The second European meeting of the National Rural Networks 2014-2020 (NRN Meeting) took place in Jurmala, Latvia, 12-13 May 2015. The meeting had the working title “Starting up NRNs” and focused on the NRN activities around the start of the programming period and the launch of the Rural Development Programmes (RDPs).
NRN representatives discussed and exchanged around:
- The state of play of creation of the National Rural Networks (NRNs) and their Network Support Units (NSUs)
- Progress in defining the intervention logic for each NRN (which seeks to guide when, where and how the NRNs should be active)
- Progress in elaborating the NRN Action Plans
- How to roll out the NRN Action Plans effectively
- How NRNs can carry out effective self-assessment
An Exchange Forum saw participants discuss and exchange on national and regional approaches on three pre-identified topics important for the beginning of the new period:
- EIP-AGRI Operational Groups
- NRN Communication Plans
- Communicating the (launch of the) RDPs
Further topics were addressed by NRN representatives in Open Space discussions.
The meeting was well attended, with 63 participants from over 20 EU Member States. Discussions confirmed a good correlation between the priority themes of the NRNs and those being tackled by the European Networks. It stressed the importance of European-level networks being demand-led in their approaches to improving RDP quality.
Background documents