EU Ambassador Soreca launches the “Europe is here” campaign on agriculture and announces new EU funding in the farming and fisheries sectors
Fier, 16 December 2020 – EU Ambassador Luigi Soreca launched today, in Fier, in the presence of the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Bledar Çuçi, the third phase of the “Europe is here” communication campaign dedicated to agriculture and rural development.
Under the motto ''Europe is here", the six-month campaign - launched in July 2020 - informs Albanian citizens about EU's financial assistance in three key socioeconomic sectors: infrastructure/connectivity, environment and agriculture.
The “Europe is here” campaign on agriculture and rural development aims to explain and raise citizens’ awareness on the ways the EU supports the modernisation of Albania’s agriculture and rural sectors. These include support to famers in diversifying production and accessing markets, job creation – particularly for youth and women, improvement of rural living conditions, support to agro-food industry, and promotion of sustainable fisheries.
“Europe is here to invest in farmers and fishermen to support their aspirations. Europe is here to develop a sustainable agro-food sector that respects the environment. Europe is here, so that Albanians enjoy food produced with European standards even before the country becomes a Member State,” EU Ambassador Luigi Soreca said during the launch.
The EU-funded IPARD (the Instrument for Pre-Accession – Rural Development) programme, managed by Albanian authorities, makes available 71 million euro as direct grants to support investments in the agro-food and rural development sectors. Over 700 applications have been received during the first two calls and a total of 236 farms have already benefited from EU funds.
EU Ambassador Luigi Soreca also announced today the opening of the 3rd Call for Proposals under the IPARD programme and the 1st Call for Proposals for the Fishing Blue – Support to fisheries sector in Albania programme.
The Fishing Blue programme supports the fishing community and promotes the sustainable exploitation of fishing resources and the prevention of overfishing. The Call for Proposals will provide grants to improve navigation and safety, food safety, fishing effort, and environmental pollution. Euro 1.4 million will be made available to fishing boat owners and fishing companies registered in the Albanian Register of Fishing Vessels.
For more information on 3rd call for the IPARD programme: http://www.ipard.gov.al/thirrje-1-2-3-2/
For more information on the call for applications to support the fisheries sector: https://fishingblue.eu/en/grant-application/
For more information on EU’s financial assistance to Albania please visit www.euprojects.al. The platform gathers information on past and ongoing projects funded by the EU. For each project, website provides information about the implementing partners, beneficiaries, objectives, actions and expected results, in a fully transparent manner. The database has a user-friendly interface and the search function allows the search of projects by sector or any keyword.
Facts and figures on EU support to the agricultural sector in Albania
Ø €100 million of contributions from the EU to the agricultural sector in the last 10 years.
Ø The EU contributes to the IPARD programme 2014-2020 with €71 million.
Ø The EU is supporting the fisheries sector with €4 million.
Ø Support to food safety, veterinary and phytosanitary standards amounts to €5 million EU contribution.
For EU Ambassador Soreca’s speech go to: https://bit.ly/2WynTCJ