Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2000-02-14-Speech-1-063"
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"en.20000214.4.1-063"2
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"Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, the Community initiative LEADER proved itself to be an effective instrument to initiate innovative developments and pilot projects both within and outside rural areas. The preservation of this Community initiative in particular, in the form of a new version – LEADER+ – is therefore greatly to be welcomed. The new LEADER+ programme now covers all rural areas in the European Union, which will open up greater possibilities for potential projects. It is important for there to be coordination between LEADER+ and the other support initiatives in the European Union, but coordination with other national support schemes is also just as important.
Overlap between support schemes must be avoided and at the same time it must also be possible to exploit any synergistic effects. In this context the aim of stepping up networking between eligible zones under LEADER is very welcome. Agriculture is one of the cornerstones of the rural environment and it must be possible for it to have a part in the LEADER initiative. In the same way, through the LEADER initiative, structural change in agriculture can be supported by creating new jobs in rural areas. Attention must be paid in the LEADER+ programme to all the sectors of the economy in rural areas; only a combined effort will reap an optimal result.
LEADER must now move into the implementation phase. The operational programmes need to be approved as quickly as possible by the Commission, which implies practical and efficient administration of applications and completion of the application approval process as quickly as possible. Five months are provided for this. That seems to me to be rather too long. Efforts should be made here to achieve shorter times. Because anyone who develops a project and has it ready will also want to start implementing it as soon as possible.
Despite all the delight over the reworking of this Community initiative LEADER+, I do still have one further concern. In its proposal the Commission called for an observatory for the LEADER+ programme without going into detail on how this proposal would be implemented. For me this raises the following questions: who will work there? How will these people be selected? Where, above all, will the required money come from, and where should this observatory be located? I do think, though, that the LEADER+ programme has not got a penny to spare on additional administrative tasks, which in the normal course of events would have to be carried out by the Commission in any case.
In addition, experience from other fields where observatories have been set up shows that, apart from rather dubiously creating jobs, they are not of any great benefit. I would therefore call on the Commission to fulfil its monitoring duties directly itself and to do all it can to ensure that LEADER+ programmes run smoothly. Assessment and publication are part of this, and it has of course assumed responsibility for these in the past."@en1
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