The European Agricultural
Fund for Rural Development:
Europe investing in rural areas
The Rural Development Programme for England 2007-2013
The EU Commission decision formally approving the Rural Development Programme for England 2007-2013 was issued on 7 December 2007. |
Formal approval for the Programme makes it possible to move to full implementation. The final approved Programme Document is available here: http://www.defra.gov.uk/rural/rdpe/progdoc.htm and a summary 
[337 KB] of the Document is available.
The EU Commission Decision is available here: http://www.defra.gov.uk/rural/rdpe/pdf/rdpe-approval.pdf
[67 KB]
Current Activity
Natural England is in the process of contacting all those who have entered provisional Environmental Stewardship agreements since January 2007 with details of what will happen to these agreements now. Further details about Environmental Stewardship in the 2007-2013 Programme can be found here: http://www.defra.gov.uk/rural/rdpe/qa.htm.
The Regional Development Agencies, who will be delivering economic and social funding in rural areas, will be opening for business at various dates throughout January 2008. Further details about this support can be found here: http://www.defra.gov.uk/rural/rdpe/secti.htm
The Forestry Commission is now able to offer all forestry grant types. Further details can be found here: http://www.defra.gov.uk/rural/rdpe/qa.htm
Background
The Rural Development Programme is jointly funded by the EU, through the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development, and the Government. In England, we will also make use of Voluntary Modulation.
The RDPE 2007-2103 has a budget of £3.9 billion. This is more than double the budget available for the previous programme which ran from 2000-2006.
£3.3 billion of the total budget will be allocated to agri-environment and other land management schemes. This funding will help farmers to manage the land more sustainably and deliver important outcomes on biodiversity, landscape and access, water quality and climate change.
Some £600 million will be made available to make agriculture and forestry more competitive and sustainable and to enhance opportunity in rural areas.
As a condition of securing agreement for our Programme, we are having to make changes to Environmental Stewardship. Provisional Environmental Stewardship agreements, issued since 1 January 2007, will have to be changed accordingly. We have also had to make changes to the details of the Energy Crops Scheme.
Any Environmental Stewardship or Energy Crop Scheme agreements entered into before 1 January 2007 will not be affected by the changes.
Further details about these changes, and about all aspects of the Rural Development Programme, can be found in the detailed q&a about the Programme: http://www.defra.gov.uk/rural/rdpe/qa.htm.
A shorter, summary q&a about the Programme and the changes we have made to secure agreement are available here: http://www.defra.gov.uk/rural/rdpe/pdf/RDPQAsum.pdf
Previous Announcements/Statements |
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1 October - Energy Crops Scheme open for applications 26 June - written statement on the regional allocation of Axis 1 Voluntary Modulation money The draft Rural Development Programme for England 2007- 2013 has formally been submitted to the European Commission. 29 March - written statement announcing details of voluntary modulation and co-financing rates that will apply, and overall budget size 19 March 2007- written statement announcing agreement on the VM Regulation and accompanying Q&A 12 December 2006 - statement on the contingency arrangements for the delay to the start of the next Rural Development Programme and accompanying Q&A Mid-November 2006 - Indicative regional budget allocations were published. For full information please see the updated Q&A 1 November 2006 - written statement explaining why the next Rural Development Programme will not start on January 1 2007. |
The Programme
View the Programme Document, as approved by the EU Commission. The Regulatory Impact Assessment accompanying the Programme can be seen here: http://www.defra.gov.uk/rural/rdpe/pdf/rdpe-ria.pdf.
Regional Implementation Plans
Regional Implementation Plans (RIPs) set out how the next Rural Development Programme for England (RDPE) will be used in each of the England regions. The content of the plans inform the content of the detailed England Programme Document.
For further information visit the RIPs webpage and Q&A.
Monitoring & Evaluation
Find out more about the Programme Monitoring Committee for the new Programme.
The EU’s Common Monitoring and Evaluation Framework (CMEF) is set out in a guidance handbook published by the European Commission. The handbook shows how a common set of indicators covering all Member States will help to assessrural development programmes.
The Common Monitoring and Evaluation Framework (CMEF) for the next Rural Development Programme is now available.
State Aids
Funding under the Rural Development Programme for England will be required to respect the EU state aids rules. Chapter 9 of the Programme document provides data requested by the EU Commission on aid to applicable Programme measures. Further guidance on the relationship between EU state aid rules and Axes 1, 3 and 4 of the Rural Development Regulation.
Further details about all aspects of the Rural Development Programme, can be found in the detailed q&a about the Programme: http://www.defra.gov.uk/rural/rdpe/qa.htm.
If you have any comments or would like further information on the Rural Development Programme please contact the Rural Development Programme Team at RDP07-13@defra.gsi.gov.uk
Page last modified:
19 February, 2008
Page published: 21 July, 2005