FARNET News

NEW: 4 articles reflect and debate improving CLLD intervention in fisheries and aquaculture areas. The CLLD programme was praised at DG MARE’s EMMF Stakeholder Conference in October for being a successful tool in bringing about greater collaboration between fisheries and local communities.

The European Commission has published the public consultation "Reducing marine litter: actions on single use plastics and abandoned, lost or otherwise discarded fishing gear" as part of the follow up to the EU Strategy on Plastics scheduled for adoption in January 2018. The consultation period will run until 12 February 2018.

Practical action points to strengthen small-scale fishing organisations and help them make their voices heard in the decision-making process

A call for proposals has been issued by the European Commission on sustainable Blue Economy. Part of this call has been developed with the aim of developing linkages between Mediterranean FLAGs in the EU and fisheries/coastal communities from Algeria, Tunisia, Morocco and Mauritania.

During the first meeting of the Working Group on Small-Scale and Recreational Fisheries, concrete steps were taken to enhance collaboration and promote synergies for the sustainable development of small-scale fisheries in the Mediterranean and Black Sea.

France’s LEADER network is organizing a conference on cooperation on 6 and 7 December 2017. The programme will include roundtable discussions, technical and thematic workshops, project visits, networking and a cooperation fair.

The Estonian Presidency of the European Union and the Directorate General for Maritime Affairs and Fisheries of the European Commission (DG MARE), are organising a stakeholder conference on the European Maritime and Fisheries Fund (EMFF), entitled "Beyond 2020: Supporting Europe's Coastal Communities." This event will take place on 12-13 October 2017 in Tallinn, Estonia.

Calls for greater levels of support to Small-Scale Coastal Fisheries (SSCF) have been on the rise but it appears that Member States and steakeholders are not taking full advantage of the numerous existing funding possibilities under the EMFF in favour of SSCF. FLAGs are one of the possibilities offered by the EMFF to reach out to SSCF and, in practice, the SSCF sector is the natural partner of most FLAGs. Still the extent to which FLAGs have been supporting SSCF is unclear. This report aims to provide an indication of the level of support provided by FLAGs to SSCF. It is based on a survey which has been carried out among FLAGs from both the EFF and EMFF periods which were asked to assess the level of support channelled to SSCF through their Local Development Strategies (LDS).

We are happy to introduce a new way of reporting on FARNET's transnational seminars! The first issue stemming from the FARNET Social inclusion seminar.

Stakeholders from the Adriatic and Ionian Region will meet in May at the 2nd EUSAIR forum in Ioannina (Greece). The event is jointly organised by the European Commission and the Hellenic Republic with the support of the EUSAIR Facility point. It will focus on Blue Growth and, in particular, its interrelations with the other EUSAIR pillars: Environmental quality, Sustainable tourism and Connecting the Region.