EU money on the table

Feb 26 2008 Mariann Fischer Boel, Western Mail

THE rural area of Wales is just beautiful! A wonderful green country with amazing landscapes, wildlife, and coastlines, including the Pembrokeshire Coast National Park. On top of that Wales has many historic castles and villages to offer.

As fascinating as this area may be for visiting nature lovers, a less attractive reality may sometimes be apparent to the people who live and work there. Almost 80% of the total agricultural land in Wales is classified as a “less-favoured area”, which closely parallels the mountainous and upland areas. Farmers have to deal with low wages and the outward migration of young people.

It’s true that Wales has to offer high quality beef, lamb and dairy products, but its remoteness and lack of processing capacity are significant challenges.

Fortunately, funds are available under the EU’s Rural Development Policy to help rural districts in Wales face up to such hardship. This week the Commission paved the way for the adoption of the Welsh rural development programme.

Under the programme, rural areas will receive a total of £795m over the next seven years of which 38% is sponsored by the European Union, the remainder by the Welsh Assembly.

And 72% of the total budget is spent to support agrienvironmental farming methods, assist in afforestation, and to compensate for the difficulties of maintaining the farmed landscape in the less-productive areas.

Innovation and entrepreneurship are important ingredients in any growth formula.

As many entrepreneurs will agree, a good idea alone will not get you very far. It takes hard work, but money as well. This is what the Commission’s rural development policy is designed to deliver.

Therefore the Welsh rural development programme earmarks £91m for vocational training and information actions as well as the use of advisory services. Part of these funds will also be used for the development of new products, processes and technologies in the agriculture, forestry and food sector. Additionally it will help to add value to the primary agricultural and forestry products.

A total of £70m is for projects to help micro enterprises in the difficult start-up phase, to enable diversification from agriculture and to support the development of tourism in the countryside, as well as village renewal and the conservation of rural heritage.

I believe that Rural Development is our leading tool to encourage progress in rural communities. That is why I am committed to further increasing the budget over the next seven years by transferring more money from farmers’ direct payments to the rural development pot.

And, as the Welsh farmers have already proven with the agri- environment measure in the last rural development programme (2000- 06), they are hugely successful in promoting conservation and sustainable agriculture. That by now nearly half of the agricultural land in Wales (around 800,000ha) is managed by more than 9,000 farmers who participate in agri-environment schemes sets more than an example.

Yet a tool is never better than the hand that uses it.

The EU has delivered; we have put the money on the table.

Now it is up to the people of Wales to engage and create a new window of opportunity.

Mariann Fischer Boel is European Commissioner for Agriculture and Rural Development