RECL Cristineşti essential for the creation of LAG “Codrii Herţei”

24.03.2011

The manager of RECL Cristineşti, Iulian Radu Darie, put together the paperwork for the project of developing the Local Actioun Group „Codrii Herţei”, thus setting the premise for getting European funds. The LAG comprises the communes of Cristineşti, Ibăneşti, Suharău, Pomârla, Conceşti, Cordăreni, Derşca, G.Enescu, Hilisău Horia, Hudeşti, Mihăileni, Sendricerni, in Botoşani, as well as the city of Siret, in Suceava. For each municipality involved, there are also two companies involved. The name “LAG Codrii Herţei” (Herţa woods) comes equally from the woods that used to exist in the Herţa region in the north of Bucovina, as well as from one of the first medieval kingdoms ever create in the area, which had the same name, according to historian Nicolae Iorga.

Writing and submitting the project to found the LAG was quite a challenge for the manager of RECL Cristineşti. „I took care of the Local Action Group Codrii Herţei from 2007, when it was founded as part of the first training programme dedicated to the Leader Axis. Then, I submitted a project as part of the first selection session organised by the Ministry of Agriculture from September to October 2010, on Axis 4 of the National Rural Development Plan”, Iulian Radu Darie said.

As part of the activities connected to the project, Cristineşti hosted several seminars for presenting EU financing programmes, as well as a workshop coordinated by Jens Adler from the Institute for Professional Training, InWEnt, in Germany, on the topic of “Writing Local Development Strategies for the LEADER programme in Romania”. The main objective of the seminar was to consolidate the abilities of managing and coordinating sustainability development among project managers and decision makers. The aim of organising seminars and workshop is to create the opportunities for good practice exchanges. The most important topics were “Local Actioun Groups, elaborating and developing concepts”, “Promoting the local and regional economy”, “Developing cross-border projects from specially allocated EU funds or national sources”, “Drafting project proposals”, “Managing regional rural networks” and “The cross-border region and trans-national partnerships””. From January 1st 2011, „Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit“ (GIZ) GmbH was founded, uniting the long standing experience of InWent and two other similar institutions, DED and GTZ.

A force of local development

According to the “Measures plan of the Direction for Agriculture and Rural Development Botoşani regarding an acceleration of project submittals in 2011 for absorbing European Funds”, the selection of Local Action Groups ended on November 15th 2010; four public private partnerships were chosen. LAG Codrii Herţei is joined by LAG “Norland”, composed of Păltiniş, Viişoara and Coţuşca, LAG “Cultural Association”, composed of Ştiubieni and Ungureni and LAG “Valea Siretului”, comprising Vorona, Tudora, Cristeşti, Coşula, Băluşeni, Corni, Curteşti, Vlădeni and the city of Liteni, in Suceava. Through Axis 4 Leader, each LAG can get up to 2.86 million Euros for projects in the local development strategy.

Local Action Groups are local partnerships between administration representatives, companies and NGOs that aim to implement local and regional development projects. The main tool of LAG is the “Local Development Plan”, encompassing strategies and solutions to increase attractiveness and competitiveness of the LAG region by improving farming and economic infrastructure, as well as encourage citizen involvement in the community. Basically, through LAG, a development centre is created in the area.

Champions on EU-financed projects

This is not the only achievement of RECL Cristineşti. The team stands out through the large number of files helping local farmers get financing through Measure 141 of the National Rural Development Plan – Support for semisubsistance farms, some 300 files being submitted so far. Now, farmers from neighbouring communes come to RECL manager Radu Darie for assistance. He is also involved in another project of the Cristineşti City Hall for accessing funds for Measure 125 in the National Rural Development Plan, access roads to farming lands.

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