18.07.2024 (Caucasian Journal). Our guest today is Dr. Radim SRŠEŇ, President of European Leader Association for Rural Development (ELARD), member of the European Committee of the Regions, Deputy Minister of Regional Development of Czechia, Mayor of Dolní Studénky, former vice-chairman of STAN (a liberal political party in Czechia)
Alexander KAFFKA, editor-in-chief of CJ: Dear Radim, welcome to the Caucasian Journal. You have recently visited Georgia taking part in the Kutaisi Fourth International Forum, and it was not your first event in Georgia. May I ask you to tell a bit about yourself, and how you became familiar with our country?
Radim SRŠEŇ: It is my great pleasure to participate in this interview. I must say that I love Georgia. My first visit was in 2015, when I was president of European Leader Association for Rural Development. The European neighborhood policy program started with supporting Georgia mostly in the area of agriculture, but we tried to use other tools, like so-called LEADER and Local Actions Groups [LEADER is a European programme with the aim to involve local actors in rural areas in the development of their regions by forming Local Actions Groups (LAGs) – CJ]. I was asked by the biggest Czech NGO which is very active in Georgia – “People in Need” – to participate, so from 2015 to 2017 we established groups in Georgia.
