Rural development

Rural areas represent around 20% of the European population, yet their GDP per capita is significantly below the European average.

The European Union’s rural development policy has set three overarching objectives to help rural regions grow, as well as raise employment and living standards:

Improving the competitiveness of agriculture
Achieving sustainable management of natural resources and climate action
Balanced territorial development of rural areas

EU cohesion policy shares these objectives. The European regional development fund (ERDF) and the European Social Fund (ESF) therefore work to complement the European agricultural fund for \ rural development (EAFRD).

The ERDF is active in the following areas:

Creation of jobs outside the agriculture industry (new businesses, tourism related activities, etc.)
Development of connections between cities and rural areas, especially in the context of the information society
Support for small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in the agriculture industry, the agro-alimentary industry and the forestry industry
Risk control in the agriculture and forestry industries
Development of basic infrastructure in villages, particularly in new member states
Urban-Rural linkages

No distinction between cities/countryside within Cohesion policy

The structural funds operate simultaneously in rural and urban areas, so it is therefore difficult to determine exactly what proportion of the expenditure goes to rural development. Nevertheless, the below table shows the distribution of funds available for the Cohesion Policy 2007-2013, according to the type of area.

Statistics:

Indicative distribution of structural funds by type of area (in millions of Euros) in 2007-2013:

Areas	ERDF	ESF	Total Structural funds
Rural areas	47,127	6,545	53,672
Sparsely or very sparsely populated areas	7,860	3	7,863
Highlands	6,037	344	6,381
Islands	3,916	281	4,197
Outermost regions	1,031	1,188	5,399
Territorial co-operation areas (between several regions/countries)	9,441	162	9,604
Urban areas	99,261	9,706	108,967
Not applicable	90,509	57,844	148,353
Total	268,361	76,073	76,073
% strictly rural areas	17.6%	17.6%	15.6 %
% rural areas (widest possible definition)	22.7%	22.7%	19.7 %