"The Project "VINUM EST" is an operation supported by the VINEST Network which aims at an integrated and sustainable development of Small European Wine Areas through the networking and the transfer of experiences and know-how among the partners.

The project is part-financed by the EU programme INTERREG III C EAST with 985.500 Euro, and includes partners from Austria, Hungary, Slovenia, Italy, Spain and Germany.

During the years 2004-2007 the VINEST network partners of this project will create a Competence and Promotion Centre and Press Office of the VINEST Network in Austria (Moschendorf), update and make more dynamic the www.vinest.net website and implement various common promotion actions on international level. All partners will implement local actions in order to further develop and promote their local offer and quality, also safeguarding their peculiar wines, cultures and landscapes."

Background/Summary
The VINUM EST project is based on the project experience VINEST of 5 of the actual VINUM EST partners from the "old" EU (ERDF/art.10, Programm RECITE II, from Sept. 1998-August 2002, actual P4 was LP). With VINEST the partners invested in the integrated development of their small wine growing areas, creating an European Network for Small European Wine Areas. The partners decided to enlarge this network step-by-step to other Small European Wine Areas, particularly to those in the New Member States. Now, as the actual Lead Partner, the association of municipalities in the Southern Burgenland, REUPS (Burgenland/Austria), is located in a Border Region and suffers the changing context of enlargement in a particular way, the "old" VINEST partners decided to point on an INTERREG III C Border Regions project, involving wine growing areas from Hungary and Slovenia into the VINEST network.

The key words of VINUM EST are NETWORKING, CONSOLIDATION and INNOVATION . Regarding NETWORKING the focus in VINUM EST is on enlarging the VINEST Network and building up its organisational infrastructure. For this purpose the partners will establish a Competence and Promotion Centre , which will have the mission to co-ordinate the co-operation with the partners from the New Member States, as well as to manage the Network's press office, supporting also the further enlargement of the VINEST Network, being a resource centre for other wine growing areas in Europe, that intend to choose a similar approach as that of the VINUM EST partners. Then the Network needs to consolidate, upgrade and innovate its approach, tools and actions, e.g. the network's communication strategy, its marketing plan, the VINEST website, common training and know-how transfer.

Furthermore - mainly on local level - all partners need to consolidate and innovate the local wine and wine tourism promotion/marketing , and to promote sustainable develop ment in their areas.

While in the first VINEST project the partners created the preconditions with wine routes, wine museums,"VINEST Agencies" (co-ordination agencies on local level) and transnational know-how exchange, now the partners need further capacity building, new ideas, tools, methods and sustainable development strategies for developing and promoting their areas and wines, as well as for managing wine routes and museums, e.g. local communication or marketing strategies, local websites, innovative promotion or "simply" a professional management.

For a participatory approach to achieve these aims, the VINUM EST partners will mobilise "Local Networks", set already up with VINEST and to be created/supported also in the new partner areas: these are informal working groups with representatives from public bodies, wine producers', wine route and cultural associations, tourism boards, nature park agencies, etc.. These local networks - transforming them into local "innovation circles" supported by experts - will elaborate and implement "innovation plans" for a strategical and methodological innovation.

The VINUM EST Project partners are

• LP: Regional Development association for the Pinka valley and Strem valley – REUPS (Southern Burgenland – Burgenland/Austria)
• P2: Foundation for Regional Enterprise Promotion in Vas County and Szombathely ( Szombathely - Nyugat-Dunantul/Hungary)
• P3: Local Development Agency ROD Ajdovšcina ( Upper Vipava Valley – Primorska/Slovenia)
• P4: Community of Mountain municipalities No.8 Marghine-Planargia (Provinces of Nuoro and Oristano – Sardinia/Italy)
• P5: Municipality of Bullas (Murcia/Spain)
• P6: District of Burgenland (Saxony-Anhalt/Germany)
• P7: Island Administration of Gran Canaria (Islas Canarias/Spain)

The project duration is planned from August 2004 until June 2007 .

The VINUM EST project's OVERALL OBJECTIVE is to contribute to a balanced and dynamic rural development all over the EU ("old" and "new"), particularly in Small European Wine Areas (SEWAs) that are "Objective 1" and border regions, alleviating contemporarily the problems of the transition process of EU-enlargement .

The SPECIFIC OBJECTIVES are:

(a) to strengthen the integrated and sustainable development of all involved SEWAs and to transfer the relative experiences and know-how of the "old" EU partners to the partners in Hungary and Slovenia ;

(b) to foster transnational and cross-border co-operation through the "VINEST Network", enlarging it to new partners, as well as consolidating and innovating its strategy, structures and tools;

(c) to consolidate and innovate the formerly created local approaches, structures and tools in each partners' area, in order to respond to new challenges and to face the opportunity-necessity for this areas of sustainable development.

"Integrated develop ment" comprises for us the simultaneous action in supporting: wine quality improvement, certification and guarantee; local co-ordination and collaboration between involved actors and stakeholders (participatory planning and management approaches); co-ordinate image/area marketing; combination - as integration between economic sectors and in the tourism offer - of wine with other typical products, tourism, gastronomy and culture.

"Sustainable development " in wine growing areas means for us the protection of vineyards' landscapes, the safeguard of autochthonous grape varieties and genetic resources of vines and yeasts, environmental friendly wine growing and rural tourism, as well as social, cultural, economic and financial sustainability of development strategies, actions and their supporting structures and tools.

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