ES - FLAG Cooperation in Spain

Cooperation is organised in different ways around Spain, depending on the region. In most regions, cooperation is organised at FLAG level, while in Galicia and Catalonia, calls for projects are organised by the regional authorities in charge of CLLD. These calls tend to be coordinated closely with the FLAGs in order to ensure they meet the needs on the ground.

Galicia publishes a call around April every year, following a workshop organised for FLAGs in the autumn beforehand to develop cooperation ideas. If any budget is left over from the call, a second call is published in the autumn of the same year. In Catalonia, calls are organised on an ad-hoc, needs-basis. Cooperation themes that have emerged in Spain include: promoting fisheries tourism, heritage and gastronomy, supporting women in fisheries to become better organised and represented, exchanging experiences and adding value to local products, generational renewal, social labour inclusion of handicapped people and other vulnerable groups through the creation of new economic opportunities related to fisheries activities, encouraging co-governance in maritime fishing areas and the participation of the fishing sector in marine resource management.

Budgets vary significantly from one region to another with €29 000 foreseen for the two FLAGs in Cantabria and around €1.5M foreseen in Galicia for its eight FLAGs.

Number of FLAGs in Spain: 41

Level at which cooperation is handled:

In four out of ten regions (Cantabria, Andalusia, the Basque Country and the Balearic Islands) cooperation is organised at the FLAG level. FLAG may develop and select cooperation projects at their own initiative before submitting them to their regional authorities for final approval. However, Cantabria is the only region in which FLAGs have a designated cooperation budget; in the other regions, should FLAGs wish to cooperate, they will need to draw on their general strategy implementation budget.
In two regions, Galicia and Catalonia, the regional administration organises calls for cooperation projects to which FLAGs are encouraged to respond. The regional administrations of Asturias, the Canary Islands, Murcia and Valencian are also in charge of publishing calls for cooperation projects, though have not done so to date.

Possible partners:

In most Spanish regions, cooperation projects must be implemented by the FLAGs. However, in Balearic Islands, Cantabria, Catalonia and the Basque Country, other local organisations can also implement the projects, in collaboration with the FLAG. In Asturias and Galicia, some form of collaboration with other local entities is also envisaged for implementing cooperation projects.
In most regions FLAGs can cooperate with partners from CLLD groups funded by all European Structural and Investment Funds and/or with non EU-funded CLLD-type public-private partnerships. However, in the Balearic Islands, Galicia and Valencia FLAGs can only cooperate with other FLAGs.
The Balearic Islands and Galicia have also restricted cooperation to EU countries, while FLAGs from other regions can cooperate outside Europe. Certain regions prioritise cooperation starting in the same basin (e.g. Atlantic or Mediterranean).

Financing and co-financing of your cooperation project:

Cooperation projects are generally subject to the same financing rules as any other FLAG project.

For any further information:

The National Network is specifically tasked with supporting FLAG cooperation and can be contacted at redfep@mapa.es

Information

Country	Spain

Publication date:

09/12/2021