(13 February 2015) – The European Commission has today approved a further 18 Rural Development Programmes (RDPs) aimed at improving the competitiveness of the EU farming sector, caring for the countryside and climate, and strengthening the economic and social fabric of rural communities in the period until 2020.
Taken together, the RDPs for Belgium (Flanders), Estonia, Finland (Åland), France (National Rural Network Programme, Mayotte), Germany (Bavaria, Hesse, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Nordrhein-Westfalen), Latvia, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Portugal (Azores, Madeira), Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain (National Framework) and United Kingdom (England) offer funding worth 14,3 billion EUR from the EU budget, which will be co-financed by further public funding at national/regional level and/or private funds.
Coming after the 9 programmes cleared in December, today’s adoptions bring the number of approved RDPs up to 27 (out of 118 programmes), meaning that programmes worth more than 35 billion EUR (roughly 36% of the budget) have now been approved.