The territorial dimension in the EU programming and the New Framework for Public Policies: Territorial Tural Development, CAP Reform and new LEADER

Abstract

What we’ve been calling as territorial development perspective is a rather recent phenomenon in the context of the European Union, just two decades. In essence this perspective has focused on the local approach to development processes in rural areas, guided mainly of instruments such as LEADER. The need to integrate the territorial dimension of development processes comes not only from the overall success of these instruments, but also by the belief that they can be a key factor in the economic and social cohesion within the EU. Recent advances, such as the Green Paper on Territorial Cohesion, the approval of the Territorial Agenda 2020 and what will be the policy of cohesion for the period 2014- 2020, show the willingness of the authorities to deepen the territorial dimension of sectoral policies and to advance in the necessary greater coordination of policies maintaining territorial criteria. On the other hand, the reform of the CAP which is discussed in these months, which will result in the design of the instruments to be applied during the period 2014-2020, is also a great opportunity to consolidate this territorial approach in rural areas. This article examines, first, the public framework policy in terms of the territorial dimension in the context of the European Union, deepening on the meaning of the recent advances in this field. Second, we analyze the main elements that are leading, to date, the reform of the CAP and to what extent this reform includes a component as important as the territorial perspective for the development of rural areas. The findings point to the continuity and even deepening in the productivist and environmentalist orientation of the CAP. Third, we analyze what is going to be the territorial rural development policy in the strict sense, ie the continuation of the LEADER approach. In this regard we emphasize that the drop in the next programming period 2014-2020 of the structure by the four axis of the 2007-2013 period, and its replacement by a more simple, and apparently more flexible and powerful structure, will (always depending on the final budget allocations) deepen and consolidate LEADER as the main instrument for implementing local development strategies in rural areas. In this context, in the coming years they would be open possibilities for cooperation between rural and urban areas, in both cases under the focus of publicprivate partnerships and implementing local development strategies. These possibilities of territorial cooperation require vision by the regional stakeholders and a high capacity for commitment towards the implementation of these effective ways of cooperation and regional development.