Rural Europe on the move English_chap7_13 | Page 55

Seeding and sharing: Forum Synergies and PREPARE
OPPOSITE
5. Sculpture “The crazy dancer”
by Michael Dower
The birth of PREPARE
THIS PAGE
6a. 6b. Launch of PREPARE
as a formal association in 2016
7a. 7b. Gathering in Poland in 2007:
Farmers market and panel discussion
8. PREPARE: Pre-accession
Partnership for Rural Europe
So, ECOVAST became a natural
partner for Forum Synergies in
following through the 1999 event in
Estonia and Sweden. In consultation
with Hannes and our Swedish,
Estonian and Hungarian colleagues,
I drafted a proposal for an ambitious
project to foster multi-national
exchange between East and West
Europe. At a meeting hosted by Márta
Márczis in Hungary, we agreed the
basis for the project and a title –
Pre-accession Partnership for Rural
Europe, with the symbolic acronym
‘PREPARE’. We then sought funding
from foundations in the United States,
which at that time were keen to
promote democratic institutions in
the ex-Soviet countries. The CS Mott Kodukant (Estonia) and the Hungarian Union of Rural Communities. Regular
Foundation gave us a handsome Rural Parliament. Hannes acted as meetings and travelling workshops
grant: this was the first of five grants Chairman, and I as Coordinator. progressively strengthened the
from this foundation, which formed
By 2006, we had helped to create
network, and promoted exchange of
PREPARE’s base funding from 2000 the Latvian Rural Forum, the Polish experience and ideas between East
to the end of 2016. This enabled us Rural Forum, the Czech National Rural and West, including the LEADER
to launch the formal partnership, Observatory and the Slovakian Rural concept, to the point that these civil
with Forum Synergies and ECOVAST Parliament; and they had all joined networks often had an earlier and
as founder partners, together with the PREPARE partnership, together clearer idea of that approach than
Hela Sverige Ska Leva (Sweden), with the pre-existing Lithuanian their own governments.
131