News

PURPLE's Working Group comprising officers based within the regions of its member organisations will come together for the first time since the 37th General Assembly and summer recess in Brussels on 20 and 21 September.

Its key allotted task will be to arrive at a draft version of a 2024 Work Plan to be submitted to the PURPLE Executive Board for endorsement. The group will also be looking at Horizon Europe projects within which the network is - or will be - participating, as well as discussing its plans for a public event relating to the particular values and challenges surrounding peri-urban nature restoration.

The meeting will be hosted by the Flemish Land Agency (VLM), and chaired by PURPLE Secretary General, Vincent O'Connell.

PURPLE was delighted to receive notification recently that the Horizon Europe application in respect of the FOODCITYBOOST project has received formal approval from the European Commission and now moves to the fomal contracting stage.

PURPLE welcomed the news of approval with enthusiasm. FOODCITYBOOST will explore how urban farming might evolve in the short and medium term and how that in turn might impact upon peri-urban and rural agriculture and land use more broadly. The project's work and findings are designed to help shape measures with regard to urban and peri-urban farming within the provisions for CAP post 2027.

More details will become known and made available over the course of summer and autumn.

PURPLE was pleased to have the opportunity to take part in a public consultation event on the forthcoming Committee of the Regions Opinion on the Future of Cohestion Policy post 2027. The CoR hosted event took place on 13 July with the Opinion's co-rapporteur Emil Boc chairing an explanatory session with responses and contributions invited from third parties.

PURPLE intends to submit a written submission to Mr Boc prior to the text being submitted to the COTER committee meetings and subsequent CoR Plenary this autumn. PURPLE will be emphasising the need for EU cohesion policy to retain a clear and overt territorial focus based on a recognition of the varying assets, contributions, and potential (as well as challenges faced), by rural, peri-urban and rural locations across Europe togther with the importance and urgent need to develop synergies between territories of different types.

The first meeting of the Horizon Europe project PLUS Change duly took place in Prague on June 12-14 as scheduled.

PURPLE joined 22 other project partners in coming together to discuss details of delivery plans for the 48 month project comprising seven work packages and a rich series of scheduled deliverables. Partners attending the meeting included representatives from six present and past PURPLE member regions - Flanders, Mazovia, South Moravia, Ile de France, MHAL (the 3 Countries Park), and Surrey.

PURPLE Secretary General Vincent O'Connell chaired the first session on the morning of the meeting's second day, primarily consisting of an ordered series of presentations relating to each of the PLUS Change "practice cases". Each of 12 contributors spoke to a set of slides which  had been prepared and collated in advance of the meeting, as follows.

• The Amsterdam Metropolitan Area
• Kaigu Peatland
• Nitra City
• Lucca
• Zeleni Kras
• Euregio Meuse-Rhine - 3 Countries Park
• Mazovia
• Flanders
• South Moravia
• Ile de France
• Parc Ela
• Surrey

Each presentation has been prepared using a loosely uniform structure focusing upon elements including:

• Basic organisational details - name/type/legal basis/location
• The role of the organisation in land use planning
• The role of the organisation as regards climate change and related behaviours
• Key priorities/challenges faced in terms of land use planning and climate change
• An indication of just which aspects of land use and land use planning individual practice areas/cases are likely to want to focus upon within the project
• The key contributions that individual areas/cases expect to make to the project
• The particular benefits expected from participation in PLUS Change

A fuller report on the meeting will be given by O'Connell to the forthcoming 36th PURPLE General Assembly to take place in Frankfurt in early July.

 info@purple-eu.org for further details

Further to the initial announcement of dates for the forthcoming 36th PURPLE General Assembly to take place in Frankfurt in early July, a more detailed programme for the two days has been discussed and agreed at PURPLE Working Group meetings in April and May.

The theme of the event is to be "A focus on peri-urban complexities", with a two-day programme which includes excursions as well as the formal Annual General Meeting of the PURPLE network. The study visit elements of the event will include opportunties to see first hand examples of peri-urban mobility schemes, of peri-urban horticulture, and in particular to visit and experience the local "cycle highway", all set within peri-urban landscapes.

The whole PURPLE network remains deeply indebted to our members and colleagues from the team at the Europaburo der Metropolregion FrankfurtRheinMain for all their work in shaping the programme.

The Horizon Europe project PLUS Change within which PURPLE is a partner, reached a hugely significant point in its evolution with the signing of the formal Grant Agreement (GA) on June 3rd. This move signals the successful completion of the grant negotiation phase. with a Consortium Agreeement (CA) now in place signed by all 23 project partners and the GA itself now signed by both lead applicant Czech Globe and the European Commission.

The signing of the GA now opens the way for the Kick off Meeting to take place in Prague in mid June as scheduled and as previously reported.