EU LEADER approach in 2007 – 2013

1. Jela Tvrdonova, 2014 EU LEADER approach in 2007 – 2013

2. What is Leader approach? How did Leader evolved? How is Leader implemented? Local action groups and local development strategies Cooperation in Leader Guidelines for Leader What is the future of territorial development? What is CLLD? Is there any future for Leader? Content

3. governance tool endogenous development tool innovation tool territorial tool integration tool WhatisLeader approach?

4. A mode of governance characterized by the combined application of the 7 LEADER features for the elaboration and implementation of local development strategies Leader as A rural development method

5. Area –based local development strategies Bottom-up approach with decision power for LAGs Local public – private partnership Multi-sectorial design and implementation of strategies Implementation of innovative approaches Networking of local partnerships Implementation of cooperation projects Definition of Leader Method

6. Community Initiatives: Leader I (1991-93) – experiment: result of criticism to the individualproject approach in the Structural Policy Leader II (1994-99) - laboratory: limited to disadvantaged rural areas,innovation, pilot actions, introduction of transnational cooperation Leader+ (2000-06) - maturity phase: eligibility of the whole ruralterritory; reinforced role of networks and transnational cooperation (Leader+ type measure for new Member States 2004-2006) „Mainstreamed Leader“ 2007-13: Leader axis – not any longer specific programmes; methodologicalapproach to mainstream RD programming Evolution of the Leader approach

7. Experience with Leader • Decentralised management and financing and local partnerships need more investments in the early phase(resources for capacity building, negotiation time, organisation development) • Accelerated programme delivery in later phases due toenhanced local capital, local ownership.

8. The various policy options • Wider thematic and geographical scope of application • Application to the 3 axis • Geographical application (application on a wider scale for certain MS only) Concept of Leader Axis

9. a)Implementing local development strategies to achieve the objectives of one or more of the 3 axis b) Cooperation c) Running the local action group, acquisition of skills and animating the territory LeaderAxismeasures (Art 63)

10. Selection of measures – menu of RD regulation • measures will have to be chosen out of the European ‘menu’ of measures. • Sub option A : measure implemented exclusively with the Leader method • Sub option B :measure implemented in addition to the top down method Implementation of own measures (e.g. territorial measures) RDP measuresimplementedviaLeader axis – technical options

11. Leader axis budget : • At least 5 % of total EARDF contribution in the old MS • At least 2,5% in the new MS. • Romania and Bulgaria (2,5% applying to 2010-2013) Various RDP Allocationsforleader(Art.17)

12. 80% of public expenditure in regions covered by the convergence objective 55% of public expenditure in other regions EARDF contribution (Art.70)increased participation + 5%

13. Programmed expenditure for Leader in the EU: • Public: € 8.9 billion – of which EAFRD: € 5.5 billion – total public: € 13.9 billion • Private: € 5.0 billion • Maximum co-financing rate of 55% (80% in Convergence regions). Leader 2007 – 2013 – reality

14. Breakdown of the EAFRD contribution according to the measures for Leader: Implementation of local development strategies (Measure 41): 77, 5% Competitiveness (sub-measure 411) : 9,5% Environment and Land Management (sub-measure 412): 3,0 % Quality of Life and Economic Diversification (sub-measure 413) : 65,0% Interterritorial and transnational cooperation (Measure 421) : 5,0% LAG running costs, skills acquisition and animation (Measure 431) 16,5% Leader 2007 – 2013 – reality

15. Acquisition of skills for new LAGs or existing LAGs Selection of local developemnt strategy Contractualization with LAGs Implementation of local development strategy Leader axis implementation steps

16. Local action groups (LAGs) • Legally constituted structure or lead partner in administrative and financial matters • Composition: no interest group should represent more than 49% of voting rights • Project selection – at least 50% of the votes from non-public sector partners • Local action groups should at least: • Carry out capacity building actions for local actors • Draw up project selection criteria, assess and select operations for financing under the local development strategy (… role of the managing authority in the approval of the projects remains an administrative and political choice in each MS, ) • Monitor the implementation of the local development strategy and the operations supported, evaluation activities • Local action groups can fulfiladditional functions

17. Opened selection procedure ensuring competition between LAGs No later than 2 years after approval of programmes • Additional calls if opened to new areas • Content of the programme • procedure and timetable for selecting the local action groups, • including objective selection criteria • planned maximum number of LAGs • planned percentage of rural territories covered by local development strategies • justification for selection of areas, • Detailed selection criteria approved later after consultation of the Monitoring Committee Selection of local development strategy

