PRESS RELEASE Groupe de Bruges’s new president and vice-president elected

April 14 2015

The Groupe de Bruges’ new president and vice-president were elected at yesterday’s Board Meeting succeeding Arie van den Brand and Franco Sotte who stepped down from these positions after 11 years.

Samuel Féret, new Groupe de Bruges’ President said: “I'm glad to take this position. It's a great honor. With Groupe de Bruges board members we'll try to carry out the big challenge to provide new ideas for the next CAP reform within a European perspective.”

Samuel (42), member since 2008 and Board member since 2012, is currently working for an innovation platform on family farming involving CFSI, Cirad, Inter-Réseaux Développement Rural, Groupe Initiatives and Fondation de France. Before this he was coordinator of Groupe PAC 2013 and is also one of the founding fathers of ARC2020. E-mail: samuel.feret@gmail.com.

Anna Augustyn, new Groupe de Bruges’ Vice-president expressed her thanks to be appointed this role: “There is still a lot to be done for sustainable agriculture and rural areas across Europe. With the Groupe de Bruges we intend to be a part of it."

Anna (33), member since 2014 and Board member since last month, is a private consultant and rural development policy expert. She just concluded a research on impact assessment approaches as a visiting research fellow at the Hungarian Academy of Science. E-mail: ania.augustyn@yahoo.de.

The other two Board members are Zdenek Linhart (Czech Republic) and John Brennan (Ireland).

Ends

You can download this announcement here in Word document.

Contact

For more information, please contact Mr Bart Soldaat, E soldaat.bart@gmail.com or at T +316 2129 2979.

About Groupe de Bruges

Groupe de Bruges is an independent network and think tank on European agricultural and rural development policies based in the Netherlands. Founded in 1995. http://www.groupedebruge.eu/