Representatives of managing authorities, IPARD agencies and sivil society 0rganizaitons of the candidate countries of the European Union (EU), Albania, Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia and Turkey participated in the TAIEX workshop on "Use of Technical Assistance in LEADER Preparatory Activities" held in Croatia / Zagreb on 15-16 November 2016 by the European Commission. Mr. Muhammad ADAK, Deputy Director General of Agricultural Reform and also Head of MA, Mr. Aykut GEREN, Coordinator of Programming and Evaluation of MA, Mr. Mehmet AK, engineer and Mr. Ahmet ANTALYALI, Head of ARDSI have contributed to this work. The workshop aims to share the knowledge and experience of countries on the use of Technical Assistance for capacity building in LEADER applications.

On the first day of the workshop, the experts from Croatia, Bulgaria, Poland and Slovenia which are the LEADER implementing EU member states explained about the practices, experiences, challenges they faced and how they went on. Later, the candidate countries shared what they realized in the past, what they currently perform and their future planning concerning LEADER and the difficulties they have encountered.

On the second day of the workshop, one of the Local Action Groups (LAGs) established in LEADER in Croatia was visited. The LAG Manager gave information on how they were founded, their structure, what they accomplished, the projects they carried out, and the challenges they faced.

It has been seen that among the candidate countries participating, Turkey has come a long way in terms of LEADER and has a good level of experience in LEADER preperatory activities. For this reason, it was expressed by the authorities that the next workshop on this issue could be organized in Turkey.

In addition to the workshop, a meeting was held with the participation of IPARD Programme Manager Mrs. Iwona LISZTWAN from DG AGRI A5 Unit Sector Manager for Agriculture and Fisheries Mrs.Leyla ALMA from Delegation of the European Union to Turkey, Mr. Muhammed ADAK, Dr. Ahmet ANTALYALI, Mr. Aykut GEREN andMr. Mehmet AK. In the meeting held, Mrs. Iwona LISZTWAN stated that the commission was pleased with the work perfomed by IPARD related institutions in Turkey. She particularly expressed satisfaction with the appointment of the head of MA whose sole responsibility is IPARD related issues. It is mentioned that the structure of the MA is strengthened in this way and the process can be carried out more effectively.