At the NAT commission meeting held in July in Kaunas, Lithuania, Mr Jerzy Zająkała's opinion on the sustainability of rural areas was adopted by a very large majority. During the debate representatives of the European Commission and of the Lithuanian Presidency welcomed the opinion stressing that it "fits directly to the priorities embedded in the new CAP" and "reflects the key aspects which are important to rural areas." The opinion will now be on the agenda for the October CoR plenary.
Mr Zająkała's opinion points out that EU investment for rural areas had been reduced from € 95.7bn from 2007-2013 to below € 85bn for the next programming period. Mr. Zająkała said: "In the 2014-2020 financial perspective, the amount of funding allocated to rural development has been significantly cut back to below € 85bn, and the figure may be reduced even further in view of the plans to give Member States the right to transfer up to 15 % of resources from the second to the first pillar of the CAP and the expansion of the CAP second pillar funding. There is more to growth in rural areas than just farming and the EU needs to engage itself more to provide for a comprehensive development and continuity of rural areas all over the continent. Rural areas need to have priority across EU funding streams."
