Romanian Review of Regional Studies (Jan 2008)
Vrancea Vineyard: A Rural Area with a European Comparative Advantage –The Wine
Abstract
This article intends to disseminate the partial results of a work that lasted more than three years and involved a substantial number of resources at both national and international level within the COHESION Project, implemented under the C.I.P. Interreg IIIB CADSES Neighbourhood Program. The Vrancea vineyard was the pilot area for the Romanian study and the main activities of the Romanian team (Urbanproiect Bucuresti, Partner Project no.13) within the project has been focused on this area.The COHESION (Integrated COncepts EnHancing CohESion of EurOpeaN Space) Project aimed at enforcing the cohesion of the CADSES area, through developing policies to meet the problems of the European rural space. To this context, the project developed during 2003-2005 applied a methodology focused on increasing competitiveness of areas. An indicative product (wine), in which the involved areas provide a comparative advantage, has been targeted and integrated development pilot projects have been implemented in the participating areas. The Project's area of intervention consisted in the territories of Karditsa, Achaia and Nemea in Greece, the territory of Steirisches Vulkanland in Austria, Meissen in Germany, Appennino Reggiano in Italy, Northwest Bohemia in Czech Republic, and Vrancea in Romania.The aim of the project was “to investigate the development process in remote agricultural areas from practical point of view, i.e. locate the factors that hamper or promote local development in the remote agricultural zones of the CADSES area, and provide this information to other local development actors, so as to facilitate their action and thus contribute to accelerating convergence of the space in question and cohesion of the European territory” (PINDOS Strategic Planning Centre, 2006). The approach planned and applied by COHESION was the bottom up approach. Parallel and similar development projects (pilot activities) were generated in a number of the areas involved and the experience acquired by the project partners was compared and examined. A synthesis of the particular experience in the form of recommendations and hints to potential local development actors was elaborated under a final manual, a methodological guide for local development actors, so as to help people involved in the development practice to avoid mistakes and better plan their actions and thus become more efficient in their mission.
