Major Rural Policy Conference Opens Tomorrow
A major international conference on rural policy is being organised for June 29th – July 1st at the University of Aberdeen by the Arkleton Centre for Rural Development Research.
Well over 120 delegates from 22 countries are expected to attend. Mr Franz Fishler, EU Commissioner for Agriculture and Rural Development will deliver a special videotaped opening address on the morning of June 29th (09:00 am), followed by Mr Ross Finnie, Minister for Rural Affairs in the Scottish Executive, delivering a second opening address at the King’s College Conference Centre.
A photocall and interview opportunity with Mr. Finnie has been arranged after his speech on the 29th of June at the King’s College Conference Centre. Other morning speakers may be interviewed in the coffee break. Press calls on subsequent days will be held from 10:40–11:10 am.
The conference will bring together policy makers, rural development practitioners, and academics and will provide the first major opportunity for an exchange on rural topics since the 1996 European Conference on
Rural Development "Rural Europe- Future Perspectives" in Cork organised by the European
Commission.
Issues to be discussed will include trade and enlargement issues, the environment, the information society, local development practice, rural environment, rural competitiveness, rural-urban interactions, and rural society and culture.
Other prominent keynote speakers on Day One (Thursday, 29th June) will include Natacha Yellachich who is a chief negotiator for WWF in Brussels on rural and regional policy issues; Professor Bill Kerr from the Universities of Alberta and Saskatoon; Professor Bill Reimer who Chairs the Canadian Rural Restructuring Foundation and Professor David Freshwater of TVA Rural Studies, University of Kentucky.
Day Two (Friday, 30th June) will feature Dr Natalie Kazlauskiene, Former Vice-Minister of Agriculture, Lithuania and now Regional Representative at UN-FAO, Rome; Professor Jerzy Wilkin of the Economics Department, University of Warsaw and Policy Advisory Committee, Foundation for the Development of Polish Agriculture; Professor Kenneth Thomson of the Department of Agriculture, University of Aberdeen; Laszlow Kulcsar from Szent Istvan University, Hungary; Karoly Javor of the Hungarian Ministry of Agriculture; Professor David Brown from Cornell University; Professor Mark Shucksmith from the Arkleton Centre for Rural Development Research; and Mr Alan Wilkinson, Director in charge of the Special Accession Programme on Agriculture and Rural Development (SAPARD), European Commission.
Day Three (Saturday, 1st July) will feature Professor Bertrand Hervieu who is a former advisor to the French Minister of Agriculture and now Director- General of INRA (the French National Institute for Agrarian Research); Dr Mario Pezzini, Head of Territorial Reviews Division, OECD; Professor Laurent Van Depoele, University of Leuvain and formerly Director in charge of Rural Development in the European Commission; Dr Heather Clemenson, Rural Secretariat, Agriculture & Agri-Food Canada and member of the OECD Rural Development Committee, and Professor John Bryden, Arkleton Centre for Rural Development Research.
In addition, Day Three will also feature a general debate on rural issues with a panel of MP’s, MSP’s and others attending the Conference from 4:10 pm.
Professor John Bryden, Co-Director of the Arkleton Centre for Rural Development Research said: “The basic idea of holding this conference in 2000 concerns two major events which are in progress, and will unquestionably influence the future of EU rural policy post Agenda 2000 – first, the Millennium Round of International Trade Talks; second, the forthcoming enlargement of the EU. The conference is timed to allow participants to input into the subsequent debates concerning the shape and content of this expanded rural policy.”
The conference is sponsored by the University of Aberdeen, the Scottish Executive, Scottish Enterprise and The Arkleton Trust.
University Press Office on telephone +44 (0)1224-273778 or email a.ramsay@admin.abdn.ac.uk.