success rate) and the Interreg Europe proposal was accepted in Spring 2018 EVIDENS (H2020 programme—SC5-08-2017) The project was submitted on 7th March 2017 and is coordinated by the Norwegian institute of Bioeconomy Research - NIBIO. The overall objective of EVIDENS (EVIdence based Demonstrators for effective and operationalized Nature-based Solutions) is to assess and demonstrate the potential and scope of nature-based solutions (NbS) for hydro-meteorological risk reduction and to develop evidence-based methodologies for operationalizing, upscaling and replicating NbS to safeguard rural and natural areas, adapt to climate change and improve ecosystem services in Europe. The project was rejected in 2nd step. Grasslands4ever (H2020 programme—SFS-27-2017) The project was submitted on 14th February 2017 and was coordinated by INRA (Institut National de Recherche Agronomique). Grasslands4ever aimed at improving the production of permanent grassland based systems (PGBS) and the provision of ecosystem services by PGBS, by restoring confidence of actors in the performances and competitiveness of permanent grasslands (PG); developing easily manageable and resilient PGBS; developing recommendations and tools for policies and innovative food chain approaches that recognize the ecosystem services (ES) and qualities of animal products provided by PG, creating higher market value for PGBS products. The project was rejected in 1st step. INSIEME (H2020 programme—MG-8-4-2017) The project was submitted on 1rst February 2017 and coordinated by the University of Bologna. The objective of INSIEME (Improving accessibility and inclusiveness in thinly populated (rural) and intermediate density areas in Europe) is to critically assess and further improve the accessibility and the inclusiveness of public transport in prioritized areas in Europe. Based on the analysis of the spatial, demographic, socio economic and transport framework, INSIEME aimed at developing and testing new organizational and technological mobility solutions and elaborating new business models for public transport in thinly populated (rural) and intermediate density areas, through the active involvement of citizens and relevant stakeholders. The project was rejected. Euromontana would have been Work Package leader on communication and dissemination. RELEASE (H2020 programme—RUR-09-2017) The project was submitted on 14 February 2017 and coordinated by the Institute of Technology Tralee (Ireland). RELEASE (Regenerative Rural Business Models and Ecosystem Services) is a multidisciplinary, multi-sectorial collaborative project supporting a network of regional development, enterprise support

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and innovation agencies to access new knowledge and skills in the application of new business models to increase 1) the competitiveness of rural enterprises and the 2) attractiveness of rural areas to entrepreneurs, professionals and investors, and of 3) making rural areas more resilient dynamic, attractive place to live and work. To bypass the limitations and vulnerabilities, RELEASE will take advantage of opportunities presented by circular economy (CE) and digital business models as a platform on which to develop a new wave of rural entrepreneurs, value chains and businesses and diversify agri-food, forestry, biobased, recycling, construction, retail and tourism sectors. The project was rejected in 2nd step. Euromontana would have been Work Package leader on communication and dissemination. RUVIVAL (H2020 programme—SC5-21-2017) The project was submitted on 7th March 2017 and coordinated by the University College of Dublin. RUVIVAL’s (Revival of Rural Communities through Heritage) ambition was to devise and implement a new paradigm of heritage-led rural regeneration through innovative actions and solutions to address both the safeguarding of cultural heritage and the urgent need to establish new pathways for sustainable rural regeneration. RUVIVAL – through its Online Platform – aimed at developing, testing and applying a multidisciplinary suite of concepts, methodologies and toolkits through a ‘living labs’ approach, linking new technologies, the RUVIVAL Platform and novel citizen engagement, implemented across innovative actions on enhancing the rural living environment, the co-creation of new management strategies for cultural heritage, alternative finance models, and the creative and cultural rural economy. The project was rejected in 1st step. TREASURE (H2020 programme—SFS-29-2017) The project was submitted on 14th February 2017 and coordinated by Wageningen University (Netherlands). The aim of TREASURE (Transitions to regenerative farming systems in Europe) was to explore, assess, compare and enhance the performance and transformative capacity of a large variety of farming practices and systems in order to further transitions towards eco-economies. Such economies do not result in resource depletion, but instead provide cumulative net benefits that add value to rural and regional spaces in both ecological and economic terms. The project was rejected in 1st step. SILVER SMEs (Interreg Europe programme) The project was submitted on the 30th June 2017. Coordinated by the Province of Teruel, it involves different Euromontana members including SODEBUR. The general objective of SILVER SMEs is to identify and implement Regional Policies to take advantage of the Silver Economy opportunities by encouraging SMEs to develop specific products and services adapted for the needs of silver persons. It will thus encourage silver persons to stay at home and would help to prevent depopulation in rural and mountain areas. Euromontana would be an advisory partner and would be in charge of the Communication and Dissemination of the project. The answer was delayed to March 2018, when the project was finally accepted. *** In addition to projects in which Euromontana was directly involved, numerous invitations to participate were communicated to Euromontana. These offers have been redirected to members to encourage development of common actions and collection of the necessary funding.

