New thematic networking groups to be launched
New thematic groups focussing on the implementation of CAP strategic plans, forestry and rural youth will be launched in the coming weeks through the EU CAP Network.
Optimising information flows about agriculture and rural policy within the EU is what the EU’s Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) Network is all about. This involves developing and sharing knowledge on different themes related to the CAP through peer-to-peer exchanges. And that is why new thematic groups - focussing on the implementation of CAP strategic plans (CSPs), forestry and rural youth - will be launched in the coming weeks through the EU CAP Network.
We use three separate thematic methodologies for this:
- The Support Facility for Innovation and Knowledge Exchange, including EIP-AGRI, arranges focus groups (FGs) to prioritise innovative actions and suggest potential practical operational groups or other project formats to test solutions and opportunities.
- In addition, the European Evaluation Helpdesk for the CAP organises thematic working groups (TWGs) to find practical solutions to specific issues related to CAP evaluation.
- Lastly, the CAP Implementation Contact Point supports thematic groups (TGs), which bring together interested experts and practitioners to exchange ideas, knowledge and thinking on priority topics related to the CAP's general and specific objectives.
Three new TGs that will be launched in the coming weeks cover the following themes:
- CAP strategic plans: Towards Implementation – providing an early opportunity for EU level stakeholders alongside National Support Units, Managing Authorities and Paying Agencies involved in the design and implementation of CSPs to exchange on the key features, challenges and processes required to take the CSPs forward.
- Supporting the Needs of Forest-Dominant Rural Areas and Municipalities: Laying the Groundwork for a Network under the Forest Strategy – giving CAP stakeholders options to explore the socioeconomic and environmental needs and issues facing forest-dominant rural areas and municipalities, as well as highlighting the various opportunities that forests bring to the people who live and work in our forests.
- Rural Youth Employment: the Voice of Rural Youth - taking a holistic approach by analysing mechanisms for supporting the employment of rural young people in agri-food and other business sectors, considering developments on the rural job market, ongoing global trends, but also relevant policies and available tools, initiatives and funds.
These new TGs complement TWGs on an Animal Welfare Indicator and Evaluation of AKIS as well as FGs on Recovery of abandoned agricultural lands, Enhancing the biodiversity on farmland through high-diversity landscape features plus Social farming and innovations.