During the General Assembly of February 20th, the mandate of President Tiberio Rabboni was confirmed for 2014, with the task of presenting the Association to the new European Parliament and the future Commissioner for agriculture. The President thanked the members for the confidence and affirmed that "behind there was a good team work for the defense of our quality products at Community level, in the delicate phase that led to the approval of the new CAP. Our work is not yet finished and we have to pursue it with determination and to present it to future European institutional actors".
The meeting was an opportunity of debate and discussion on current European policies for quality products, thanks to the intervention of numerous institutional guests. The Permanent Representations of Greece and Italy have presented the priorities of 2014 Council Presidencies in agriculture, placing in the European context the presentation on the regional strategic plan by the Vice-Governor of Crete, Theano Vrentzou Skordalaki. The MEP Eric Andrieu has presented the important report on regional brands, reflecting on the idea of territorial development based on synergy between the sectors. Furthermore, the Minister of Agriculture of La Rioja, Iñigo Nagore, participated presenting the report of the Committee of the Regions on the promotion policy. Finally, also organic agriculture and innovation have had an important place in the discussion, with the contributions of IFOAM-EU and ERIAFF.
During the meeting, the Member regions have approved the proposal to convene the next General Assembly in Bilbao, Spain, in conjunction with the European Mountain Convention (22-24 October) of Euromontana, in order to strengthen cooperation between the two associations on the definition of a territorial approach for the development of mountain sectors, to build a link between landscape, territory, products and the local culture.
