News

As one of only two EU level bodies representing public administrations on the EU CAP Network, PURPLE was delighted to take an active part in the grouping's third Assembly meeting held in Brussels in early December 2024.

The event was an early opportunity for PURPLE Secretary General, Vincent O'Connell, to offer a peri-urban perspective on the forthcoming EU Vision for Agriculture and Food and how an active consideration and recognition of the role of peri-urban actors and interests across all elements of the food value chain needs to be part of the framing of any roadmap for the future of agriculture.

Discussions have been taking place within the PURPLE Lobby Group in recent days and weeks looking at just how PURPLE might best make its viice heard as part of the debatres about Cohesion Policy post 2027.

As the intensity and volume of debate increases and as plans continue to be shaped up with various propositions being aired both formally and less so, PURPLE will want to do its utmost to ensure that peri-urban interests (its communities, its political leaders, its businesses and visitors) are fully taken into account; their value and contribution resognised and rewarded, and their potential to do more of universal benefit harnessed and incentivised.

The first in a series of position statments is expected within the next month or so.

To be kept informed of developments, plesse contact: info@purple-eu.org

As part of its deliberations at the 38th General Assembly, the network's main assembly body gave its approval to organising an event in Brussels focused on the peri-urban contribution to nature restoration and its potential to do more with appropriate support.

Discussions about the event have been underway for some time now, but with uncertainty over the passage into legislation of the Nature Restoration Law (NRL) over the past year or more, these plans were put on hold. Both the PURPLE Working Group and Lobby Group will now be returning to the subject with the intention of holding an event during the first half of 2025.

Anyone interested in learning more, and/or in taking a direct part in the event is invited to contact Vincent O'Connell at secretarygeneral@purple-eu.org

PURPLE Secretary General, Vincent O'Connell wss successful in a application to participate in the fourth Farm to Fork Forum on agri-food vakue chains: an event hosted by the EU CAP Network in Brussels on October 10th.

During group discussions, O'Connell highlighted the vital contribution of peri-urban locations and actors at multiple points of the food systems value chain, highlighting not only peri-urban growers, but also the prepondernce of food processing and logistics related activities which occur in peri-urban settings, as well as the key role such location play in the management of food waste.

The PURPLE Working Group will convene for the second time in 2024 when members gather face to face in Brussels on October 24th and 25th.

The meeting follows an extended summer break with the gap n=between meetings being used to allow fpr work to be done on tne network expansion campaign and plan adopted at the 38th General Assemblty in May and which will form the centrepiece of the meeting agenda.

For further information and guest invitations, plesse contact: info@purple-eu.org

At its 38th General Assembly held in Brno on May 24th, the PURPLE governing body adopted a plan for expanding its activities through recruiting a growing number of members. The expansion campaign will coincide with the formal adoption of a new set of organisation statutes and with the network's twenty-first birthday in 2025.

PURPLE President, Petr Springinsfeld, in welcoming the adoption of a strategic framework for the expansion campaign set out a number of pledges for action on behalf of his own South Moravian region and encouraged his fellow political representatives in other current member regions to do similarly over the course of the next months as the campaign developed.