European Union funding for rural development in Latvia

Abstract

Rural areas are defined differently in various literature sources. However, any scientist points to changes in rural areas that are associated with the outflow of people to cities and land abandonment in some regions. The multifunctionality of rural areas determines their importance in the development of any country. In the European Union (EU), 28.0 % of the EU-28 population lived in a rural area in 2015, while in Latvia – 32.3 % of its total population. Therefore, support instruments of the second pillar of the EU Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) (rural development) contribute to a sufficient standard of living for the rural population and include both economic and social objectives. The research aims to analyse the EU support instruments for rural development that promote economic and social development in rural areas in Latvia. The research analyses the definition of the concept of rural territory given in national and EU policy documents and the results of project-type measures of the EU CAP second pillar (rural development) support instruments implemented during the planning period 2014-2020 for national rural development policy. It was found that in Latvia total available public funding for the RDP 2014-2020 was EUR 1.541 million, there were 6 main priorities and 88 % projects were funded at the end of February 2021. Progress in implementing the support measure Farm and business development was analysed in detail.