Andalusian rural sector warns about the future of the LEADER program
The ARA association calls for budgetary protection of the LEADER program amidst European fund negotiations to prevent the dismantling of rural development.
By Manuel Cano Heredia
••3 min read
IA
Generic image of the Andalusian rural landscape with white villages.
The Association for Rural Development of Andalusia (ARA) warns of the risk of dismantling 35 years of territorial structure if the LEADER program's funding is not secured in the upcoming European budgets.
The Spanish Network for Rural Development (REDR) warns that the European Union's Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF) for the period 2028-2034, currently under negotiation, could dissolve resources for rural development and dismantle an irreplaceable social and economic cohesion network. The organization demands a minimum allocation of 5% of financial resources for rural areas, designated for LEADER, to ensure the survival of Local Action Groups (LAGs).
The new European budgetary architecture poses a threat to LEADER and Local Participatory Development (CLLD), risking the dilution of its funding and the loss of its specific character. Without an explicit, protected fund reserve, rural development would be subject to more politically visible centralized national priorities, compromising 35 years of territorial cohesion work and attention to rural needs.
REDR, representing nearly two hundred rural entities across Spain, reiterates that this funding guarantee is not solely for rural areas but a matter of state affecting all citizens. The rural environment is essential for society: it produces food, protects natural resources, preserves heritage and culture, and contributes to territorial balance and social cohesion.
In this scenario, REDR firmly calls for the decisive incorporation of the principles of the LEADER/CLLD approach, ensuring its budgetary protection, mandatory and differentiated nature, and consolidating Local Action Groups (LAGs) as the responsible territorial structure for its implementation.
The organization outlines three key demands: budgetary protection with a mandatory minimum reserve of 5% of resources for rural areas (approximately 1.3 billion euros for Spain over seven years); ensuring the mandatory and differentiated nature of the program across the EU, highlighting its role as an active economic policy, job creator, and population stabilizer; and maintaining LAGs as the responsible territorial structure, preventing their role from being reduced to mere administrative processors.
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"Local Action Groups have been the true protagonists of the greatest transformations experienced by the Spanish rural environment in recent decades. Dismantling a network that holds 35 years of accumulated social capital is not a simple administrative change; it is an irreversible historical error that cannot be rebuilt overnight."
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"LEADER is the only European policy with a human face, designed from the bottom up, that brings Europe directly to the citizen. Furthermore, it is a model with highly proven efficiency, as for every euro of public investment, LEADER is capable of mobilizing up to three euros of total investment, having generated or consolidated more than 72,000 direct jobs in the last ten years in Spain through a public investment of 1.2 billion euros."
The Spanish Network for Rural Development and ELARD will continue their dialogue with the Spanish Government, the European Parliament, and various institutions to safeguard the LEADER program's budget and ensure its mandatory status, thereby defending the future of the common European project.