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2.6 Development of new projects within Euromontana The work programmes for the next H2020 calls for proposals was officially published in November 2017. Euromontana is already interested to submit a proposal under the following calls:

• RUR-01-2018-2019. Building modern rural policies on long-term visions and societal engagement. Sub-topic A: Rural society-science-policy hub (CSA)

• RUR-01-2018-2019: Building modern rural policies on long-term visions and societal engagement. Sub-topic C: Building resilient mountain value chains delivering private and public goods (RIA)

• RUR-09-2018: Realising the potential of regional and local bio-based economies

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3.1 Meeting with the Cabinet of Commissioner Phil Hogan (Brussels, 11 January 2017) Juanan Gutierrez, Dominique Fayel and Marie Clotteau met the Cabinet of EU Commissioner Phil Hogan on the 11th January 2017 to present the document “Implement the Cork Declaration: Solutions for and from mountain areas” and suggest concrete solutions in favour of mountain areas to start the implementation of the Cork Declaration. This meeting was the occasion to present in detail the work that Euromontana has already done under the priorities listed in the Cork Declaration.

3.3 KUPRES Event (Bosnia-Herzegovia, 8-9 February 2017) Danijel Bertovic, PINS, represented Euromontana at the KUPRES event on forestry in Bosnia Herzegovia on the 8-9th February 2017, it was a good follow-up to the event done in Skrad in November 2016.

3.4 Event on “The Italian mountains, towards development: economic, social, environmental and institutional issues and perspectives” (Florence, 24 February 2017) Elisabetta Parravicini represented Euromontana in Firenze during an event on Italian mountains, its

main issues, its political and institutional representation, organised on the 24th February 2017.

3.2 Training ISARA on mountain products (Lyon, 28 February 2017) Lauren Mosdale, Project Officer at Euromontana, gave a course at ISARA-Lyon on how to represent mountains at the European level. The course was given in the framework of the module “Mountains as challenging areas”, offered to the students of the 4th year of Agricultural Engineering at ISARA-Lyon. This module aimed to be an introduction to rural development issues, taking the case of European mountain areas as an example. The students had the opportunity to learn more about the work done by Euromontana at the European level. A role game related to lobbying gave to the students the chance to learn more about this aspect of Euromontana’s role at the European level. Details on the implementation of the optional quality term “Mountain product” were also explained.

3.5 South West Meeting (Natural Park of Pyrenees Ariegeoises, 6-7 April 2017) The Board members of Euromontana and the members of the

Circular Economy Group of South-West Europe met on 6th April

2017, in the Pyrenees Ariégeoises Regional Natural Park, in the

South-West of France. The day aimed at meeting different actors

implementing a circular model in order to learn and exchange good

practices of circular economy in mountain areas. Organized by the

mixed union of the Pyrenees Ariégeoises Regional Natural Park

(member of Euromontana), headed by André Rouch its president, and Matthieu Cruège its director, the

meeting enabled participants to exchange and share ideas for the development of cooperation projects

within the circular economy, in the local economy, in the exploitation of local resources and in the

maintenance of populations in rural areas.

III. MEETINGS, SEMINARS AND CONFERENCES OF

EUROMONTANA

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3.6 RUMRA Breakfast (Brussels, 1 June 2017) On 1st June 2017, the European Parliament Intergroup on Rural, Mountainous and Remote Areas – RUMRA – hosted a breakfast briefing in Brussels to discuss Cohesion policy in Rural Areas and the need for a EU rural agenda. The breakfast briefing aimed to better understand the growth potential of rural areas and reaffirm the RUMRA Intergroup’s commitment to help build political consensus and trigger growth for regions that are often overlooked. Several innovative examples were given to participants that were prepared by Euromontana’s team. More than 60 participants participated to this event, including an impressive number of Members of the European Parliament (MEP), with Chair of the RUMRA Intergroup, Mercedes Bresso, Chair of the URBAN Intergroup, Jan Olbrycht, and MEPs Jozo Rados, Franc Bogovic, Momchil Nekov, and Herbert Dorfmann. A video was done with the MEPs and the official supporters of the intergroup, including with Marie Clotteau, Director of Euromontana, to show the support towards this Agenda for Rural Areas.

3.7 Cohesion Policy in Mountain Areas: How to increase the contribution from mountains and benefits for mountain territories? (Brussels, 7 June 2017) On 7th June 2017, more than 100 mountain actors from all over Europe met in Brussels to participate in a conference on “Cohesion Policy in mountain areas: How to increase the contributions from mountains and benefits for mountain territories” co-organised by the European Commission (DG Regio) and Euromontana. This conference reflected on how to better develop a place-based and territorial integrated approach for the future Cohesion Policy and how this policy should address mountain specificities. This conference was the first step to support a future Cohesion Policy that better support mountain specificities. This event was largely disseminated in the ENRD newsletter, as well as in the newsletter of the European Economic and Social Committee.

3.8 ACAP: General Assembly (La Pierre St Martin, 28 June 2017) Juanan Gutierrez, President of Euromontana, presented the results of the conference Euromontana has organised on the 7th June 2017 on Cohesion policy during the General Assembly of the Chamber of Agriculture of the Pyrenees. This meeting was organised around the future of Cohesion Policy, CAP and Rural Development post 2020 and its impacts on pastoralism.

