Fishermen Association Burgas Lakes Took Part in the National Meeting of Fisheries Local Action Groups

Representatives of the Fishermen Association Burgas Lakes and FLAG Burgas – Kameno participated in the National Meeting of Fisheries Local Action Groups with approved strategies for CLLD, organized by the FLAG /”Samokov”.

The event took place in the period 15 -17 July 2021 in Rila Hotel, Borovets Resort, Samokov Municipality. It was attended by the Deputy Minister of MAF Georgi Sabev, the Executive Director of the Executive Agency for Fisheries and Aquaculture, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Galin Nikolov, the Chairman of the Board of the Bulgarian National Leader Network, Ms. Nelly Kadieva, the geographical expert of Farnet (European Network of Fisheries Areas) for Bulgaria, representatives of the nine Fisheries Local Action Groups implementing Community-led Local Development (CLLD) strategies, as well as experts from the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Forestry, State Agriculture Fund – Paying Agency, Executive Agency “Certification Audit of the European Agricultural Funds ”, Executive Agency for Fisheries and Aquaculture, Association“ Bulgarian National Leader Network ”.

The meeting was opened by the Deputy Minister of MAF Georgi Sabev and the Mayor of Samokov, Vladimir Georgiev, as Chairman of the Management Board of FLAG – Samokov.

Deputy Minister Georgi Sabev pointed out that the Managing Authority has the ambition to prepare the first version of the “Program for Maritime Affairs, Fisheries and Aquaculture” 2021-2027 as soon as possible. He stressed that the implementation of the Community Led Local Development (CLLD) approach is enshrined in the draft of the new program. “It is in line with the third priority of the new regulation, namely” Ensuring conditions for a sustainable blue economy in coastal, island and inland areas and promoting the development of communities engaged in fisheries and aquaculture, “said Deputy Minister Sabev. He announced that the new regulation establishing the European Maritime, Fisheries and Aquaculture Fund for the 2021-2027 programming period was already a fact.

For his part, Mayor Vladimir Georgiev stressed that FLAG – Samokov for the second time hosts a national meeting of local initiative fishing groups and said that there is an idea to make this meeting traditional.

During the first day of the meeting, ideas for a joint project between the Fisheries Local Action Groups were discussed, as well as a number of important topics related to the preparation of new strategies, implementation of joint initiatives, networking of all FLAGs in Association 3. Practical issues were also discussed. and good practices and experiences were shared.

During the second day of the meeting were presented and discussed the possibilities for optimizing the process of evaluation of project proposals at all stages from approval to implementation, project reporting and monitoring, as well as the schedule for the start of preparatory activities for implementing the approach during the new programming period. 2021 – 2027.

Deputy Minister Sabev pointed out that the implementation of the CLLD approach contributes to the development of communities engaged in fishing and aquaculture in the coastal and inland regions of the country. He assured that the pace of implementation of “Increasing employment and territorial cohesion” under the MAP is increasing with each passing day. “So far, 86 procedures have been opened, the submitted project proposals are 157, and the concluded contracts are 82, worth BGN 11,743,085. The process of announcing procedures for accepting project proposals for measures from FLAG strategies and concluding contracts with beneficiaries is intensive and we expect to continue to make progress on the priority at an ever faster pace, as I believe that the necessary administrative capacity at all levels, including in the FLAG teams, “said the Deputy Minister of Agriculture.

The national meeting of FLAG ended with the festival of Local Initiative Fishing Group Samokov, related to the promotion of culture in terms of consumption of fish and fish products and promotion of culinary opportunities for cooking fish, which took place in the park “Tourist Garden”, the town of Samokov.