This report, and the events recorded in it, focus upon seven countries which are at various stages of active or potential candidature to join the European Union. Six of the countries are in the Western Balkans – Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo*, the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Montenegro and Serbia. The seventh country is Turkey. These countries are reforming their governmental systems to align them with the standards and policies of the European Union.

To help in this process, the EU offers support through the Instrument for Pre-  accession Assistance (IPA).  Part of that Instrument is focused on rural development, including the potential to use the LEADER approach, which operates successfully throughout the EU.

The central concept behind the events described here is that effective rural development will depend upon action by both governments and rural stakeholders. It is vital that the two sides work closely together; that governments involve rural stakeholders in shaping and implementing policy; and that rural stakeholders are empowered to take initiatives which benefit rural communities.

In order to stimulate the thinking of governments and rural stakeholders, the events had an unusual format – a simultaneous series of six traveling workshops in Serbia, the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia and Montenegro, followed by national conferences in the three countries and a concluding conference in Brussels.

Taking part in these events were Ministers, Government officials and rural stakeholders from the seven countries, plus EU experts and representatives of the four organisations which co- initiated the  events  –  the  European  Commission’s  Directorates  for  Agriculture and Rural Development and for Enlargement, the Standing Working Group for Rural Development in the Western Balkans (representing the Governments in the region), and the PREPARE Partnership for Rural Europe.