CEO of Kilkenny LEADER Partnership warns funding could be unsustainable to the task of rural development

Declan Rice’s comments came at the Europe’s Rural Future conference in Naas, county Kildare when he questioned Mario Milouchev, Director, DG AGRI, European Commission on the possibility of ring-fencing an adequate LEADER budget in the next round of funding.

Mr. Milouchev responded that not all member states were in favour of ring-fencing and said “The Commission has proposed – and the member states have agreed – that LEADER is obligatory. However, there are some practical difficulties when it comes to ringfencing. Perhaps we can discuss some ideas around these at this conference.”

He added that a further challenge to the negotiations on the new spending system for rural development was persuading finance ministers. pointing out; “Sometimes it is difficult to explain how important LEADER is to the finance ministers,” he said. “They are going to lead the negotiations. But in all member states ministers for regional development and agriculture are participating.”