3.9 Mountain Food Products Meeting (Paris, 28 June 2017) Euromontana’s members of the working group on mountain products met in Paris. Alice Dos Santos, our former intern, presented the conclusions of her master thesis on the labelling of mountain products. Her study sought to better understand the links between the labelling of mountain products, their valorisation and territorial development. To do so, she studied the territorial embeddedness, the governance, and the marketing strategy of different quality schemes established within mountain territories: the French PDO Comté, the Eusko Label from the Spanish Basque government and the brand Pro Montagna from the Swiss Coop supermarkets.

3.10 Mountain Business Summit (Tarbes, 5-7 July 2017) From the 5th to 7th July, the first edition of the International Trade show for Mountain Industry and Innovators, “Mountain Business Summit”, was

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held in Tarbes, in the French Pyrenees. The Summit aimed to bring together professionals and mountain enthusiasts. Various workshops, round tables and professional meetings were scheduled during the 3 days. Around 285 exhibitors were present. Euromontana Secretariat, as well as members (Geneviève Borodine for the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes Region and Thierry Percie du Sert for ARPE Occitanie – the regional agency for territorial strategies) attended during the Business days. Thierry Percie du Sert also represented Euromontana at the conference “Public Policies and Collective Pastoralism“, presenting examples of pastoralism in various European countries, notably in Romania and in the Spanish Basque Country. Marie Clotteau, Director of Euromontana participated in two round tables on the “Silver Mountain” where she presented the SILVER TOURISM project in which Euromontana is a partner; as well as on “Accessibility in mountain regions”, where she shared the results of the MOVE ON GREEN project, including various good practices in soft mobility.

3.11 AREPO General Assembly (Crete, 5 October 2017) Juanan Gutierrez presented a state-of-the-art of the implementation of the optional quality scheme in the different Member States in the General Assembly of AREPO, the network of Quality Products.

3.12 Mountain Food Products Meeting (Brussels, 18 October 2017) The EU mountain products legislation is alive, now it is time for producers and Member States to really seize this opportunity to give more added value to mountain areas. On 18th October 2017, around 100 mountain actors from all over Europe took part in a conference on “How to better valorise mountain food products – Launch of the European Charter for Mountain Quality Food Products” organised by Euromontana in Brussels after its General Assembly. Three years on from the adoption of the delegated act finalising the details of the optional quality scheme for mountain products, the conference reflected on the implementation of this legislation by Member States and its uptake by producers. Beyond the optional quality scheme, the conference presented different possibilities to better valorise mountain products and create added value in mountain areas.

3.13 Silver Tourism final conference (Brussels, 19 October 2017) Euromontana organised the final conference of the SILVER TOURISM project in Brussels on the 19th October, the day after the General Assembly. The Silver Tourism project came to an end in October 2017. The final conference gathered around 50 participants from regional representations, tourism organisations and other stakeholders from the silver economy sector. The conference set the political context of silver tourism in Europe, presented the results of the project and the Erasmus+ programme, also and showcased 4 other European projects developing Silver Tourism products and services.

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3.14 Mountains Products event (Bulle, 1 December 2017) Euromontana participated in the event on mountain products in Bulle, Switzerland at the beginning of December. After a presentation of the European Charter for mountain products, Thomas Egger (SAB), Olivier Beucherie (consultant) and Marie Clotteau (Euromontana) animated a workshop on “Labelling the mountain and valorising its products”.

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4.1. Future of the EU and Brexit issue Jean-Claude Juncker, President of the European Commission presented in September 2016 a White Paper on the future of Europe. It sets out the main challenges and opportunities for Europe in the coming decade. It presents five scenarios for how the Union could evolve by 2025 depending on how it chooses to respond. These scenarios are: · Scenario 1: Carrying On · Scenario 2: Nothing but the Single Market · Scenario 3: Those Who Want More Do More · Scenario 4: Doing Less More Efficiently · Scenario 5: Doing Much More Together This position paper was prepared for the preparation of the 60th Anniversary of the Rome Treaties (celebrated in March 2017) taking also into account the Brexit and its political implications. It was notably followed in July 2017 by a reflection paper on the future of the EU Finances developed by EU Commissionners Ottinger and Cretu. The official launch of the Brexit negotiations happened in June 2017. They are expected to last 2 years and have already a lot of impacts by delaying the adoption of the 2021-2027 Multifinancial Framework (MFF). This MFF was supposed to be prepared by the European Commission by the end of 2017 and was not presented before May 2018 to take into account the financial impacts of the Brexit. The direct results is that all the budgetary discussions on the different EU policies are delayed.

4.2 Future of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) More than 322 000 answers have been received to the EC consultation on the modernisation and simplification of the future CAP. More than 96% of these answers were done by individuals (only 7% of them are involved in farming) and around 3% by organisations. The campaigns (like the Living Land one who collected 258 575 answers) were analysed separately. So after data cleaning, only 58 520 answers remained, which is still a very large number. Due to the high number of answers, and the current trend at the EC, it is expected to have more and more consultations with boxes to tick and less space to present constructive answers. Thus, even if Euromontana participated to this consultation, it should only be one mean among others to lobby DG Agri. The public consultation highlights the fair standard of living for farmers, the pressures on the environment and climate change (both mitigation and adaptation), and the lack of growth and jobs as the three most pressing challenges that EU agriculture and rural areas have to face. A communication of the simplification and modernisation of the future CAP was published in November 2017. It presented the new delivery model with the implementation of CAP strategic plans.

