Spain’s 2023-2027 LEADER ambitions

Spain´s National CAP Strategic Plan (CSP) focuses its LEADER support on promoting the endogenous development potential of rural areas. More than EUR 540 million is available in Spain for Local Action Groups (LAGs) during the 2023-2027 period. This represents around double the minimum CSP financial requirement and underscores Spain's ambitious approach in its CSP to implement the full potential of LEADER´s seven principles in the coming years.

As elsewhere around the EU, LAGs in Spain are in their start-up phases and confirming details for implementing a new national set of Local Development Strategies. These provide a network of localised channels for achieving the CAP´s high level objectives. They will also help contribute to the priorities of the Spanish Presidency of the EU Council, which have been noted by the Minister of Agriculture to include promoting strategic autonomy in agri-food as well as the role of rural areas in the EU. 

Spanish LAGs hold considerable experience in both agri-food support and wider rural development. Many good practices are available online, including from the Spanish Network for Rural Development and the State Network for Rural Development, which collectively coordinate their assistance for mainland and island LAGs in Spain. 

LAGs in action 

Sustainable food security is a high priority for Galicia´s Mariñas-Betanzos LAG on the Atlantic coast as the LAG manager, Jorge Blanco, notes when he says: "We want to multiply organic production by four and support short consumption cycles."

The LAG is not only promoting sustainable food production through its new plans for locally-led development projects but is also active in encouraging rural communities to become greener. “We are going to work on everything related to mitigation and the fight against climate change, energy saving, waste management, efficient water management, production with alternative energies, and in the agricultural sector, specifically, improvement of biodiversity and ecological connectivity. This is something that we want to permeate all the projects, so we are going to promote it in the selection criteria, and we are going to have specific actions with the agricultural sector.”   

Environmental outcomes are also a key target for many LAGs, including Central Spain's Montes de Toledo LAG in Castile-la Mancha, where entrepreneurship in the bioeconomy will feature prominently. Special importance will be given by the LAG to projects in the Natura 2000 Network with LAG providing capacity building advice to help its efforts to attract project applications that preserve the environment. 

Further examples of good practice approaches to LEADER advice can be found in Spain's Andalusia region, where a user-friendly handbook manual has helped the LEADER groups to design consistent and complementary local development strategy frameworks. Equal opportunities are underlined in the Andalusian LAG manual and LEADER groups around Spain are actively acknowledging rural women´s roles through LAG funding priorities and governance arrangements. In Catalonia, for instance, the LEADER consortium providing LAG services in the Baix Ebre and Montsià territory has launched a dedicated Athenea project which aims to empower women and improve the visibility of their vital work in rural communities. 

LEADER and the Spanish Presidency 

During the Spanish Presidency of the Council of the European Union, the Spanish Managing Authority and networks will be supporting the implementation of the Long-Term Vision of Rural Areas (LTVRA), as well as the role that different agents involved can play in achieving it through the EU´s Rural Pact. There are two actions that Spain is going to promote within this framework: