On 20 September 2005, the Council approved a new regulation for rural development which concluded that LEADER has reached a level of maturity that enables areas to implement it more widely in mainstream rural development programming.172 Thus, from 2007, the LEADER Initiative Programme was replaced by the LEADER approach, becoming an implementation method.
Instead of being financed as a ‘Community initiative’, it became part of the overall EU rural development policy (mainstreaming). Financially, it was supported by the new European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development (EAFRD).173
A minimum of 5% of EU funding for each programme should be reserved for LEADER
approach. The integration of the LEADER approach into the rural development programming as outlined in the Third Cohesion Report 174 had severe implications on the administration and contents. It was a very effective instrument in creating new links between local actors and stakeholders and local areas even if it was achieved only by the more advanced groups
171 Ray, C. (1998).
172 Council regulation (EC) no. 1698/2005 of 20 September 2005 on support for rural development by the European agricultural Fund for Rural Development (EAFRD), Official
Journal of the European Union L 277, 21.10.2005, pp. 1–40.
173 European Commission (2006). 174 European Commission (2004).
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due to certain preconditions and external influences (e.g. a favourable administrative context, a diversified local economy, a dynamic representative partnership).
In this context, ÖIR analysed the issues of LEADER features and the application of its method in the rural development programmes,175 and concluded that the application varies
considerably between the programmes and between the Member States. Positive comments concerned the participation of different groups of actors or an efficient decentralized
management and financing due to the interplay of authorities and institutions at various levels. There was also the production of synergies with other regional development programmes and the feasibility of the LEADER method itself. Negative comments noted problems with the following: the political and institutional framework of the Member States, the administrative barriers related to the routines of a sectoral perspective, the payment operations and problems related to the local actors that need time to build the strategic and operational capacities necessary to design and implement local development strategies.
3.6 Conclusions
This chapter provided a rationale of the LEADER approach for the construction of new local policy spaces where the EC sent signals that would be appropriate for funding and
influencing the nature of the initiatives such as the definitions of the boundaries of rural areas, types of organization and styles of projects. Here the Programme takes place in a defined area, managed by a public-private partnership with the power to take decision and where an action plan is drawn up taking in account the economic, social and environmental priorities. As OECD reported ‘The LEADER method has had success and generated a lot of
enthusiasm in many rural areas across the EU…even though often difficult to quantify…
LEADER has demonstrated ... the benefits that a bottom-up, integrated approach to rural
development can bring with relatively little resource and its success stands in contradiction to and highlights the limits of the sectoral approach to rural areas which is still dominant in terms of financing throughout the EU and in several OECD countries’.176
175 ÖIR GmbH (2004) ‘Methods for and Success of Mainstreaming LEADER Innovations and Approach into Rural Development Programmes’. Final report commissioned by European Commission, DG Agriculture, Unit G4. Vienna: Österreichisches Institut für Raumplanung (Austrian Institute for Regional Studies and Spatial Planning).
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Information from evaluations and rural stakeholders have been fundamental during this research as they indicate that the LEADER approach works well in quite different situations and different socio-economic contexts, linking public and private institutions, as well as different interests of local actors.
It emerged that the LEADER approach has some specific features, which may lead to specific outcomes and effects such as smaller scale projects which provide a wide range of
beneficiaries, especially female entrepreneurs and non-profit sector. It is about farming, but also natural and cultural heritage, tourism, SMEs services, training, and employment in different sectors.
Moreover, it cannot be considered as an instrument to change local economic structures but rather it stimulates processes by the improvements of intangible factors, raising awareness, strengthening cooperation and building the basis for the provision of better services and more competitive products. LEADER has also the potential to make a real difference to the lives of rural people and becoming a sort of laboratory for building capabilities and for finding new ways to satisfy the needs of rural communities.
For this context, the bottom-up approach allows the local community to express their views and plans to help to define the development strategy of their area. It is implemented by LAGs that are organized on the partnerships to facilitate linkages between different actors and sectors of activity so the rural development programmes can be more coherent and innovative.177 They can be seen as operating on three inter-related spatial level: within the area of their strategic activity where the individuals, communities, groups are the direct target of animation, between their area and the wider institutional environment and finally with other local development initiatives.
Even if these and many other positive assessments reveal the potential of the LEADER approach, however many other evaluations reveal the limits of the participation of the local actors, the difficulties of cooperation at local and regional levels and the still limited
experiences on exchanges within and between rural territories.
177 Van Depoele, L. (2003) ‘From Sectorial to Territorial-Based policies: The Case of LEADER’, in OECD (ed.) The Future of Rural Policy. From sectoral to place-based policies in rural areas. Paris: OECD Publications, pp. 79-87.
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Despite its limitations, the EU decided to mainstream the LEADER approach into the rural development policy for the 2007-2013 programming period with the aim to address more directly and effectively the diversification potential of farmers and rural regions in Europe. Anyway, its application varies considerably between the programmes and the Member States due to different groups of actors or due to the interplay of authorities and institutions at various levels in terms of management and financing. This is what will be analysed in the case study chapters concerning the experience of four LAGs working in UK and in Italy in order to understand the conditions, including political arrangements and actors, that facilitate or hinder the development and their workings.
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