National Support Units – structures and organisation

National Networks (NNs) have a key role in steering and driving forward the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP). They engage stakeholders within their country, strengthen their capacity, and inform the public and potential beneficiaries about the CAP and its funding opportunities.

There are 28 NNs in total – one in each Member State, except for Belgium where there are two: one in Wallonia and one in Flanders. NNs are operationalised through Network Support Units (NSUs).

The NSUs can have different structures and functioning depending on several factors, including the administrative organisation of the country. Understanding the NSU structures and their functioning models is helpful in order to have a clearer picture of the CAP implementation across the EU. It is also very interesting for other NSUs, who can better understand and connect with each other, and fully enjoy the power of networking.

For this reason, the EU CAP Network mapped the set-up and organisational models of the NSUs through a survey, carried out in early 2025. The results were presented and discussed at the 5th NN meeting in Greece in March, as well as during the 4th EU CAP Network Steering Group meeting in May. Below is a summary of the key findings.

Types of organisational structure

NSUs are most commonly established within the Managing Authority (MA) (15 out of 28) - see the image below.

The Swedish NN, for instance, is located within the Swedish Board of Agriculture, and its activities are decided by a steering group that consists of 16 of the over 110 national member organisations.  

In Luxembourg, the network is established within the Directorate for Rural Development of the Ministry of Agriculture. For some activities, the NN refers to other service branches and institutions (e.g. communication department, technical administrations, LAGs, etc.), while the Monitoring Committee of the CAP Strategic Plan functions as the coordination committee of the NN. 

Seven NSUs are delegated to a ministerial agency or another institution. This is the case in Estonia, where the NSU is delegated to the Centre of Estonian Rural Research and Knowledge (METK), a government agency under the Ministry of Regional Affairs and Agriculture.  

In a few cases (Czechia, Malta) the NSUs are established within the MA, with some activities outsourced to other institutions (as in Czechia, where the NN is an organisational part of the MA and the regional activities are operated by the Paying Agency) or are established with the MA with some activities outsourced to an external (non-institutional) service provider (in the case of Bulgaria).  

Three NSUs are fully outsourced to external providers. This is the case in Austria (four organisations involved), Belgium-Wallonia, and Ireland (three organisations involved).  

Changes in structures and operations 

The majority of the NSUs (17 out of 28) have significantly changed in structure and/or operations compared to the previous programming period.  

The Hungarian NSU, for example, has a new organisational structure - a national coordination body is overseeing NN activities and coordinating three support units focused on green transition, innovation and digitalisation, and rural development. France also experienced a significant change in its set-up; previously, the NSU was supported by a service provider, whereas now it is managed directly by the Ministry of Agriculture. Its scope of activities also changed, enlarging to cover not only rural development (as before), but also agricultural issues. 

Changes also happened at the structure, funding and strategic direction levels. In Flanders (Belgium), for example, the NN's team has increased and has deepened its knowledge of specific topics, so the network now has ‘a face’ for each specific topic.   

Regionalised networks 

NSUs are evenly split between networks operating only at the national level and others having a regionalised structure of some kind (see image below).

Romania is an interesting example of the latter, with 16 regional antennas (each led by a regional Coordinator) and 56 experts. The staff of the regional units are employees of the Managing Authority, and their tasks mainly concern the implementation of LEADER, AKIS, Knowledge Transfer and Agricultural Business Advisory interventions, and supporting the NN work. They also help identify regional needs and topics of interest and collect good practice examples in each region. 

Partnerships and membership 

NSUs link to other bodies or services to implement their activities. The most common partners are advisory services, research institutions and Paying Agencies.   

The membership of the NSUs also varies across countries, both in size and in the way members are selected. Over half of the NSUs (17) have an open membership; the others either have closed membership (four NSUs), select members based on applications (three), or have no formal membership at all (two). A couple of NSUs select members in other ways: for example, the Cyprus Network accepts applications from any non-profit organisation dealing with rural development issues and whose activities fall within the Network's mission. 

Discover the power of networking!  

Although NSU's setups, size and operations can vary greatly, the one thing they have in common is their key role for agriculture and rural areas. Networking is indeed one of the most effective tools for fostering collaboration, knowledge-sharing and innovation in the agricultural and rural development sectors across the EU.  

Explore the new Networking section of the EU CAP Network website and discover the power of networking!