NEWS
The ENA General Assembly has elected a new board of directors in the General Assembly held in Oxford (United Kingdom).
ENA celebrated its last General Assembly meeting on June 27th, 2018, in Oxford (UK) hosted by the HTA. 32 delegates from 19 countries participated in the meeting and welcomed the Nursery Association of the Czech Republic as a new member. ENA held elections; Jan-Dieter Bruns, from Germany, was elected President and Henk Raaijmakers from the Netherlands was elected Vice President.
The meeting
The EU Plant Health regulation and the coming Implementing Decisions were discussed by the General Assembly. The upcoming requirements that will be enforced in December 2019 were discussed and the nursery sector feels confident that this Regulation will be an opportunity to enhance the Plant Health criteria, as these will be more equally applied all over the EU than under the current Directive.
This discussion conveyed to the debate on BREXIT, that is under negotiation but that worries both the British and the rest of European nurseries. The post-BREXIT application of the phytosanitary regulations in the UK should allow a high level of control of quarantine pests of plants traded between the two territories but, at the same time, must not interfere in the movement of plants.
Regarding the nursery stock industry in Europe, the ENA General Assembly unanimously accepted The Nursery Association of the Czech Republic (Svaz školkařu ČR) as a new member, becoming the 22nd country that has joined ENA.
At the conclusion of its Summer Meeting, ENA held elections to renew its board of Directors. Jan-Dieter Bruns, representing the German organisation BdB, was elected President succeeding Tim Edwards from the UK, and Henk Raaijmakers, representing LTO from the Netherlands, was elected Vice President. Willy De Nolf and Josep M. Pagès will continue serving as Treasurer and Secretary-General respectively.
From left to right: Tim Edwards, former President; Jan-Dieter Bruns, President and Henk Raaijmakers, Vice-president.
Finally, it was agreed on celebrating the next summer meeting in Kyiv, Ukraine, hosted by the Ukrainian Plants Industry Association.
Promotion
The delegates of the seven countries participating in the “Green Cities for a Sustainable Europe” campaign (Belgium, Bulgaria, Denmark, France, Germany, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom) had a full-day meeting on the 26th June 2018, to coordinate the actions. Leon Smet, chairman of the working group, showed his excitement with the B2B events that are taking place in several countries to stimulate and increase awareness amongst professionals and politicians on the contributions of live plants for the citizens living in cities and with the layout of a new website that will be released this summer in all languages of the participating countries. Josep M. Pagès, the project coordinator, highlighted the contribution of CHAFEA (the Consumers, Health, Agriculture and Food Executive Agency of the European Commission) to make this campaign a success.
Visits
In the days following to the General Assembly meeting, the delegates visited Aylett Nurseries, Haskins Garden Centre, Farplants, Hilliers Garden Centre, Hilliers Nursery and the outstanding RHS Wisley Gardens, in a tour organised by HTA (the Horticultural Trades Association) and coordinated by David Brown.
