1999 Seminar and Study Tour: Rural Development, European Enlargement and Agenda 2000

Participants from six Central and Eastern European Countries - Estonia, Hungary, Poland, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia - gathered with social scientists, practitioners and policy makers from seven EU countries, including representatives of Scottish regional and national authorities involved in rural development, to discuss the implementation of Agenda 2000 in Europe at large. The presence of the Director for Rural Development of the European Commission lent an optimal quality to the debate on this particularly complex and pressing issue. The seminar was held under 'Chatham House' rules, allowing participants to speak freely without the fear of being quoted!

Five main issues were identified and discussed.

1. The Relationship between Agriculture and Rural Development
2. The Levels of Government and their competencies
3. Disparities and Cohesion
4. The Strategies for Rural Planning and Policies in CEECs
5. The Concept of Partnership

In discussing these and related matters, the central issues, explicit and implicit, raised by Agenda 2000 emerged with greater clarity. The difficulties that must be dealt with if it is to be implemented successfully became apparent, but so too did the scope for finding ways of dealing with them. Considerable reservations were expressed about the 'horizontalisation' of the ESF (European Social Fund) and EAGGF (European Agricultural Guidance and Guarantee Fund) structural measures, and the problems these would pose for integrated rural development at territorial levels.

A summary of the seminar proceedings was published on the www in April (http://www.rural-europe.aeidl.be/cgi-bin/policy.pl?read=42) and The Arkleton Trust is issuing a full report on the proceedings of the seminar shortly.