“Fostering regional cooperation and balanced territorial development of Western Balkan countries in the process towards EU integration - Support to the Regional Rural Development Standing Working Group (SWG) in South-East ”

Achievements and results June 2 nd - December 1 st , 2015

The project is financed by: 1 Agriculture Policy Forum 2015

• The 15 th Agricultural Policy Forum (APF) 2015: “Modern Rural Policy: Competitiveness, investment and well-being in rural regions of South East Europe” was held in Pravetz, Bulgaria in the period of 14th – 15th October 2015.

• The Agricultural Policy Forum 2015 once more served as a platform for international dialogue on policy settings and perspectives of common interest to agricultural policy makers and stakeholders. Project Steering Committee Meeting

• The Project Steering Group meeting been organized on September 10 th , 2015 in Montenegro.

• The aim of the meeting was to discuss the project framework as well as the way forward related to implementation of Area Based Development Approach in the Western Balkan countries. Facilitation of the process of economic development of rural cross - border areas

• 10 th meetings of stakeholder groups organized in all four areas in June 2015 Facilitation of the process of economic development of rural cross - border areas

• 11 th meetings of stakeholder groups organized in all four areas in October 2015 Provision of support to stakeholders for preparation of project proposals for different calls with special emphasis on Calls within IPA II

3rd CBC Call SER-B&H 1. Project: “Flood Defence System in Cross Border Area -B&H”, € 966.465,00 2. Project: ”Safe rivers - improvement of infrastructural and social capacities in the sphere of protection and prevention against floods”, € 928.304,00 3. Project: “Quick and effective support against floods in Polimlje”, € 794.000,00 4. Project: “MONITOR: Monitoring, Organized society, Networking, Innovations and Transparency – Outstanding Results against natural hazards, € 661.648,50

3rd CBC Call SER-MNE 1. Project “Cherishing past-building future”, € 250.000,00 2. Project “Opening New Tourism Corridors- Open Tour”, € 300.150,00 Provision of support to stakeholders for preparation of project proposals for different calls

• Call launched by the Investment Development Bank of Republic of Srpska, B&H (support Municipality of Visegrad in development of project proposal for raspberry production) • INTERREG Danube Transnational Programme 2014-2020 (send information about the open Call and Partner search Platform -contacts of potential partners and project fiches) Provision of support to stakeholders for preparation of project proposals for different calls

° INTERREG Danube Transnational Programme project: “Financial Flood Recovery Schemes for Inter-catchment Resilience” € 1.604.000,00

• NAAR call “Improvement of the institutional infrastructure in order to prepare projects on the territory of Podrinje”

Support for preparation of 3 projects:

• “Strengthening the capacity of municipalities and cities in the Podrinje region for using IPARD and EU Programme” • “Cadaster of drinking water in the region of Podrinje” • “Mapping of tourism potential in the region of Podrinje”

• START – Danube Region Project Found Call 1 • Magic Dunab Trail Provision of support to stakeholders for preparation of project proposals for different calls with special emphasis on Calls within IPA II

• Sharra PMU provided technical and human support for the preparation on three concept notes under the USAID AGRO project in * ‹ Applicant Agriculture Cooperative Natyra e Sharrit - Project: Increased processing capacities and expanding the range of dairy products; ‹ Viticulture Association - Project: Improving technology and post- harvest treatment standards of table grapes and adding value throughout the entire value chain in the grape market; ‹ Agro Red Gold - Raspberry Collection Canter “Zhupa”. Official results are not yet published. Publicity activities related to open Calls for proposals

• Call for proposal European Programme for Employment and Social Innovation "EaSI" 2014- 2020. Express of interest and possible partnership was facilitated from Prespa PMU for the NGO “DMO” form Korca and the Directorate for Regional Chambers and International Cooperation Economic Chamber of Macedonia. • Two calls from proposals were opened in the period June-October 2015 within the SARED GIZ Project. Interested stakeholders were informed about the open calls. No one of the stakeholders applied in the first call for proposal. • IPARD program in Macedonia – open call from 1st of August till 15th of September – Consultancy for this call was given to one producer association with 22 members for the possibilities of the program. Publicity activities related to open Calls for proposals

• Disseminated info on TAIEX Training on “Organizational Development and Management of CSOs” in Albania. One stakeholder from Prespa cross-border region submitted registration for the training. • Web-pages for Prespa and -Sava regions are developed. Drina – Tara and Sharra are under development; • Continuous direct contact with all stakeholders regarding other open calls (national, local, calls from other donors, etc.) depending on the topic and territorial range; • Meetings with donors (GIZ Programme in Albania). Organization of people-to-people actions • Raspberry Day 2015 was held on 12 th of August 2015 in Recane, Municipalty of Prizren, Kosovo*. The event was organized by AgroRedGold from Kosovo* and IRZ from Tetovo and CED from Tearce, Macedonia. The event promoted the raspberry production as prosperous form of small- scale business model suitable for the rural population in the “Sharra” cross-border region. Organization of people-to-people actions

• Wine and Cheese Festival was held on 21 st and 22 nd of August 2015 in Ohrid, Republic of Macedonia. The event was organized by the Department of Tourism and Local Economic Development of Municipality of Ohrid in cooperation with Agrinet from Albania. Local wines and chesses and other traditional food products were promoted during high touristic season in Ohrid city. Organization of people-to-people actions

• 11 th traditional manifestation “Drina Fish Pot” was organized on 20 th September in Visegrad on the plateau next to the famous Mehmet pasha Bridge, protected as a UNESCO world heritage site and contributed to the promotion of the touristic image of the Visegrad municipality.

• The event organized by the Tourist Organization of Visegrad, brought together participants from municipalities from the Drina river banks from and , as well as neighboring municipalities from Serbia. It contributed to promotion of historical and cultural heritage, as well as traditional gastronomy offer of the cross border region “Drina-Tara”. Organization of people-to-people actions

• 48 th Ilok Grape Harvest was organized in the period 29.08- 06.09.2015, in Ilok, Croatia. • Ilok grape harvest as a cultural, entertainment and tourist event, has been taking place traditionally since 1962. It was born out of an old custom originating from the area of and Slavonia, where people gathered at the beginning of the wine harvest for the purpose of guarding the vineyards, celebrating a good year and harvest, and socializing. Organization of people-to-people actions

• “III Regional Honey Fair 2015” has become a traditional event organized by Tourism Organization of City of in cooperation with partner Association of Beekeepers from Loznica. The manifestation was visited from more than 3.000 visitors and 40 exhibitors which helped of promotion of beekeeping and honey production as an economic sector with high potential in Drina-Sava region. • The event provided direct support to small and medium size honey producers in the region of Drina-Sava region, respectively by promotion of the local honey and agro-food value chains. • On the second day of the manifestation more than 70 people participated at expert lectures on beekeeping and opportunities to practice this branch of agriculture that can provide additional income. Organization of people-to-people actions

• 14 th traditional manifestation “Day of Pljevlja cheese” was organized on 23.10.2015, in Pljevlja, Montenegro. For the first time at this manifestation were competed producers of special cheese from other parts of Montenegro and cross border – region “Drina-Tara”

• The focus of this Manifestation was on marketing and economic aspects, therefore, participants were able to present and sell their products at Dairy market.