4.3 Follow-up of the Cork Declaration The Secretariat finalised a document “Implement the Cork Declaration:

solutions for and from mountain areas” in December 2016 and has sent it to

several representatives of DG Agri. Euromontana’s President, Vice-President

Dominique Fayel as Chairman of the CDG on Rural Development and the

Director were invited in January 2017 to present this document to the Cabinet

of Phil Hogan.

In addition, this work of Euromontana has been explicitly quoted on the DG

Agri webpage regarding the implementation of the Cork Declaration, so far

as the only external link for stakeholders; the Charter of Mountain Quality

Food Products and both PEGASUS and SIMRA projects in which Euromontana

IV. POLICY MONITORING AND POSITIONS

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is involved have also been quoted as examples of the implementation of the Cork Declaration in the

Cork 2.0 Action plan of the European Commission and in the 3rd Rural Networks’ Assembly: Discussion

summary. These achievements thus give a good visibility of Euromontana’s work on the subject.

4.4 Cohesion policy in mountain areas The European Commission has started to discuss the future Cohesion Policy with stakeholders at the Cohesion Forum on 26-27 June 2017. A public consultation should be open in 2018 and a Communication is expected in 2018. The other EU institutions have also started the reflections, like the Committee of the Regions which has adopted an opinion in May 2017 entitled "For a strong and effective European cohesion policy beyond 2020”. This Opinion calls for an alliance of all relevant actors in favour of the Cohesion policy. Mountain people and administrations need to be strategically organised to make their voice better heard at the EU level in the coming months. On 7th June 2017, more than 100 mountain actors from all over Europe met in Brussels to participate in a conference on “Cohesion Policy in mountain areas: How to increase the contributions from mountains and benefits for mountain territories” co-organised by the European Commission (DG Regio) and Euromontana. This conference reflected on how to better develop a place-based and territorial integrated approach for the future Cohesion Policy and how this policy should address mountain specificities. It was the first step to support a future Cohesion Policy that better taking the mountain specificities into account. Euromontana calls upon all the organisations, especially the regions and Member States to show their support for a dedicated approach for mountain areas, including in the coming months and in the open consultation on the future Cohesion Policy. This would be particularly important, as the Commission is wishing to focus on simplification (thus, it would be a hard work to have more dedicated measures targeting especially mountain areas) and as the budget for this policy might be significantly reduced.

4.5 The Intergroup on « Rural, Mountainous and Remote Areas » (RUMRA) Euromontana, together with two other European networks, FREE (Future of Rural Energy in Europe) and Rurality-Environment-Development (RED) supported the creation in the European Parliament (EP) of an Intergroup on Rural, Mountain and Remote Areas, which was officially launched in Strasbourg on the 12th March 2015. The secretariat is ensured by FREE. This EP intergroup has been divided into six major themes: 1) resources and financing for rural integrated development; 2) rural and urban interrelations; 3) climate change and energy; 4) living nowadays in rural areas; 5) territorial quality products; 6) ultra-peripheral and remote regions. Euromontana is in charge of the themes 4 and 5. The final aim of this EP intergroup would be to invite the EU Commissioner Corina Cretu, in charge of

the regional policy to present a White Paper on Rurality. Further efforts to support the White Paper

were completed in 2017 starting with a breakfast conference organised on the 1st June 2017 in Brussels

with the participants of several MEPs and the publication of a RUMRA Brochure with the inputs of 6

MEPs presenting some concrete proposals of what such a White Paper for Rural Areas could be.

In addition, the publication of the Committee of the Regions “The need for a White Paper on Rurality

from local and regional perspective” in which Euromontana explained why it supports this idea, was

largely disseminated in 2017 during different events.

4.6 Alpine macro-regional strategy - EUSALP

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The macro-regional Alpine strategy EUSALP was approved by the European Commission on 28 July 2015. Three members of Euromontana are directly leading the working axis: GESDIMONT, the Auvergne-Rhone-Alpes region and SAB. In 2017, the EUSALP strategy continued its implementation.

4.7 Follow-up of the product quality policy The Regulation (EC) 1151/2012 introducing the optional quality term « mountain product » at the European level and rewarding 15 years of dedicated work from Euromontana, entered into force on 3 January 2013. In June 2014 the delegated act, aimed at defining the eligibility criteria for the optional term, was adopted. Evaluation of the development potential of the optional quality term « mountain product » in different national, regional and sectorial contexts In 2017, the Secretariat has updated its study on the implementation of the optional quality scheme in the different member states. Some countries like Austria are directly applying the EU regulation. Some countries like France, Italy, Germany, Romania and Slovenia are defining at national levels the applications (controls, notification in a register or not) and are well advanced in the discussions. Some countries like Bulgaria, Croatia, Spain and Portugal are waiting and have not started any adoption at the national level. In these cases, the EU regulation could be directly implemented. In 2017, a lot of progress was made in Romania, with the launch of a Romanian logo, the finalisation of the adaptation of the procedures and as a consequence the first mountain products officially authorised to use the optional quality scheme. Updated European Charter for Mountain Quality Food Products Following the European Mountain Convention in Bilbao, the European Charter for Mountain Quality Food Products was updated in 2016. This time, the idea was not to ask for legislation to protect the “mountain product”, but to encourage the Member States to apply existing legislation, to further encourage the EU to promote mountain products, to support the provision of ecosystem services, to encourage consumers to buy mountain products and to support sustainable development in mountain areas. This updated Charter is being promoted thanks to a working group on mountain products. An argumentation to explain this Charter, an online platform to collect the signatures and a Facebook page have been developed and all members are now invited to sign and to largely disseminate this Charter. So far, more than 500 signatures have been collected. This Charter has been disseminated on ENRD newsletter. This Charter was officially launched on 18th October 2017 with a conference on mountain food products. Study on the cooperation in the mountain food supply chains

Alice Dos Santos, our former intern, has done a study on ‘how to strengthen mountain food chains in Europe’. Based on the previous research results of Euromontana’s past work (Euromarc, the European Mountain Conventions in Bilbao and a SAB seminar she attended in November), she has studied the factors explaining cooperation in three cases. The first one is the PDO Comté cheese in Jura (France), the second one is the regional Eusko Label in the Basque Country (Spain) and the third one is the Pro Montagna brand of the Coop supermarket chain in Switzerland. She presented the results of her study during a workshop organised on the 28th June 2017 in Paris with the members of the working group on mountain products. New promotion policy of the European Commission Following the adoption of its new regulation 1144/2014, DG Agri has defined an annual programme with a budget of € 142. 5 million in 2017 and €188.5 million in 2018 and € 200 million in 2019. A call for proposals was open up to the 20th April 2017 and mountain products were eligible. The call

19

targeted explicitly producers and the Secretariat contacted several members to invite them to submit proposals. In addition, Euromontana gave some contributions to the CDG of Quality and Promotion in order to further improve the implementation of the Promotion Programme during an internal consultation where all the members of the CDG could contribute. AREPO, the network of Quality Products was associated to this answer too. Towards “A global mountain labelling” by the Mountain Partnership The Mountain Partnership Secretariat decided in 2015 to begin creating a global labelling scheme for mountain goods and services. The Mountain Partnership mountain label was finalised in 2016. This is a voluntary global label supported by a value chain and marketing strategy, created to support small mountain producers from developing countries and it is not meant to be used in Europe where a much more advanced system is in place. But the absence of real criteria to give this Label (products should be mainly produced and transformed in mountain areas, but there is no information on how to measure it, products should come from small-scale production but there is no information either on how to measure it) obliged Euromontana to warn the European Commission about this label and its problematic use (in opposition with the optional quality term for mountain products) if used in the EU.

4.8 Network of European Mountain Research (NEMOR) and lobbying for the future FP9 MRI (Mountain Research Initiative) has produced, with several mountain researchers, a position paper in order to lobby to have the word “mountains” appear more often in the H2020 calls for proposals. This position paper presents clear recommendations of what should be funded for the different topics. Euromontana was part of the process. This paper was officially launched in April 2016. Following some changes at MRI which make impossible the continuation of this activity for them, it was decided to create a Network for European Mountain Research (NEMOR) that could be hosted by Euromontana but would require active involvement of members. This would enable discussion on research priorities in relation to Euromontana’s missions. It would help to foster the mountain partnerships, to enhance new research activities, in which Euromontana is interested anyway. MRI would still be involved in this network to serve as a link between Europe and a global vision. The plan would be: to develop an action plan listing the priorities and first actions to be undertaken before the end of the year and see how the different mountain researchers (who are or who are not members of Euromontana) could be involved; and to start lobbying for FP9. The benefits for Euromontana would be an increased number of research-focused members, research and innovation is a priority of Euromontana so it would be a way to reinforce it. It would improve the links between research organisations and the evidence-base we need for Euromontana’s lobbying; it would help to find research partners for projects and broaden the scientific profile of Euromontana. Bernat Claramunt from CREAF took the lead of NEMOR, and with the Director, they met Renzo Tomellini from DG RTD on 21st December 2017 to present NEMOR. Euromontana answered in January 2017 to the public consultation on Horizon 2020, focusing on the whole research programme.

4.9 Innovation and Circular Economy in the Mountain Forest Supply Chain The study “Innovation and Circular Economy in the Mountain Forest Supply Chain: How to Close the Loop?” was finalised in March 2017 by Sarah Whitaker. It presents the concept of the circular economy, its potential application in forestry, with a focus on the mountain forest supply chain, and the circular economy at the EU level. It also presents a series of 12 good practices in innovation and circular economy in mountain forestry to show how the concepts may be applied in practice. This study was

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also based on the results of the workshop Euromontana has organised on the 29th November 2016 in Skrad (Croatia) to seek to address the issue of the circular economy from the perspective of the forestry supply chain and to understand how a circular economy in the forest supply chain might be achieved. This study was presented to the Forestry House (EFI, CEPF, Eustafor networks) and was notably disseminated in the ENRD and Alpine Convention newsletters.

4.10 Climate change Climate change was the theme of the last European Mountain Convention of Bragança, in October 2016. A Declaration was published at the end of the EMC with several commitments made by Euromontana regarding climate change. The Secretariat has participated in several events related to climate change and produced news items or articles each time so information can be found on Euromontana’s website (European Parliament event on geographical indications and climate change, EC workshop on agriculture, EEA quadrennial state-of-the-art report and a Mountain Partnership study on Sustainable Development Goals). Other commitments made by Euromontana include participation in EU projects: Euromontana is involved in a H2020 project proposal focusing on large-scale demonstrators on nature-based solutions for hydro-meteorological risk reduction linked to climate change (EVIDENS project); the launch of the Iberian Mountain Research Network, EMC proceedings for dissemination of good practices, the organization of a session focused on climate change during the conference co-organised with DG REGIO on 7th June 2017 and specific measures related to climate change in the policy brief “Implement the Cork Declaration: Solutions from and for mountain areas”.

4.11 Participation to the Family Farming Knowledge Platform of the FAO In June 2015, the Family Farming Knowledge Platform was launched by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). It gathers digitized quality information on family farming from all over the world; including national laws and regulations, public policies, best practices, relevant data and statistics, research, articles and publications. It provides a single access point for international, regional and national information related to family farming issues; integrating and systematizing existing information to better inform and provide knowledge-based assistance to policy-makers, family farmers’ organizations, development experts, as well as to stakeholders in the field and at the grassroots level. Euromontana became a contributor to this Platform in 2016 sharing items of news and events. More information: http://www.fao.org/family-farming/en/

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5.1 European Network for Rural Development (ENRD) Euromontana is one of the twelve European organisations which have been designated to be part of the European Network for Rural Development established in late 2008. Euromontana’s participation was renewed in 2014 for the next 7 years. As in the previous years, Euromontana took an active part in the activities of ENRD. - the Assembly of European rural networks (GA) where national authorities, paying agencies, national rural networks, the CDG (Civil Dialogue Group) for Rural Development, LAGs (local Action Groups), agricultural advisory services, local and regional authorities and institutes for agricultural research (SCAR) are represented. Euromontana participated in the 4th meeting on 14th December 2017. This Assembly meets every year and defines the priorities of ENRD. - the Steering Group (SG) where Member States, EU organisations, evaluators and advisory and research institutes are represented. Euromontana occupies one of the 12 seats given to EU organisations, but according to a rotation procedure with Rurality-Environment-Development (RED). In 2017, RED participated in the meeting organised on the 18th June 2017 and Euromontana participated in the meeting of 23rd October 2017 Permanent subgroups: Some permanent subgroups are maintained up to 2020. They meet 3 times per year. Euromontana has one seat in the subgroup on innovation (through Damiana Maiz, HAZI). Damiana participated in the innovation subgroup on 16 February 2017, on 8 June 2017 and on 13 October 2017. The presence of Euromontana is really relevant in this subgroup and this is the place where we can influence EIP-AGRI, by providing suggestions on themes for Focus Groups, workshops and seminars. Greta Černilogar (Soca Valley Development Centre, Slovenia) represents Euromontana in the subgroup on LEADER/ CLLD meeting of the 21st February 2017. This meeting focused on the implementation of the CLLD approach and the expected changes linked to the Omnibus regulation proposal. Thematic Groups Euromontana participated in the thematic group on rural businesses, which started in 2016, through Rob Clarke of the Highlands and Islands Enterprise. He participated to the 3 meetings organised on 23-24 January 2017, 30 March 2017 and 18-19 May 2017. The key issues addressed are: new trends and ‘wild ideas’ for rural businesses; smart business support; digitisation, the use of ICT and access to broadband. Marie Clotteau participated in the ENRD Thematic Group on Smart Villages which met on the 7th December 2017 on “Revitalising rural services through social innovation” where she presented the SIMRA project.

5.2 European Innovation Partnership for productive and sustainable agriculture (EIP-AGRI) EIP-AGRI has become a very important tool to influence DG AGRI on innovation issues as well as obtaining and sharing information. Thus, Euromontana has closely followed its activities through the subgroup innovation but also thanks to the EIP-Agri webpage and its newsletter.

5.3. EC—DG Agriculture—Civil Dialogue Groups (CDG) Euromontana has two seats on the CDG on Common Agricultural Policy, one seat on the CDG on Rural Development and one on the Promotion and Quality group

V. EXTERNAL NETWORK : PARTNERSHIPS,

REPRESENTATION, PARTICIPATION

22

Civil Dialogue Group on Rural Development On the 20th September 2016, Dominique Fayel from FNSEA, as Vice-President of Euromontana, was elected as Chairman of this CDG. His mandate is for one year, renewable once. Euromontana with the two vice-presidents (Trees Robjins from BirdLife and Peter Pascher from COPA) is in charge of the writing of the agenda of these meetings and of the minutes. This represents a very interesting opportunity to do more direct lobbying towards DG Agri and gain visibility. The first meeting of the year was organised on the 15th February. It focused on Areas with Natural Constraints, the preparation of the CAP consultation, on the CoR study on budget for rural areas and on the Preparatory Study of the Andrieu report on jobs and growth. The Second meeting was organised on the 19th September with the election to renew the mandate of Dominique Fayel for one year and the third meeting on 12th December presented the CAP Communication and the adoption of the Omnibus regulation. Being Chairman of this CDG, Dominique Fayel is thus automatically invited to participate in the Steering Group of the Rural Network Assembly and in the Structured Dialogue Meeting to discuss on the implementation of the structural funds. Again, this gives access to new instances of discussion which are very interesting in the preparation of the next programming period post 2020. Civil Dialogue Group on Quality and Promotion Marie Clotteau represented Euromontana during the meeting on 24 February 2017. She was invited to present the Mountain Partnership Label and the potential conflict it represents for the optional quality term for mountain products. Elena Di Bella (Citta Mettropolitana di Torino – Italy) represented Euromontana during the meeting on 30 June 2017 where the promotion programme was presented for agri-food products and on the meeting on 15 December 2017 where the 2018 promotion programme was discussed such as the CAP Communication. Civil Dialogue Group on the Common Agricultural Policy Dominique Fayel (FNSEA-France) and Orlando Rodrigues (IPB-CIMO – Portugal) participated in the meeting organised on the 5th May 2017 just after the closure of the public consultation of the CAP, this subject was discussed in-depth during the meeting. Dominique Fayel (FNSEA-France) and Marie Clotteau (Director) participated in the second meeting on the 11th December 2017 where the omnibus regulation and the new CAP Communication on the future of Food and Farming were discussed.

5.4 Alpine Convention Euromontana has an observer status at the Alpine Convention. The Permanent Secretariat of the Alpine Convention was renewed and seems to give special attention to observers. Euromontana is represented on the Standing Committee by Genevieve Borodine (Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes Region) and in some working groups, through its members, for instance the group of mountain farming through Andreja Borec (University of Maribor), the forests group (ERSAF) and indirectly in the group on the digital agenda (Lombardy region), and transportation (Auvergne-Rhone-Alpes region). The Board confirmed Geneviève Borodine’s mandate to continue representing Euromontana in these meetings as she has done for instance at the conference on 5-6 April in Bolzano, Italy. In addition, Euromontana has actively participated in the newsletters of the Alpine Convention being able to disseminate the study done on circular economy and forestry or the conference on cohesion policy.

5.5 Carpathian Convention Euromontana has an observer status at the Carpathian Convention. Euromontana did not take part in any meetings in 2017.

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5.6 International Partnership for the Sustainable Development of Mountain Regions Euromontana is a member of the Mountain Partnership that was created on the initiative of the FAO at the end of the International Year of Mountains in 2002. It is a voluntary alliance of partners dedicated to improving the quality of life of mountain people and protecting mountain environments around the world. Martin Price, Vice-president of Euromontana, participates as a member in the Steering Committee representing European civil society. He didn’t attend any meeting in 2017 and would like to withdraw. Joao Azevedo has manifested his interest in applying to this position to represent first his organisation IPB-CIMO and also Euromontana and was elected in December 2017

5.7 The United Nations Committee on Non-Governmental Organisations The United Nations Committee on Non-Governmental Organisations has granted Euromontana a special consultative status at the United Nations Economic and Social Committee. Special consultative status is granted to NGOs which have a special competence in, and are concerned specifically with, only a few of the fields of activity covered by the ECOSOC. Non-governmental organisations with a special consultative status that express their wish to attend the relevant international conferences convened by the United Nations and the meetings of the preparatory bodies of said conferences shall as a rule be accredited for participation. The 2011-2014 activity report was sent in May 2015 in order to renew the involvement of Euromontana. No further activity was done in 2017. For more information see http://www.un.org/esa/coordination/ngo/

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The provisional budget voted by the General Assembly 2017 is 3025€. The balance of accounts closed by the Euromontana Board of Directors on 26th June 2017 is finally € 21,258 thanks to a good management of ongoing projects. The total expenditures amount to € 223,967 including: - Salaries and charges (including VIE and interns): € 146,652 - Projects (without staff): €15,482 - Meetings: € 22,905 - General expenses and other charges: € 38,928 The total receipts amount to 245,225 € including: - EU Grants: € 95,667 - Membership fees: € 142,889 - Others (including ERSAF grant for intern): € 6,669 The General Assembly meeting on 25th September 2018 in Vatra Dornei, Romania is asked to approve this report and the associated accounts and to allocate the result to the retained earnings.

