Nieuwe strategie inzake plattelandsontwikkeling in de EU: belangrijkste punten (en)

The Council yesterday reached political agreement on a Regulation on rural development support through the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development for the next programming period (2007-2013). Its aims are to improve the competitiveness of farming and forestry (first axis), provide support for the environment and the countryside (second axis), promote the diversification of the rural economy and its quality of life (third axis), and the use of bottom up local development strategies (fourth axis, the Leader approach). The existing 5 types of programming and the 3 types of financial management and control systems have been simplified and brought under a single funding, programming, financial management and control framework for rural development. The Commission proposal was presented in July 2004 to the Council and the Parliament for consideration.

Rural areas cover 90% of the enlarged EU's territory and are home to approximately half of its population. Despite the decline of the primary sector over the last years, agriculture and forestry remain the main land users in the EU. These sectors play a key role in the management of natural resources in rural areas, and can contribute effectively to their development. However, the viability of rural areas needs more than agriculture. A rural development policy has a wider scope to fulfil in the years to come: to contribute to economic growth and employment opportunities, to satisfy consumers' growing demand for food quality and safety, to develop further its leadership in environmental technologies, to provide attractive livelihoods and prosperity to farmers, their families and to the rest of society.

Main elements of the Regulation

The reformed rural development policy addresses more effectively implementation and governance concerns:

• All existing measures will be regrouped under a single funding and programming instrument, the European Agricultural Rural Development Fund;
• A new strategic approach has been introduced, to ensure coherence and coordination with the EU's priorities (growth, employment, sustainability), to accompany the reform of market support ("the first pillar") and to serve as a basis for the national strategies and programmes.
• There is a unified and strengthened monitoring, evaluation and reporting mechanism which should make the accomplishments of the policy more transparent and visible to all stakeholders;
• Minimum spending rates per axis and less detailed eligibility rules will leave greater margins of freedom to Member States to focus on specific axis and measures, while at the same time addressing in a balanced way the policy mix that experience has shown to be necessary for viable rural areas;
• A greater emphasis on local development strategies is supported in order to better respond to the diversity of situations and needs of European rural areas;
• A more ambitious role for networking and cooperation between European rural areas will facilitate the transfer of good practices and give a European dimension to rural policies;
• The division of responsibilities between Member States and the Commission has been more clearly defined.

The new policy has three major objectives and a suggested approach: the first is to improve the competitiveness of farm and forest enterprises through support for restructuring and innovation; the second is to take better care of the environment and the countryside through support for better forms of land management and the conservation of natural resources; the third is to promote the diversification of the rural economy and the improvement in the quality of life in order to create a more secure and stable socio-economic context for farmers, their families and the wider rural population; the suggested approach is the Leader method, used successfully in the past, which is an area-based approach, using bottom up participatory policy decision-making.

Axis 1: Improving competitiveness of the agriculture and forestry sector: The innovation and restructuring strategy focuses on human and physical capital and quality aspects. It includes the following

measures aimed at promoting knowledge and improving human potential through:

- vocational training, information actions including the diffusion of scientific knowledge and innovative practises for persons engaged in the agricultural, food and forestry sectors

- setting up of young farmers,

- early retirement of farmers and farm workers,

• use by farmers and forest owners of advisory services,

- setting up of farm management, farm relief and farm advisory services, as well as of forestry advisory services;

measures aimed at restructuring physical potential and promoting innovation through:

- farm modernisation,

- improving the economic value of forests,

- adding value to primary agricultural and forestry products,

• cooperation for the development of new products, processes and technologies in the agricultural sector,

- improving and developing infrastructure related to the development and adaptation of agriculture and forestry,

• restoring agricultural production potential damaged by natural disasters and introducing appropriate prevention actions;

measures aimed at improving the quality of agricultural production and agricultural products by:

- helping farmers to adapt to demanding standards based on Community legislation,

- supporting farmers who participate in food quality schemes,

- supporting producer groups for information and promotion activities for products under food quality schemes;

transitional measures for the new Member States concerning:

- supporting semi-subsistence farms undergoing restructuring,

- supporting the setting up of producer groups.

Axis 2: Improving the environment and the countryside : Agri-environmental measures are compulsory. A general condition for axis 2 measures is that beneficiaries must respect the EU and national mandatory requirements for agriculture and forestry. Cross compliance is the baseline for direct payments under the first pillar and means that farmers have to comply with 18 standards in the fields of environmental protection, public health, animal and plant health, animal welfare, other compromise statutory requirements for farmers, as well as to keep land in good agricultural and environmental conditions. The same baseline is applicable to the measures of axis 2. In the case of agri-environmental payments, additional conditions for fertilizer and pesticide use set in the programmes will apply.

Support under this Section concerns the following measures:

1. measures targeting the sustainable use of agricultural land through :

- natural handicap payments to farmers in mountain areas,

- payments to farmers in areas with handicaps, other than mountain areas ,

- Natura 2000 payments and payments linked to Directive 2000/60/EC

- agri-environment payments

• animal welfare payments,

- support for non-productive investments;

1. measures targeting the sustainable use of forestry land through :

- first afforestation of agricultural land,

- first establishment of agro-forestry systems on agricultural land,

• first afforestation of non agricultural land,

- Natura 2000 payments,

- forest-environment payments,

• restoring forestry production potential and introducing prevention actions,

- support for non-productive investments.

