Rural Development in the European Union - Statistical and Economic Information - Report 2009

This report provides, at national and regional levels, statistical and economic information covering the three objectives of Rural Development policy 2007-2013. An overview of Rural Development budget over the 2007-2013 period is included together with the information on the financial monitoring of RD programs in EU-27 and in Candidate Countries.

NB: Indicator O1, Economic Development, has been modified in January 2010

Information needs for rural development have evolved alongside policy developments.

For this reason, the European Commission's Directorate-General for Agriculture and Rural Development now prepares a specific report aiming to provide, on a regular basis, a comprehensive set of information on rural areas and the implementation of the EU's rural development policy.

Most of the information presented in this report can already be found in various sources and documents (Eurostat databases, European Environmental Agency, DG Agriculture and Rural Development's statistical and financial reports), but it has been here compiled in a structured way and integrated in a single document.

This report contains two types of information:

statistical and scientific information on the main features of rural areas,
administrative information on the status of the implementation of Rural Development Policy (financial monitoring of the measures).

In order to ensure the highest relevance of the data to current issues in rural development, priority has been given to the set of common "baseline" indicators which has been proposed in the context of the Common Monitoring and Evaluation Framework (CMEF) for Rural Development Programmes 2007-2013 that clearly defined three objectives:

improving the competitiveness of agriculture and forestry,
improving the environment and the countryside,
mproving the quality of life in rural areas and encouraging diversification of economic activity.

When possible and relevant, time series have been elaborated for these indicators.

The overview of the implementation of the rural development policy covers the programming period 2007-2013. It describes the structure of the financial programming and provides the first information in terms of financial execution for EU-27 and by Member State. The financial programming in Candidates Countries, in the framework of the "Instrument for Pre-Accession Assistance", is also briefly introduced as well as the implementation of SAPARD in Croatia.

Full text [pdf, 8.7 MB]

Foreword and table of contents [pdf]

Chapter 1 : Introduction [pdf]

Chapter 2 : Situation [pdf]

Chapter 3 : Statistical description [pdf, 7,8 MB]