The on-going CAP-reform – incentive for a shift towards rural development activities?

The paper is based on the findings of a 2 year, EU-wide project on the territorial impacts of the CAP (ESPON project 2.1.3). It particularly focuses on the territorial impact of the different components of CAP and assesses the changes towards rural development policy. The results presented are derived from statistical analysis of the database augmented by findings from an EU-wide review of literature and a series of case studies on the implementation experiences of the main rural development measures across the EU. It is shown that pillar 2 support is still strongly centred on agricultural measures and actors and far from reaching its potential for enhancing a more generally applied rural development strategy. The discussion of the paper will focus on the differing national priorities, and the uneven allocation of RDR funds, partly due to difficulties of co-financing in poorer regions. Importantly, analysis of the impact of the Mid Term Review proposals on farm incomes suggests that the latest reforms of the CAP do not improve substantially the consistency between the CAP, and cohesion. In particular, the proposed application of the CAP-reform in different member states shall be discussed and assessed whether the changes in the framework of rural development contribute to achieve a more balanced performance across EU countries and regions.