LEADER Program—An Inclusive or Selective Instrument for the Development of Rural Space in Romania?

Corneliu Iațu,Ana-Maria Opria,Lucian Roșu

doi:10.3390/su132112187

Abstract

The LEADER program is one of the European Union’s financing instruments dedicated to the development of the rural communities. The instrument was introduced in the Romanian rural territory in 2007, a territory characterised by a high level of local and regional economic inequalities. The main goal of the present research is to question whether the development level specific to the rural communities have influenced their performance in managing the LEADER program. In order to answer this question, the characteristics of the initial level of development were analysed in relation to the spatial distribution of LEADER funds. The indicators taken into consideration were the number of projects, funds per capita, funds per Local Action Group (LAG), and the percentage of employees from the total population. In order to assess the relation between the initial level of development and the LAG’s performance, the method used was the Ordinary Least Squares regression, which calculates a set of statistical parameters that highlight the presence, form, sense, and intensity of the dependency relation. The results highlight no correlation between the level of development and the spatial distribution of the LEADER funds. Analysing the data, the paper reveals that the LEADER program is an inclusive rather than a selective instrument for the development of Romanian rural communities, despite other examples researched in Western countries. The results show that the LEADER program can have an influence in reducing the rural disparities, but its effects are of low importance.

Highlights

IntroductionPublisher’s Note: MDPI stays neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations
The European Union aims to address these issues by promoting sustainable development that brings to rural areas changes in the field of agricultural society by meeting a common set of development goals based on people’s needs [2]
The proximity to urban settlements has brought to the metropolitan area’s communes a series of advantages that contribute to the increase in the general level of development of the Local Action Group (LAG) to which they belong [46,47]

Summary

Introduction

Publisher’s Note: MDPI stays neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. Sustainable rural development continues to be a researched topic throughout the European Union, both in its developed countries and especially in the developing ones. The reason for this lies in the interregional economic and social gaps at the level of the European Union that manifest at all scales [1]. The European Union aims to address these issues by promoting sustainable development that brings to rural areas changes in the field of agricultural society by meeting a common set of development goals based on people’s needs [2]

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Conclusion