In 2003 the EU partly reformed the First Pillar of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP). Now, on the 20th of September 2005, the EU Commission and the European Council adopted a new Regulation on Rural Development which will be applicable in the 2007-2013 period. Therefore September 2005 was an appropriate time to continue with the discussion about the future of rural development in the EU, which was started in 2001 on a conference in Bonn and in Potsdam in 2003.

It was the aim of the conference firstly to outline and discuss the supports available under the 2nd pillar of the CAP in a sustained exchange of experiences, and secondly to jointly draw up demands for the upcoming reform of the 2nd pillar from the viewpoint of conservation policy. At the conference the participants took stock of ecologically compatible agriculture in the EU 25, analysed the implementation of rural development policy in the new Member States, and gained an overview of the current state of the discussion on reforming the 2nd pillar for the financial period of 2007-2013.

About 50 experts from agricultural and environmental ministries and NGOs from all the new and some of the old EU Member States were invited and discussed current achievements in rural development and opportunities arising from the new EU Regulation for rural development and nature conservation.

The European Nature Heritage Fund (EuroNatur) has been commissioned by the Federal Agency for Nature Conservation and the Federal Ministry for Environment to organise this conference. The conference was supported financially by the German Federal Nature Conservation Agency (BfN) with funds of the Federal Ministry for Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety.

Conference Proceedings 2005 (pdf-file, 2.8 Mb)

All presentations can be downloaded here.