Axis 3: The quality of life in rural areas and diversification of the rural economy. The measures in this section are addressed to farmers, their families and the wider rural population. More diversified labour markets and better services will create new growth and job opportunities in rural areas. This will help to stabilise the rural population and create external economies for farmers and their families. The most successful form of implementing diversification and services is through local development strategies. Support in this axis involves:

measures to diversify the rural economy, comprising:

- diversification into non-agricultural activities,

• support for the creation and development of micro enterprises with a view to promoting entrepreneurship and developing the economic fabric,

- encouragement of tourism activities, 

measures to improve the quality of life in rural areas, comprising:

- basic services for the economy and the rural population,

- village renewal and development,

• conservation and upgrading of the rural heritage.

a training and information measure for economic actors operating in the areas covered by axis 3;

a skills-acquisition and animation measure with a view to preparing and implementing a local development strategy.

Axis 4: Leader. This axis mainstreams the Leader approach, which has been experimented successfully since 1989 and has contributed to innovation, employment and growth in rural areas by promoting local development strategies defined through a bottom up approach and public-private partnerships. The Leader approach, since it is an innovative method for rural development, may be applied in a wider scale to the three other axes, if Member States wish to do so. A minimum of 7% of program funding is reserved for this axis.

Changes to the definition of less favoured areas

The current definition of less favoured areas, based on three types of areas:

• Mountain areas (defined by altitude and slope)
• Other or intermediate LFA (partly defined on socio-economic criteria)
• Areas with specific handicaps for example wetlands (limited to a maximum 10% of a member state's territory)

will be maintained until 2010. The Commission will present a proposal concerning the future payment system and the designation of LFAs, which addresses the critical observations made by the Court of Auditors on the intermediate type of LFA.

Balance between objectives

The financial contribution to each of the axis will be at least 10 percent for axis 1 and 3, 25 percent for axis 2 and 5% for the Leader axis (the latter will be adapted to the specific situation of the new Member States).

Rural development and Agenda 2000

In March 1999 the EU leaders, as part of the Agenda 2000 strategy, decided to reform the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), reinforcing rural development policy in several ways. The rural development policy that resulted from the Agenda 2000 strategy aimed to complement reforms in the agricultural market sectors, to promote a competitive, multifunctional agricultural sector, to encourage alternative sources of income in rural areas and agro-environment measures.

A "menu" of 22 measures was available for Member States and Regions, who could choose those measures that best responded to the needs of their rural areas. These measures may be grouped in the following broad categories:

• Investments in farm businesses;
• Human resources: young farmers, early retirement, training;
• Less favoured areas and areas subject to environmental constraints;
• Agri-environment measures;
• Processing and marketing of agricultural products;
• Forestry;
• Measures promoting the adaptation and development of rural areas.

EU support for rural development is co-financed by the EAGGF and Member States. The four "accompanying measures" (agri-environment, aid for early retirement, afforestation of agricultural land, and less favoured areas and areas subject to environmental constraints) are co-financed by the EAGGF- Guarantee section. Leader+ projects (designed to help rural actors improve the long-term potential of their local region) are funded from the EAGGF- Guidance section. For other rural development measures, the source of EU funding depends on the region concerned: The EAGGF- Guidance section for Objective 1 regions (least developed regions), and the EAGGF- Guarantee section for other regions.

Overall EU 25 funding for rural development for 2000-2006 (2004-2006 for the new Member States) comprises around € 60 billion, with € 40 billion coming from the EAGGF- Guarantee section and € 20 billion coming from the Guidance section.

Rural development and the 2003 CAP reform

In June 2003 the Council of Ministers agreed on a further fundamental reform of the CAP. This reform aimed to further strengthen rural development by transferring funds from the first pillar (market and income support) to the second pillar (rural development). At the same time, the scope of the current rural development instruments was expanded in order to respond to growing public concern on food quality, environmental protection and animal welfare.

Therefore, a number of measures were added to the "menu" of measures already in place or existing measures were adapted. They can be divided into the following categories:

• Food quality measures (participation in quality schemes);
• Meeting EU standards related to the environment, health (public, animal, and plant), animal welfare and occupational safety;
• Animal welfare (beyond good animal husbandry practice);
• Support for young farmers (reinforced);
• Adaptation of support for the implementation of Natura 2000 (Birds and Habitats Directive);
• Support for forestry (widened scope);
• Setting up of farm advisory systems;
• Management of integrated rural development strategies by local partnerships;
• Increased EU co-financing rate for agri-environment and animal welfare;
• Less favoured areas (increased maximum level of support).

With a view to strengthening EU financial support for rural development the 2003 CAP reform introduced a new system of compulsory modulation . This system was designed to switch funds from the first to the second pillar . Member States can use it to finance the introduction of the new rural development measures or to reinforce existing measures.

The role of the Member States

Rural development policy is there to respond to the national and regional needs. As it is the Member States who know best what these needs are, they play a central role in drawing up their rural development programmes and in implementing them. The programming phase starts with each Member State presenting plans. It ends with the Commission (having assessed the consistency of these plans with the rural development regulation) approving them. Current programmes cover a seven-year period from January 2000 to end December 2006. For the new Member States the programming period is 2004-2006.