18. Partnership related criteria • Be responsible for strategy implementation • Representative of partners from the various locally based socio-economic sectors • At decision-making level representation of the economic and social actors and civil society (at least 50% of the local partnership) • (e.g. Chambers of trade, agriculture, or SMEs, NGOs, rural women association) • Ability to define and implement a development strategy; • Ability to administer public funds Selection of local action groups- Minimumcriteria

19. Strategy related criteria • integrated local development strategy • Territory related criteria • Coherent area and critical mass to support a viable development strategy Selection of local action groups – Minimumcriteria

20. Local development strategies Requirements: • Definition of the area and population covered by the strategy; • Analysis of the development needs and potential of the area, includingSWOT • Description of the strategy and its objectives, a description of theintegrated and innovative character of the strategy, including clear and measurable targets for outputs or results. • Description of the process of community involvement in the developmentof the strategy; • Action plan demonstrating how objectives are translated into actions; • Description of the management and monitoring arrangementsof thestrategy, demonstrating the capacity of the local action group toimplement the strategy, and a description of specific arrangements forevaluation; • Financial plan of the strategy, including the planned allocation of various funds used to implement it .

21. Bottom up principle to respect : Individual projects/operations selected by local action groups (assessment of project relevance towards the local strategy) Procedure for the selection of operations by the local action groups, and description of the financial circuits applicable for local action groups shall be described in the programme. Eligibility checks (legal control) made by the Managing Authority in the majority of MS Decision making process in the implementation of local strategy

22. Payment to the final beneficiary (e.g. commune or local enterprise) • by the Paying Agency, or • by the LAG • After payment the LAG can ask the reimbursement of EU contribution to the Paying Agency • LAG Financial management should respect conditions approved with Paying Agency • Paying Agency having paid the EU contribution to the LAG should ensure that all eligibility rules and conditions have been respected, Bottomup AND Financial circuits

23. Possible use of global grant at LAG level with financial autonomy • Selection and payment of operations according to the bottom up principle • Good practices : concentration of public funds, advances to LAGs bestbottomupmodel of administrative, management andfinancial circuits

24. Inter-territorial cooperation • Transnational cooperation • Within EU • With rural territories in third countries Cooperation

25. Eligible costs: project development and implementation of a joint action including coordination costs for all areas Role of Lead LAG At least one partner selected under the Leader Axis Eligibility rules and conditionsfor cooperation

26. Can be integrated in local development strategy • Advantages: coherent with the bottom up approach; quicker procedure since local action groups select the projects; cooperation is coherent with the strategy • If not integrated in local strategy, authorization by the managing authorities • Advantages: better control on the respect of requirements (e.g. presence of a common action) • Coordination mechanism at EU level Cooperation projects

27. Procedure (LAG or MA selection) • Timetable • and objective criteria to select inter-territorial and trans-national cooperation projects. Cooperation

28. Assist Member States in the preparation and administrative implementation of Leader axis using past and current experience with the Leader + Community Initiative and Leader+ type measure • LAG internal structure and management not covered • Non binding instrument • Complementary to the Leader Axis fiche • Cooperation guide to be presented later Guidelines on Leader Axis

29. Introduction • Defining a strategy for rural areas using the Leader approach • Designing the content of Leader Axis in the programmeincluding planning resources • The selection of the local action groups • How will the administrative, management and financial circuits be organised? Guidelineson Leader Axis

30. Europe 2020 strategy => unlocking the EU's growth potential Part of potential for smart, sustainable and inclusive growth lies in the endogenous growth potential at sub regional level Sub-regional development policies acting at grass roots level can in particular contribute to the social inclusion targets of Europe 2020 The EU tools in support of the Europe 2020 strategy include levers for growth and jobs such as the EU budget EU financial support is delivered through the EU funds in shared management (EAFRD, ERDF/CF, ESF, EFF) a Common Strategic Framework (CSF) is proposed to strengthen the coordination and integration of EU policies for the delivery of the Europe 2020 strategy CSF will contain strategic guidelines for sub regional/local development including community led local development CLLD Rules between the Funds for local development will be harmonised Territorialdevelopment in futurepolicy

31. Community-ledlocaldevelopment in the CSF • CLLD (based on the experience of LEADER under rural development) can complement and enhance the delivery of public policies for all CSF Funds. • It aims at increasing effectiveness and efficiency of territorial development strategies by delegating decision-making and implementation to a local partnership of public, private and civil society actors. • CLLD should be implemented in the context of a strategic approach, to ensure that the ‘bottom-up’ definition of local needs takes account of priorities set at a higher level.  Member States will have to define the national approach to community-led local development across the CSF Funds…

32. CSF: Requirementsfor CLLD in the Parnershipagreements (PA) ... and should therefore include references to community-led local development in the PA: • detail the main challenges that MS intend to tackle, setting out the main objectives and priorities and indicate the types of territories where this approach should be implemented; • which specific role will be attributed to the local action groups in its delivery ; • indicate how the CSF Funds will be used together ; • explain the role envisaged for the different Funds in different types of territories (rural, urban etc.).

