Abstracts

The rural development programs (RDP) have a long tradition in the European Union. Recently, the decrease of rural area has opened questions to the territorial sustainability. The main aim of the regional policy is to recognize and promote synergies established between rural and urban area. LEADER is an opportunity for territorial cooperation, particularly in rural areas, as it works with the most relevant local actors: public administrations, civil society and the private sector or the business world. It was the first initiative in Spain from a territorial approach which put into practice a more endogenous and integrated view. However, the achievements so far have not yet been a solid base of work. Unfortunately, the last RDP 2007-2013 showed a direct link between producer and consumer, but omitting the social participation and flows (employment, infrastructures…). The ongoing RDP (2014-2020) is recognizing such synergies and that potential mutual benefits through LEADER from the Local Action Group (LAG). We are wondering to what extent LEADER is working as a territorial planning tool beyond the rural area (that is including the urban ones). We are focused on Spain where there are 273 LAGs throughout the area. They extend to application surface of 458.054 km², corresponding to 90.5% of the total. We adopted a pragmatic approach taking into account the analysis of all local development strategies as well cooperation projects with the aim to detect which rural space is applying joint actions with urban. If not, the paper will give new views facing the next period (2021-2027).