EU rural budget is ‘disappointing’

THE amount of money available for rural development in the European Union budget is disappointing, Agriculture Commissioner Mariann Fischer Boel has admitted.

Speaking at Green Week in Berlin, she said she sees rural development as the most forward-looking part of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) and a real-life insurance policy for rural regions.

It will also come to play an increasing role in policy in the period after 2013.