The second AREPO’s plenary meeting in 2015 took place on November 12th at the representation office of Piedmont Region in Brussels.
The meeting was chaired by Vincent Labarthe, Vice President of Midi-Pyrénées Region in charge of agriculture. He was elected in October 2014.
On the agenda, the annual activity report and the proposal for the membership fee for 2016 that will be validated through a letter to our member regions.
The President introduced the meeting thanking Piedmont Region for its welcome. He also thanked all member regions that renew every year their confidence in our network, working to strengthen the legitimacy of AREPO.
Laurent Gomez, Secretary General of AREPO, presented the intermediary report on the financial accounts, together with a first budget proposal for 2016. The proposal considers the most significant changes, including the impact of French territorial reform that will merge:
- Aquitaine and Limousin (with Poitou-Charentes)
- Rhône-Alpes and Auvergne
- Midi-Pyrénées and Languedoc-Roussillon
Other points of the agenda of the plenary meeting were the presentation of results and reflections of AREPO seminar in Expo Milano “Innovating and structure Research, Education and Training for sustainable GIs” in order to build a position paper for the European Commission for a White Paper on these issues; the Organic Farming regulation; the promotion policy of European agricultural and food products; non-agricultural GIs; GIs within the TTIP and participation in European projects.
