<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><p>After the accession of the ten new member states to the EU in 2004 and the following membership of Bulgaria and Romania in 2007, the (neo)endogenous development method LEADER has become pan-European. LEADER was implemented in all EU countries in the period 2007–2013, however, its application and potential to impact rural areas differed from country to country. Therefore, the aim of the article is to describe these differences on the basis of support outputs of LEADER under Axis 4 of the Rural Development Programs in 2007–2013. Respecting different path dependencies of the EU states, the article demonstrates the differences in the implementation of this method in two basic territorial units of the EU member states according to the length of the EU membership, as well as the length of experience in implementation of the LEADER method. The scope of LEADER implementation and the potential impact significantly differed between the old and new member states, and the internal heterogeneity of groups is also evident. On the one hand, lack of embeddedness of the method is manifested among the EU12 states (the need for dynamic growth of institutional capacity), on the other hand, socio-economic and political factors modify scope, potential impact and way of implementation of the method in individual countries.</p></abstract>

After the accession of the ten new member states to the EU in 2004 and the following membership of Bulgaria and Romania in 2007, the (neo)endogenous development method LEADER has become pan-European. LEADER was implemented in all EU countries in the period 2007–2013, however, its application and potential to impact rural areas differed from country to country. Therefore, the aim of the article is to describe these differences on the basis of support outputs of LEADER under Axis 4 of the Rural Development Programs in 2007–2013. Respecting different path dependencies of the EU states, the article demonstrates the differences in the implementation of this method in two basic territorial units of the EU member states according to the length of the EU membership, as well as the length of experience in implementation of the LEADER method. The scope of LEADER implementation and the potential impact significantly differed between the old and new member states, and the internal heterogeneity of groups is also evident. On the one hand, lack of embeddedness of the method is manifested among the EU12 states (the need for dynamic growth of institutional capacity), on the other hand, socio-economic and political factors modify scope, potential impact and way of implementation of the method in individual countries.

The Leader Approach Across The European Union: One Method of Rural Development, Many Forms of Implementation

Department of Regional Development and Public Administration, Faculty of Regional Development and International Studies

European Countryside

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 License.

After the accession of the ten new member states to the EU in 2004 and the following membership of Bulgaria and Romania in 2007, the (neo)endogenous...

The Leader Approach Across The European Union: One Method of Rural Development, Many Forms of Implementation

Published Online: Apr 15, 2019

Page range: 1 - 16

Received: Apr 20, 2018

Accepted: Dec 03, 2018

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/euco-2019-0001

Keywords
LEADER, Neo-endogenous Development, Local Action Group, European Union, the Program of Rural Development

© 2019 Ondřej Konečný, published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 License.

The Leader Approach Across The European Union: One Method of Rural Development, Many Forms of Implementation

Published Online: Apr 15, 2019

Page range: 1 - 16

Received: Apr 20, 2018

Accepted: Dec 03, 2018

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/euco-2019-0001

KeywordsLEADER, Neo-endogenous Development, Local Action Group, European Union, the Program of Rural Development

© 2019 Ondřej Konečný, published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 License.

Keywords
LEADER, Neo-endogenous Development, Local Action Group, European Union, the Program of Rural Development