6. Evaluation of Social Capital in LEADER: What’s In and What’s Out?

The intervention logic is the logical link between the problem that needs to be tackled (or the objective that needs to be pursued), the underlying drivers of the problem and the available policy options (or the EU actions actually taken) to address the problem or achieve the objective. This intervention logic is used in both prospective Impact Assessments and retrospective evaluations (European Commission, 2015b, p. 72).

Within the framework of European rural development policy, the basic unit of programme management, consisting of a set of similar projects and disposing of a precisely defined budget. Each measure has a particular management apparatus. Measures generally consist of projects. Many measures are implemented through a process of Calls for Proposals and subsequent appraisal (European Commission, 2015b, p. 72).

Expenditure realised: total amount of expenditure (EAFRD + other public) made by the Member States (it should not necessarily have been declared to the Commission) for completed operations in the reporting year and previous years of the programming period (European Commission, 2015c).

See Annex E of the CMEF Handbook describing the proposed evaluation method for specifications regarding each measure of the programme.

Regulation EC No. 1698/2005 Art. 62(1)(a) and Art 63(a).

Regulation EC No. 1698/2005 Art. 63(a) and (b).

Regulation EC No. 1698/2005 Art. 59 – ex Art. 63 (c).

THEME 1 – Relevance and community added value; THEME 2 – The Actions of LEADER+ (Action 1: Integrated territorial rural development strategies of pilot nature, Action 2: Support for cooperation between rural territories, Action 3: Networking); THEME 3 – Implementation of the LEADER method; THEME 4 – Impacts; THEME 5 – Governance and rural citizenship; THEME 6 – Managing, controlling and financing systems; THEME 7 – Monitoring and evaluation; and THEME 8 – Rural activity and excellence clusters.

Better Regulation means designing EU policies and laws so that they achieve their objectives at minimum cost. Better Regulation is not about regulating or deregulating. It is a way of working to ensure that political decisions are prepared in an open, transparent manner, informed by the best available evidence and backed by the comprehensive involvement of stakeholders. This is necessary to ensure that the Union’s interventions respect the overarching principles of subsidiary and proportionality, i.e., acting only where necessary and in a way that does not go beyond what is needed to resolve the problem (European Commission, 2015a, p. 5).

Pillar I instruments are composed of (1) direct payment instruments, (2) single market organisation instruments and (3) horizontal and other instruments. The first group of instruments includes Basic Payment Scheme/Single Area Payment Scheme; Re-distributive Payment; Greening; Payment for Young Farmers; Small Farmers Scheme; Voluntary Coupled Support; Payment for Areas with Natural Constraints. The second group includes Market Measures, Producer Organisations; School Milk and Fruit Scheme; Wine Sector. The final group includes Cross compliance; Quality policy; Organic Farming; Promotion policy; Farm Advisory System. The final group applies to both Pillar I and Pillar II. Pillar II measures correspond to the six priorities of the Pillar II: (1) fostering knowledge transfer and innovation in agriculture, forestry and rural areas; (2) enhancing farm viability and competitiveness of all types of agriculture in all regions and promoting innovative farm technologies and sustainable management of forests; (3) promoting food chain organisation, including processing and marketing of agricultural products, animal welfare and risk management in agriculture; (4) restoring, preserving and enhancing ecosystems related to agriculture and forestry; (5) promoting resource efficiency and supporting the shift towards a low carbon and climate resilient economy in agriculture, food and forestry sectors; and (6) promoting social inclusion, poverty reduction and economic development in rural areas. The different priorities are subdivided into focus areas. Within priority 6, the focus area B is devoted to promoting social inclusion and economic development by fostering local development in rural areas. All the measures of the Rural Development Programme are specified in Title III, Chapter 1 of the Regulation EU No. 1305/2013 Art. 13 to Art. 44.