Rural Europe on the move English_E_version_all | Page 133

Seeding and sharing: Forum Synergies and PREPARE
Moving beyond
the grassroots level
meeting each other for the first time; excursion’ format. But this crazy idea
seeing new places, absorbing and worked. The opportunity to break
exchanging new ideas, perceiving the away from their everyday routine and
reality of rural life in two countries and travel to experience rural reality, to
the grassroots level is, we felt a reflecting on what it might mean for meet, eat, talk and work with rural
responsibility to help give grassroots them. people went right into the hearts of
Undoubtedly important as
movements the opportunity to
Co-hosting the event were Kjell
people who might never have met
engage fruitfully with national and Roger Karlsson and Staffan Bond each other – high level civil servants
European decision-makers. We from the two Swedish organisations, of the European Commission and
conceived the idea of a ‘travelling and Mikk Sarv of Kodukant. We were the Parliament, officers from national
workshop’. This would bring civil supported by Christoph Hatlapa from ministries and regional authorities,
society and government people from Steyerberg, Germany, as mediator; local mayors, civil society leaders
EU candidate countries of Central and by Márta Márczis of the Hungarian and very local people including
Europe to an EU member state to Rural Parliament, Sandor Köles from farmers, teachers, rural women and
visit exemplary rural initiatives. As an the Carpathian Foundation, and entrepreneurs.
officer of the European Parliament, I Michael Dower from ECOVAST as knew open-minded colleagues within moderators.
the EU institutions. I launched the idea
in the Committee on Agriculture and
Rural Development of the European
Parliament; convinced its President
to be Patron of the proposal; and
We travelled together across
former borders and military security
areas. We sat in small groups every
The crazy idea that
actually worked
It was just magic! We had been
evening writing our reports about
what we saw – with no dinner until
we had finished! We concluded with
an art session and a fishbowl debate
found civil servants in the European warned that this was a crazy idea, which had worked so well in Portugal.
Commission to carry and finance it. I that ‘travelling workshops’ were Back was the creative energy; and
enlisted the help of four NGOs - the never conducted by the European we engaged with more key people,
Swedish rural movement Hela Sverige institutions, that insurance would not offering them a glimpse of what it
Ska Leva (HSSL-All Sweden shall live); cover the risks, that public money means to create synergies out of
the European Council for the Village may not be used for such a ‘school collective intelligence.
and Small Town (ECOVAST), through
its Swedish national section; the
Federation of Swedish Rural Economy
and Agriculture Societies, and
Kodukant, the Estonian association of
villages, which had been created with
the help from HSSL.
The travelling
workshop 1999
The outcome was brilliant – a
one-week travelling workshop,
three days in Estonia followed by
three in Sweden, with the company
of 60 people from 18 countries
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