Leader Program 2023-2027

Rural development constitutes the second pillar of the common agricultural policy (CAP), funded by the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development (EAFRD), and promotes the sustainable development of rural areas through the achievement of the following objectives:

• increase the competitiveness of the agricultural and forestry sector;
• ensure sustainable management of natural resources and climate action;
• achieve balanced territorial development of rural economies and communities, including the creation and maintenance of jobs;
• promote and share knowledge, innovation, and digitalization processes in agriculture and rural areas by encouraging their use.

The new Regional Local Development Programming 2023/2027 aims to enhance the competitiveness of the agricultural and agri-food system in a sustainable perspective, strengthen the resilience and vitality of rural areas, activate exchanges of knowledge, research and innovation, and promote social cohesion.

The LEADER Programming is assigned a strategic role in promoting the vitality of rural areas and countering phenomena of depopulation, poverty, and environmental degradation, an approach that must be developed with a long-term perspective, to bring rural areas to be a driver of progress and socio-economic development of the country, also overcoming the rural-urban dualism.
The intervention is therefore primarily aimed at the most needy rural areas to respond to persistent development needs (deep gap between rural and urban areas regarding basic services, infrastructure, unemployment, depopulation, poverty, social inclusion, gender equality, and vulnerable groups).

In particular, the LEADER intervention is mainly aimed at promoting the introduction of innovations in local contexts:

• increase the provision and usability of goods and services, both material and immaterial, present in the territories (private, public, and common) for their transformation into social and economic value;
• stimulate relationships between public and private socio-economic actors and the participation of local inhabitants to strengthen social capital;
• support the connection and integration between different sectors of the local economy to strengthen the territorial system;
• promote structural changes, understood as new product processes and organizational models in companies and local entities for sustainable management and use of private and public resources;
• activate networks of synergy and complementarity between local centers (institutional, productive, social) and extra-local ones (e.g., urban) that help develop high-quality skills, attract new investors, improve the relationship between transaction costs and the local population.

To respond more effectively to territorial development needs, the SSLs can include specific operations in addition to those ordinary provided by the PSP, EU Regulation 2021/2115 and/or the Regulations concerning the other involved funds. Furthermore, to promote better management of territorial resources, the individual Managing Authorities define how this intervention can support, within the selected SSLs, the preparation and implementation of projects for:

• transnational and/or interterritorial cooperation;
• Smart Villages, in certain areas of the areas involved in the Local Strategies, to promote the development of public-private co-design/management and create collective goods and services, also implementing possible solutions offered by digital technologies;
• the start-up of non-agricultural rural enterprises (for example in the field of bioeconomy, tourism, cultural, recreational and social activities, etc.);
• investments in large-scale infrastructure consistent with other operations of the SSL.

CHARACTERISTICS OF ELIGIBLE TERRITORIES

In the Emilia-Romagna Region, the following territories can be involved:
– territories already affected by the LEADER approach in the RDP 2014 2022 as a priority, rural areas with development problems (Zone D)
– limited to hilly areas, intermediate rural areas (Zone C)
– intensive and specialized rural areas (Zone B), limited to territories falling in areas subject to natural constraints.

The minimum territorial unit will normally be represented by the Municipality, except for exceptions motivated by the need to ensure socio-economic homogeneity (in this case, for limited portions of territory, map sheets can be considered as minimum units).

FINANCIAL ALLOCATION

In particular, of the 150 million Euros foreseen for the strategic objective “Territorial Development”, 58 million Euros are foreseen for the “Local Development Strategy” (supporting the GALs that will be selected by the Emilia Romagna Region).
The financial allocation available to each GAL to implement its local development strategy ranges from a minimum of 2.5 million euros to a maximum of 14 million euros.

THEMATIC AREAS

1. ecosystem services, biodiversity, natural resources, and landscape;
2. local food systems, districts, agricultural and agri-food supply chains;
3. services, goods, collective and inclusive spaces;
4. energy, bioeconomic, and circular economy communities;
5. local socio-cultural and tourist-recreational offer systems;
6. local artisanal and manufacturing production systems.

GAL L’Altra Romagna has initiated its territory listening procedures for the analysis of needs, aimed at the concertation and definition of the new Local Development Strategy to be implemented in the next five years in its reference LEADER territory.