33. CSF keyactionsasregards CLLD in the different Funds • ESF: CSF Thematic Objective No. 9 - Promoting social inclusion and combating poverty: support the preparation, the running and the animation of local strategies; support the activities designed and implemented under the local strategy in areas falling within the scope of ESF in the fields of employment, education, social inclusion and institutional capacity building • ERDF: CSF Thematic Objective No. 9 - Promoting social inclusion and combating poverty: fostering community-led local development strategies through support for the capacity-building of the local action groups and the preparation, the running and animation of local strategies, and through support for the activities designed and implemented under the local strategy in areas falling within the scope of the ERDF in the fields of social inclusion and physical and economic regeneration • EMFF: specific objectives for CLLD the EMFF Reg., link to Thematic Objectives of diversification, promoting employment in fisheries communities and therefore indirectly also to No. 9;

34. CSF keyactionsasregards CLLD forthe EAFRD CSF Thematic Objective No. 9: Promoting social inclusion and combating poverty, which reflects RD Priority 6: • fostering local development in rural areas by promoting community-led local development (LEADER local development strategies)and through investments in all types of small-scale infrastructure in rural areas and investments in setting up, improving or expanding local basic services for the rural population, particularly in remote rural areas, together with other actions to improve the quality of life in and attractiveness of rural settlements (‘village renewal’) . • support may also be used to promote social inclusion, particularly through community-led local development (‘LEADER’)  Independently from this CSF focus, all other RD priorities can be addressed with LEADER !

35. Management at the level of Member States/regions • Local development strategies are selected for EU funding under the responsibility of the relevant managing authorities • Strategies can be financed from one or several EU Funds in parallel • “Multi-funding” as an option • For simplification, a „lead Fund“ can be designated in the case of multi-fund strategies coveringfor the management costs choice of the lead Fund depends on the activities foreseen and the area in question

36. Project 1 ERDF Running costs, animation, networking Possibly though „lead Fund“ Project 2 ESF ESF EAFRD LOCAL DEVELOPMENT STRATEGY ERDF, CF EMFF Project 3 EAFRD Project 3 EMFF Local action group Local governments Local entrepreneurs Local NGOs, civil society Exampleof a „multi-fund“ CLLD strategy

37. Possibleactions: Improving strategic choices at Member State level regarding localdevelopmentinsideofPartnershipagreement: Member States would have to choose/define the part of theirterritory which would be eligible for LDS (“one area = one strategy”) Link local development potential with their overall growth strategy Identify a "lead" Fund (EAFRD, ERDF, ESF or EFF) for each LAG/LDS Broadenthefunding base Reinforcerural-urbanlinks Implementationof CLLD in MS

38. The Leader approach based on its specific features will continue tobe an important tool of rural development policy after 2013 Within the EU priorities for rural development unlocking localpotential will continue to be an important element The implementation mechanisms of Leader will be improved in orderto be able to better meet the expected added-value of the Leaderapproach FutureofLeader

39. …on the basis of the lessons learned from the previous LeaderCommunity Initiatives and the „mainstreamed“ Leader in 07-13: More guidance to the Member States in the legal framework: offering flexibility for the implementation without being tooprescriptive Goal: Make Leader fit to better serve innovation and localgovernance futureofLeader

40. Strengthening the role of the local development strategies (LDS)as the central tool to meet objectives: quality of design andimplementation (including better monitoring and evaluation) Ensuring the presence of all Leader specificitiesespecially: more freedom for LAGs to chose those projects, which best fit their strategies futureofLeader

41. Concretely: Clearer distribution of tasks between the authorities and theLAGs (depending on the implementation model followed) Greater focus on animation and capacity building (also for thepreparationofthestrategies) Strengthening the participation of the private sector in thepartnerships FutureofLeader

42. Concretely: Streamlining transnational cooperation Re-inforced networking tools for LAGs on EU and national level Synergies with the local development networking instrumentsof the other EU Funds futureofLeader

43. Thankyouforyourattention jela@ruralevaluation.eu