The first nine Rural Development Programmes (RDPs) of the new programming period 2014-2020 have been approved by the European Commission. The three national RDPs for Poland, Austria and Denmark were given the green light on 12 December. Approval of a further six RDPs from Germany, Finland and Portugal was announced on 16 December.
The news means that nine programmes covering 22% of the EU Rural Development budget 2014-2020 have already been approved. In total, 118 RDPs will be put in place for the new programming period, with a further 15-20 expected to be adopted in the first Quarter of 2015.
RDPs aim to achieve common economic, environmental and social objectives for rural areas in ways that are specific to their situation. Speaking on 12 December, the European Commissioner, Phil Hogan, highlighted the priority given in the RDP for Poland to “create more than 22 000 jobs”, in the RDP for Denmark to “fostering innovation, with the objective of creating almost 1 000 green jobs”, and in the RDP for Austria to “environment and climate concerns”.
