Finding a way to ensure that regions and rural communities have a say in the priorities and implementation and management arrangements of the EIP.
En attente de la communication sur la mise en œuvre le partenariat européen d'innovation "Productivité et développement durable de l'agriculture" qui permettra de voir si les recommandations du CdR ont été suivies ou non.
THE COMMITTEE OF THE REGIONS advises the European Commission:
- to acknowledge the key position of local and regional authorities and stakeholders in making the EIP for Agricultural Productivity and Sustainability a success;
- to fully involve local and regional authorities in governance structures set up to stimulate and monitor this initiative;
- to define "raising productivity" as "producing more and better with less";
- given that the EIP should address the following themes, to allow a broad range of topics regarding primary production, resource management, bio-economy, the supply chain, quality, food safety and consumers;
- to prioritise innovation programmes ensuring the maintenance of agricultural activities throughout Europe, ensuring that research efforts will be included that benefit livestock farming regions, peri-urban regions, areas subject to natural constraints, and local farming areas;
- to favour bottom-up SME innovation initiatives over industry initiatives, in order to counter the existing imbalance in involvement, resulting from different levels of organisation and capacity;
- to continue to put effort into improving the position of primary producers in the food production, processing and distribution chain;
- to allow operational groups to also use EARFD support for initial costs, such as for developing an approach for tackling a technical and scientific issue.