Activity Report

• 2008  - find the document here
  

• 2007 - find the document here

• 2006 - find the document here

• 2005 - find the document here

• 2004 - find the document here

Friends of the Countryside – Meta has been continuously developing its strategy by analysing opportunities and solutions to our challenges in a changing world. To provide realistic information to our members in order to put them in the position of making the right decisions for their business is our aim.

We need such information in a changing world, and it is also crucial to offer the proper information to the political world.

Agriculture is again, for 2008 the latest, at a stage of facing deep changes. Even if the market has improved in some areas, forest activities are still put under different pressures and face structural problems as well as new activities.

Let’s be clear, changes can only be carried out by encouraging owners to diversify their activities. But this is only possible in the context of a real sustainable development where the economic, social and environmental criteria are of equal importance.

There is no sense in negatively impacting the countryside through burdensome protective regulations: ruined actors of the countryside would not be put in a position to manage adequately our environment. This is an important issue, and our Member States have made it clear that they are suffering financial difficulties. The money devoted for the public to support and finance the environmental ambition is really lacking. In this regard, the Council of Ministers’ decision on the budgetary perspectives of the Union is disappointing.

It makes crystal clear that Europe needs the partnership of the private sector in order to achieve its ambitions, and that it is only possible if private owners and entrepreneurs are given the structural opportunity to act and to create added value. Therefore we are advocating in favour of a flexible and pragmatic approach.

Even if the countryside debate has only been dominated by concerns for environmental conservation only for limited time, we feel today that the concerns of society are moving towards setting up a balanced coordination between economic, social and environmental factors. It is the aim of European Countries to make sure this will happen. We do wish to support livelihood in the countryside. This is the reason why Friends of the Countryside dedicate a strong support to European Landowners’ Organization (ELO) as well as to our successors who today have their own association: Young Friends of the Countryside.