Cooperation by Member State

As a multi-regional Member State, FLAG cooperation in Italy is encouraged as a way of sharing new ideas and innovations between regions. Italy takes a flexible approach towards cooperation, allowing FLAGs to benefit from the full range of provisions that the EMFF foresees, including exchanges where these can bring new knowledge that can be valuable to its fisheries sector.

Latvia’s Operational Programme highlights the role of FLAG cooperation in promoting the exchange of experience at a national and international level as a way of helping solve issues that are fundamental for local communities in fisheries areas.

FLAGs in Lithuania can choose whether to take advantage of the opportunity to cooperate with other groups, in which case, they choose the themes that are most relevant to them.

Cooperation activities are not mandatory in the Polish EMFF programme, but FLAGs are encouraged to undertake them. Cooperation is considered as a good way to facilitate learning by FLAGs and to contribute to achieving their strategic objectives, which strongly prioritise job creation, both within and outside the fisheries sector. In the previous period many Polish FLAGs already proved eager to learn from FLAGs in other Member States and to share their experience with them.

Cooperation in Portugal is considered a useful tool to allow the FLAGs to bring together the knowledge and capacity of actors with different levels of experience, including those from rural and urban areas. As such, support for cooperation will focus on fostering exchange between different organisations, with the aim of resolving common problems and putting into practice ideas that produce benefits that go beyond a single FLAG area.

Romania is one of just five Member States, organising FLAG cooperation at National level, with specific calls for projects that it plans to open once a year starting in 2020.

FLAG cooperation in Slovenia is mandatory and all FLAGs had to foresee it in their strategies. In the period 2007-2013 there was only one FLAG in Slovenia, covering the coastal area, but in 2014-2020 there are also three new FLAGs in inland areas.

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.

The 2003-2013 period in Sweden saw a number of exchange visits with FLAGs from other Member States, including exchanges that led to projects to introduce new approaches to other countries. In 2014-2020, FLAG cooperation is not mandatory in Sweden, but FLAGs had to indicate in their strategies how much funding they planned to allocate to it.

--ARCHIVED as of 31 January 2020-- Cooperation is organised differently in England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales - at Regional level in Scotland and England, while Wales and Northern Ireland leave cooperation up to the FLAGs to organise. The programme authorities are keen that cooperation projects come from the bottom up so, along with the fact that there is little experience in FLAG cooperation in the UK, they foresee that any cooperation projects are likely to emerge later in the programming period.