ECOVINEGOALS/INTERREG V-B Adriatic-Ionian ADRION Programme 2014-2020

Οn April 22nd, the kick-off e–meeting for the project: ECOlogical VINEyards GOvernance Activities for Landscape Strategies, ECOVINEGOALS, financed within the programme INTERREG V-B Adriatic-Ionian ADRION Programme 2014-2020, Second Call for Proposals - Priority Axis 2, was successfully held.

ECOVINEGOALS was designed to promote sustainability and resilience in the winemaking industry by encouraging the transition of intensive viticultural systems towards agroecological management systems that protect habitats and landscapes, while reducing both inputs and harmful emissions. The project also aims to enhance the stakeholders’ skills in participatory local governance, and to build up transnational cooperation and specific transnational instruments to promote, support and manage the agroecological transition as a means to address environmental vulnerability, to promote ecosystem services, to prevent social conflicts in land use, and to mitigate climate change.

The ECOVINEGOALS project commenced March 2020, will last for 30 months, and includes 10 partners from 6 countries. The research activities will take place in all member countries, being coordinated by the programme lead partner LAG EASTERN VENICE, Italy, with partners the Autonomous Province of Trento (Italy), the Chamber of Agriculture and Forestry, and the Research Centre of the Academy of Sciences and Arts (Slovenia), the Agency for Rural Development of Istria Ltd., Pazin and the Association for the promotion of employment / INFORMO (Croatia), the Business Development Center Kragujevac (Serbia), the Foundation Business Start-up Centre of Bar and the Municipality of Bar (Montenegro) and the Mediterranean Agronomic Institute of Chania (Greece). Moreover, a further 9 organisations from Italy, Greece, Montenegro and Belgium will also act as associate partners.

The enhanced measures and regulations put in place due to the COVID-19 pandemic prevented the kick- off meeting being held at the premises of the Mediterranean Agronomic Institute of Chania (CIHEAM MAICh), as originally foreseen. However, the kick-off e-meeting, conducted via an internet-based platform, successfully brought together 28 participants, representing 10 beneficiaries from 6 different countries, proved to be an excellent initiation of the project and a foretaste of what promises to be a fruitful

collaboration. The participation of three representatives of the Joint Secretariat proved to be very beneficial, as they were able to provide key information and assistance to the beneficiaries with regard to the management, financial and communication issues associated with the project implementation.

The kick-off meeting allowed introduction to the partner organisations/institutions and provided an overview of the scope and structure of the project, its overall management concept, and presentation of the schedules of each work package. Central to the meeting were presentations detailing the characteristics of viticulture in the project partner countries, and addressing the central challenge of the ECOVINEGOALS project: the reconciliation of habitat and landscape protection with economically viable means of grapevine cultivation, in order to safeguard the sustainability of this important economic sector that exerts a major impact on the territorial capital and the regional resources of the ADRION vine area.

With a total budget of € 1 939 505.59 Euros (ERDF budget € 1 646 775.59 and IPA budget € 292 730.00), this project mainly aims to contribute to the agroecological transition of viticulture areas towards low input and low emission management systems.

The kick-off meeting, which was designed to lay the foundation for a successful collaboration and provide the opportunity for the project team to initiate a common path, served as an excellent starting point for what, by all indications, will prove to be a very successful project.