VI. FINANCIAL BALANCE 2017

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CROATIA Local development Agency PINS

FRANCE APCA - Permanent Conference of the Agricultural Chambers

FRANCE ARPE Occitanie- Agence régionale pour l'Environnement Midi-Pyrénées

FRANCE Région Auvergne-Rhône Alpes

FRANCE FNSEA - National Farmers Union

FRANCE ISARA-Lyon - Agricultural Institute of Rhône Alpes

FRANCE Chambre de Commerce et d’Industrie des Vosges

FRANCE Conseil Général du Gard

FRANCE MACEO (grouping UCCIMAC, COPAMAC-SIDAM and APAMAC)

FRANCE CNIEL- Centre National Interprofessionnel de l’Economie Laitière

FRANCE Association Porc montagne

FRANCE Chambre Régionale d'Agriculture Languedoc-Roussillon Midi-Pyrénées

(previously SUAMME)

FRANCE ACAP- Association des chambres d'agriculture des Pyrénées

FRANCE SUACI Montagne Alpes du Nord

FRANCE Regional Chamber of agriculture Provence-Alpes-Côte-D'azur

FRANCE APEM—Pyrenean association of Mountain economy

FRANCE Regional Natural Park of Pyrénées Ariégeoises

GREECE Region of Crete

ITALY Confederazione Italiana Agricoltori - Italian Farmers' Union

ITALY ERSAF - Regional Entity for services to agriculture and forestry (Lombardia)

ITALY Citta Metropolitana di Torino

ITALY Sudtiroler Bauernbund

ITALY Mountain University—GESDIMONT—(University of Milan, Lombardia)

ITALY EURAC—European Academy of Bolzano

ITALY Province of Macerata

ITALY POLIEDRA - Politechnico di Milano

ITALY Centro Consorzi Belluno

ITALY ACI - Alleanza Cooperative Italiane

ITALY The Autonom Provinz Bozen Sudtirol

MACEDONIA MAKMONTANA - Association for the development of mountain regions

NORWAY Buskerud County Council

NORWAY Fjellregionen) in Hedmark/South Trøndelag —Board of mountain regions

NORWAY Sogn og Fjordane County Council

NORWAY Telemark County Council

NORWAY Oppland County Council

NORWAY Hedmark County Council

NORWAY USS— Utmarkskommunenes Sammenslutning

NORWAY ENRI—Eastern Norway Research Institute

NORMAY WNRI— Western Norway Research Institute

PORTUGAL AJAP, Association des Jeunes Agriculteurs du Portugal

PORTUGAL ADRAT - Agence de développement de l'Alto Tamega

PORTUGAL Instituto Politecnico Bragança—Centro de Investigaçao de Montanha (CIMO)

PORTUGAL ADVID—Association des producteurs de vins de Douro

CZECH REPUBLIC Svaz Marginalnich Oblasti (Union of Marginal Areas)

ROMANIA CEFIDEC - Training and Innovation Centre for the Development of Carpathians

ROMANIA FAMD Dorna - Farmers Federation of the Mountain Vatra Dornei

ROMANIA Forum Roumain des Montagnes

VII. MEMBERS OF EUROMONTANA 2017

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ROMANIA Openfields Foundation (previously HEIFER Foundation Romania)

ROMANIA ROMONTANA

ROMANIA AGROM-RO

UK Highlands & Islands Enterprise

UK The Highland Council

UK University of the Highlands and Islands

SLOVENIA University of Maribor, Faculty of Agriculture

SLOVENIA Regional development Center Soca Valley

SLOVENIA Heart of Slovenia

SPAIN Basque Government—HAZI

SPAIN Diputacion Provincial de Teruel

SPAIN Diputacion Provincial de Zaragoza

SPAIN Society for the Development of the Province of Burgos (SODEBUR)

SPAIN Navarra Region

SPAIN Diputacion provincial de Huesca

SPAIN Diputacion provincial de Soria

SPAIN CREAF - Center for Ecological Research and Forestry Applications

SPAIN Diputacion de Avila

SPAIN Diputacion de Lleida

SWITZERLAND Groupement suisse pour les régions de montagnes (SAB)

Membership suspended in 2017:

BULGARIA Regional Administration of Smolyan

ITALY Natural Park of Monti Sibillini

MONTENEGRO Municipality of Pljevlja

ROMANIA Development association Horezu

ROMANIA National association of sheep breeders (Federatia oierilor de munte)

UKRAINE Region of Chernivtsi

Expressed wish in 2016 to leave in 2017:

None

Expressed wish in 2017 to leave in 2018:

UK The Highland Council

NORWAY Board of Mountain Regions - Regionrådet for Fjellregionen

APEM has to stop all its activities in 2017 and thus will leave in 2018.

New members in 2017:

- The Autonom Provinz Bozen Sudtirol (Italy)

- ACI - Alleanza Cooperative Italiane (Italy)

- Western Norway Research Institute (Norway)

- Diputacion de Avila (Spain)

- Diputacion de Lleida (Spain)

- Region of Crete (Greece)

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Euromontana is the European multisectoral association for co-operation and development of

mountain territories. It embraces regional and national mountain organisations throughout

greater Europe, including regional development agencies, local authorities, agriculture

organizations, environmental agencies, forestry organizations and research institutes.

Euromontana’s mission is to promote living mountains, integrated and sustainable

development and quality of life in mountain areas.

In order to achieve this, Euromontana facilitates the exchange of information and experience

among these areas by organising seminars and major conferences, by conducting and

collaborating in studies, by developing, managing and participating in European projects and

by working with the European institutions on mountain issues.

EUROMONTANA

EUROMONTANA 2, Place de Champ du Mars

1050 Brussels

Belgium

2, Place de Champ du Mars

1050 Brussels

Belgium

Phone: +32-(0)2-280.42.83

Email: info@euromontana.org

Phone: +32-(0)2-280.42.83

Email: info@euromontana.org