Concentrating funds on less favoured areas a tough exercise

摘要

The European Commission presented, on 21 April, a communication on modification of the support scheme for less favoured areas of the Union. The document illustrates the difficulty of the exercise of concentrating part of support under rural development policy on areas "affected by significant natural handicaps, notably a low soil productivity or poor climate conditions and where maintaining extensive farming activity is important for the management of the land," as described in a 2005 EU regulation.rnDefining mountainous zones or zones with specific handicaps does not present a problem, but what the member states and European Commission have trouble agreeing on is the mapping out of 'intermediate zones'. The Commission suggests in its communication the use of a 'biophysical criterion' for this purpose. It considers this approach "promising"rnand calls on the member states to assist it during the next six months.