The new Common Agricultural Policy programming period for the 2023-2027 period includes numerous new features, including the approval of a single CAP Strategic Plan (PEPAC) for Spain, which will bring together measures from the first and second pillars.

• The National Rural Network (RRN) is organizing the 5th meeting of the LEADER Subgroup, where the latest LEADER developments in the Strategic Plan for the new CAP 2023-2027 (PEPAC) were shared.
• The new CAP does not include a Rural Development Program (RDP) for each autonomous community, but the communities will be able to continue designing their Rural Development policies.
• Following the approval of the PEPAC, the GAL have one year to develop the new Participatory Local Development Strategies (EDLP)

The new Common Agricultural Policy programming period for the 2023-2027 period includes numerous new features, including the approval of a single CAP Strategic Plan (PEPAC) for Spain, which will bring together measures from the first and second pillars:

1. Support for producers through price and market policies.

2. Rural development interventions in all autonomous communities.

The NRN holds regular meetings of the "Leader Subgroup," which includes the Managing Authorities and managers of the LEADER 19 measure of the regional Rural Development Programmes (RDPs), as well as the LAGs, represented through their regional and national networks. This working group's objectives are to monitor the implementation of the LEADER measure and to generate dialogue between the Managing Authorities of the RDPs and the LAGs. This 5th meeting of the Leader Subgroup was primarily used to share updates on the new programming.

News

The changes in the new CAP 23-27 regulations affecting GALs are as follows:

• The LEADER approach is now included in the cooperation intervention, in Article 77 of the PEPAC Regulation.
• Projects worth more than 10,000 euros gain visibility.
• Possibility of paying and making advance payments for all types of eligible costs.
• Greater freedom for LAGs to choose the type of cooperation and their partners.
• The time for designing Participatory Local Development Strategies (PLDS) is reduced to one year.
• LEADER will support the smart villages strategy from the approval of the PEPAC.

In any case, the new CAP maintains the core philosophy of the LEADER approach: a bottom-up approach, from the local to the global.

Public Procurement Guide

The meeting also served to present the " Guide to Contracting for Local Action Groups" , a publication that the RRN published last December 2021 with the aim of helping these entities gain an in-depth understanding of the current law on public sector contracts , given that it is part of the modus operandi of the GALs.

The working group has also compiled the interests of the Managing Authorities and the LAGs to develop the NRN action plan within the LEADER approach , which will include exchanges of experiences between the groups, as well as training specifically for them.

The 5th meeting of the LEADER subgroup concluded with a commitment to hold another meeting in the coming months. All the information generated will be available in the coming days here .