News

Both the PURPLE Working Group and its Lobby Group convene face to face for the first time in 2025, in Brussels on April 29th.

In the case of the Working Group that meeting continues on the morning of April 30th at the offices of the Flemish Land Agency.

Agendas for both meeetings are now available from the members' area of tge website or can be supplied upon request to: info@purple-eu.org

PURPLE is delighted to announce that its 40th General Assembly will take place in Poznań on Tuesday 09 September 2025. The event will be hosted by our colleagues and friends from the Wielkopolska region and has beeen timed to take place alongside an event celebrating the 70th anniversary of their Spatial Planning Office (WBPP) with the title "RESPONSIBLE FOR SPACE. NEW CHALLENGES - NEW SOLUTIONS. Key issues to be addressed during the conference include climate change and the ageing society, and how both fundamentally alter approachees to spatial planning.

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That special anniversary will be marked by an invitee-only event on 10 September which has very generously been opened to PURPLE delegates and their guests.

Anyone interested in joining us is invited to contact the PURPLE Secretary General at info@purple-eu.org

PURPLE was recently invited to consider becoming a member of the Advisory Board (AB) for the SPADES project - an initiative supported through the Horizon Europe Soil Mission. After discussion with project leaders from Deltares and the Technical University of Delft (TUD)  Vincent O'Connell has formally accepted the role alongside representatives from the European Enviornment Association (EEA) and the Dutch Ministry of Infrastructure and Water, soil and water board.

For further detial of SPADES, see: https://www.spades4soils.eu/

PURPLE is a member of three EU CAP Network sub-groups, one of which focuses on LEADER and Territorial Development (the SoLTD therefore). PURPLE Secretary General, Vincent O'Connell, joined a group meeting held in Brussels on March 05-06 and was part of a series of discussions on making LEADER "younger, simpler and smarter" as well as considering the implications for rural development of the new and evolving EU policy context, including the recently published EC proposals wtih regard to the Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF).

PURPLE continues to explore how it might cooperate with the European Countryside Movement (MER), with which in mind PURPLE Secretary General met with MER President Gerard Peltre in Brussels recently.

MER has announced its intention to focus collaboratve work within the context of the latest EU Political Guidelines with over twenty member/supporting organisations on developing what it terms a "territorial dialogue". O'Connell and Peltre took the opportunity to explore whether and how PURPLE might be part of this work and ensure that the peri-urban is a meaningful part of any series of debates about rural development, and in particular how they might combine forces to contribute to the work being acrried out within the Rural Pact.