Local Action Groups begin working in Hunedoara

02.02.2010

Local Action Groups are made out of representatives of public administration, from both a local and county level, NGOs from the area, business men, citizens and personalities from the areas of Pădureni, Ţara Haţegului, Ţara Zarandului and Orăştie – Geoagiu.

The groups have been created in the National Rural Development Plan. Up to this point, 111 GALs have started functioning in Romania. Hunedoara is the only county that already has four such associations. Creating GALs is a way to get European funding and create public-private partnerships that benefit local communities. The creation of those groups has been applauded by Brussels officials.

GALs, which are partnerships between a diverse range of actors in the socio-economic landscape, determine the region’s development plan. They create a local strategy and are responsible for its implementation. The strategy must meet with approval from a large group of participants. It is based on an analysis that tries to present a complete situation of the studied territory, including strong suits and weak points, in order to identify development priorities. The strategy is created in partnership with all the potential actors in the territory, which must be involved as soon as possible in the development process.

Social and economical partners, civil society representatives like farmers, women, young people from the rural communities and their associations, must have at least a 50% participation in the local partnership.

The prefect of Hunedoara County, Dezsi Attila, thinks it’s time that the mayors joined forced in order to get money that will help develop all aspects of rural communities. “The state budget isn’t big enough to solve all problems that villages have. This is where partnerships and associations come in to play, because they represent a chance to get funds for the mayors’ projects. I applaud these associations. I hope they work and become more than plans. The Prefecture’s door is open for all partnerships, but also for new projects. We have professionals that are really good at this. Let’s try to make the people’s lives better”, the prefect says.

Dezsi Attila thinks Hunedoara is a county that must be a model for other regions, especially because it has the most GALs. The four associations have met two of the criteria necessary in order to get European money: territorial coverage and partnerships’ quality. In order to get European funds, they now also have to finish the local development strategies. These plans will reflect the needs of local communities and must involve viable, prioritised projects, in order to receive funding.

Online resources:

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