The challenge of the rural development model for the
Central and Eastern Europe Countries: the Hungarian and Bulgarian case
Ilaria Leonardi* – Maria Sassi**
* Young Researcher - University of Pavia – C.so Strada Nuova - 27100 Pavia – Italy
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** Researcher Fellow - Dipartimento di Ricerche Aziendali – Faculty of Economics - University of Pavia – V. S. Felice, 7 – 27100 Pavia- Italy - Tel. +39-0382-506240
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The current rural policies reform process in the EU can be considered a no-stop series of actions, which have two main objectives: first, to adapt the central instruments of the Structural Funds to the concrete local problems, with a continuously bottom up- top down and vice versa movement; second, the introduction of the rural development as a second pillar of the CAP. The current allocation of funds indicates an orientation towards rural development also in CEECs.
As rural development is a process of growth of the local social-economic systems, a new territoriality analysis is the critical challenge for these countries.
In this perspective, the actors, the rules, the environment and their organisation constructed historically and the different and sometime divergent interests and positions express should be analysed, mediated and coordinated in order to promote an endogenous, integrated and sustainable development path.
Even if agriculture still play a key role in CEECs, rural development does not mean agricultural growth but its integration into the socio-economic context of these areas. Concretely, it is necessary to pass from the simply delimitation of agricultural zones to the connotation of the local identity and culture of rural districts, in which the linkages between the primary sector and the socio-economic context is emphasised.These new approaches together with the high environmental and social values that characterised rural communities can be the engine of change and innovation of agricultural within the rural sector.
In this context, the paper wants to underline the main pillars on which the European rural development model has been defined over time starting from the first Structural Found reform to the CAP Mid Term Review. The analysis is functional to the second section whose topic is the investigation of its possible application in Hungary and Bulgaria and more generally in the CEECs case where the process faces the additional issue of the administrative decentralisation under way in the area.
On the basis of the results achieved, it first emerges the importance of creating a permanent organism, a laboratory, specialised for a multidisciplinary analysis of the local identity and culture of rural districts. New professional skills are also required particularly in the field of interest mediation. The aspect becomes relevant at the light of the importance given to the participation and interaction of local actors to the policy-making and the management of the development process. Thus, the “rurality” is a challenge not only for the Local Administration but also for the Academic world.