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LEADER European Observatory
The complementarities between LEADER+ and other policies, rural development in
particular
FRANCE
Status : January 2000
EN
1 BACKGROUND
“To progress from a one-stop-shop rationale to a project rationale”. This heavily symbolic
phrase coined by the French Minister for the Environment and for National Planning and
Development, during the debate concerning the law on sustainable national planning and
development of June 1999, has set the tone for France’s plans and its terms appear to be in the
process of being fully defined in the circulars currently under preparation.
In order to fully comprehend the conditions under which the Community programmes will be
implemented in France, one has to bear in mind that they will be carried out concomitantly
with the new national procedures.
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CONTRATS DE PLAN ETAT REGION (CPER)
LES PAYS ET LES AGGLOMERATIONS
CONTRATS TERRITORIAUX D’EXPLOITATION (CTE)
PROGRAMMES DES CONSEILS REGIONAUX
What all of these procedures have in common is that they make a portion of public funding
conditional upon the existence of a territorial project. So, for example, 20% of the CPER is
reserved for individual or collective projects emanating from the organised territories. This
percentage constitutes the territorial strand of the programme.
The fact that these national and European procedures are implemented over the same
2000/2006 calendar period is fortunate because it ought to guarantee good coherence between
the programmes (strategic issues, accounting management, evaluation, mobilisation,
transparency, additionality, etc.).
In concrete terms, 5 aspects of programme implementation should be pointed out.
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Integrated approach
Links between the various procedures
Coherence in zoning and territories
Selection of the LAGs
Financial and administrative management of the procedures
LEADER Seminar Potsdam (Germany) 17/19 February 2000 & Venice (Italy) 9/11 March 2000
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LEADER European Observatory
1 Integrated approach
Whereas in the past the integrated approach was applied only to LEADER, from now on it
will also be integrated into Objective 2 and the RDR.
The circular under preparation provides for the Single Programming Documents (SPDs) to
contain territorial (sub-regional) strands match-funded by the territorial strand of the
CPERs. They will be reserved for organised territories with a comprehensive strategy and will
be used mainly to finance studies, the setting up of programmes, “animation”, etc.
Specific actions and special adjustments may be financed by these territorial strands.
It is important that these territorial strands adopt an integrated approach and avoid any risk of
specialisation.
A recent study carried out in connection with the 5b SPD during the 1994-1999 programming
period, highlighted the contribution of regions that had already opted for a certain degree of
territorialisation, Burgandy for example.
2 Links between the various procedures
The RDR will include a national strand and a regional strand.
The national strand will serve to co-finance the CTE and will include actions relating to:
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Investment in farms
Setting up of young farmers
Training
Early retirement
Agri-environmental measures
Afforestation
Other forestry measures
Compensatory allowances for mountainous area
The regional strand is reserved for the areas eligible for Objective 2 and for phasing-out. This
strand will, on its own or with the national strand, concern the other Article 33 measures:
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Land improvement
Reparcelling
Farm relief services
Marketing of quality products
Basic services for the rural community
Village renovation and development
Diversification of activities
Management of water resources
Infrastructure connected with the development of agriculture
Tourism and craft activities
Environmental protection
LEADER Seminar Potsdam (Germany) 17/19 February 2000 & Venice (Italy) 9/11 March 2000
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LEADER European Observatory
 Reconstruction following natural disasters
 Financial engineering.
The regional strand will be managed alongside Objective 2 within the same SPD.
In order to make them transparent to final beneficiaries, the Objective 2 SPDs and the
regional RDR will be combined into a single document.
The SPDs will contain three types of strand:
 Horizontal
 Territorial
 Interregional
This development is encouraging because, in a way, it reflects an adoption of some of the
specific features of both LEADER and the policy of “pays”.
In their analytical section, SPDs must provide sub-analyses and strategies that differ in line
with each territory.
3 Coherence in zoning
The ministerial circular under preparation strongly recommends the regional authorities to
avoid inappropriately splitting project territories from European zones.
For instance, the boundaries of the “pays” should be respected in order to avoid creating an
eligible zone and a non-eligible zone within a single “pays”.
However, there is a real risk of a situation arising in which there will be coexisting but distinct
European, national and regional areas of intervention.
4 Selection of LAGs
To avoid repeating the mistakes of Leader II, France intends to return to national selection, as
with Leader I, but with regional consultation.
The selection would be made on the basis of a set of requirements that has already been used
for a DATAR call for projects in connection with the “pays”. This set of requirements includes
all of the criteria used for determining whether or not an integrated approach exists:
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Studies and mapping have been carried out
Local mobilisation
Territorial sub-sets have been taken into account
A genuine partnership
Functioning of the structure
Comprehensive project
Evaluation procedures
LEADER Seminar Potsdam (Germany) 17/19 February 2000 & Venice (Italy) 9/11 March 2000
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LEADER European Observatory
5 Programme management and implementation
For Leader+, France will return to the system of allocating a global grant to a single national
intermediary body, which will then be responsible for transferring the funds to the LAGs.
LAGs with public status will receive such funds and be responsible for disbursing them to the
final beneficiaries.
Private LAGs will also be allowed to manage funds provided they have a bank guarantee.
The intermediary body will also have a monitoring and control task.
As yet there have been no real negotiations concerning national coordination.
Contact :
DATAR
Fanny Labarthe
1, Avenue Ch. Floquet
F-75343 PARIS
Tél: +33/1/40 65 12 34 (standard)
Fax:+33/1/40 65 11 85
Written by Jean Charles Lollier
LEADER Seminar Potsdam (Germany) 17/19 February 2000 & Venice (Italy) 9/11 March 2000
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