The Community Initiative LEADER I and the implementation and results of the Hungarian Pilot LEADER programme in rural development

ISSN 1732–4254 quarterly Bulletin of Geography. Socio–economic Series No. 19 (2013): 87–97 Bulletin of geography. Socio–economic SerieS journal homepages: http://www.bulletinofgeography.umk.pl http://versita.com/bgss The Community Initiative LEADER I and the implementation and results of the Hungarian Pilot LEADER programme in rural development csaba ruszkai1, CDFMR, tibor Kovács2, CDFMR Karoly Eszterhazy College, H3300 Eger, Eszterházy tér 1., Hungary; phone: +3636 520 400/4216, fax: +3636 520467, e-mail: 1[email protected]m (corresponding author), 2e-mail: [email protected] abstract. Theaim of this study is to present the basic methodological elements of the LEADER Community Initiative in rural development established in 1991 and its practical implementation in geography. Themost important principle of the LEADER programme is the territorial approach and the appearance of local communities in arelevant subregional and landscape context. Thedetermination and creation of anatural and cultural geographical framework is not at all an easy task, although the LEADER cautiously puts down basic principles and makes clear references to spatial definition of local action groups. Theaim of LEADER Iis to demonstrate the spatial segregation of these communities and to evolve aparticular image and akind of critical mass (population, resources) to build arelative self-sufficiency. © 2013 Nicolaus Copernicus University Press. All rights reserved. article details: Received: 11 April 2012 Revised: 13 June 2012 Accepted: 14 December 2012 Key words: Hungary, rural development, regional planning, LEADER. contents: 1. Introduction ....................................................................... 88 2. Methods ........................................................................... 88 3. Thestart of the LEADER programme in EGK (EC) ...................................... 88 4. Initial position, results and overall impact of the programme .............................. 88 5. TheLEADER Iprogramme in Germany, and the overall experience in Bavaria .............. 89 6. Launching of the Hungarian Pilot Programme LEADER in Hungary, or the Hungarian LEADER Iprogramme, particularly in the North-Hungarian Region ....................... 92 7. Results of the Pilot LEADER programme in the North-Hungarian Region (Hungarian Pilot Programme LEADER) ............................................... 95 8. Conclusion ......................................................................... 96 References ......................................................................... 97 © 2013 Nicolaus Copernicus University Press. All rights reserved. Ruszkai, C. and Kovács, T., 2013: The Community Initiative LEADER I and the implementation and results of the Hungarian Pilot LEADER programme in rural development. In: Szymańska, D. and Biegańska, J. editors, Bulletin of Geography. Socio-economic Series, No. 19, Toruń: Nicolaus Copernicus University Press, pp. 87–97. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.2478/bog-2013-0006 88 Csaba Ruszkai, Tibor Kovács / Bulletin of Geography. Socio-economic Series 19 (2013): 87–97 Csaba Ruszkai, Tibor Kovács / Bulletin of Geography. Socio-economic Series 19 (2013): 87–97 89 1. introduction An examination of the results of the Community initiative shows that the effectiveness of the programme is based on asolid platform of regional territorial planning. Theresearch analyses the base spatial conditions at community level and compares the situation of an old member state to our country during the implementation of LEADER Ibetween 1991‒1994 and the Hungarian Pilot Programme LEADER between 2001‒2004. The late presentation of the LEADER programme results from the fact that the European Commission wants to return to the beginning of the LEADER when the programme existed as an independent community initiative. In the 2007‒2013 budget period, according to the opinion of the Committee of Regions, the LEADER development programme has lost its innovative and unique methods in rural development and has been subordinated to the general European Agriculture and Rural Development policy. Before joining the EU as anew member, Hungary introduced an ‘installation’ test programme, but the results were not convincing in aperiod of policy development when the LEADER methodology lost its independent role in the region’s development. This study presents the planning implications and the importance of the LEADER methodology. 2. methods Comparing the LEADER I programme and the Hungarian Pilot LEADER has not been in the focus of scientific research. Although the programme is not anew development, for the 2014‒2020 subsidisation period, the EU wants to return to its roots and to apply the principles and the experience of the programme. In terms of research methodology, the first step is to process the reported community statistics, the second step consists of analysing asurvey of Bavarian local action groups which participated in LEADER I, LEADER II and LEADER+. 3. Thestart of the leaDer programme in egK (ec) TheEuropean Communities launched an initiative for rural development in 1991 which laid down innovative approaches that were to enable rural areas to implement their development plans with relationships with relevant spatial units. Theimportance of the programme is based on two theories: first, there needs to be acentre of attraction in the relevant area; second, to find locations and positions, as well as economic and social energies that define the critical mass. This settlement ’crowd’ will determine the extent of the catchment area (Ray, 1998; Dubost, 2008). TheLEADER ICommunity Initiative tried to close up the 1, 5b and 6 target regions by extending the Pilot methods of the European regional policy. LEADER became the reform of structural policies, and even today it is the key determining factor of rural development policy. 4. initial position, results and overall impact of the programme LEADER has laid down an approach which was not part of the traditional village development policies and which can be defined as follows: (a) geographically bordered, agglomeration region-minded approach; (b) bottom-up approach, essential local participation in development process; (c) formulation of new development needs and their thematic linking with all socio-economic subsystems (global approach); (d) founding a Local Administration Group (LAG); (e) organising anetworking system at national and community level; (f) supporting cooperation within the community or with athird country that helps the development of the LEADER region; (g) independent financial management (Shucksmith, 2000; Stöhr, Schenk, 2001;) The European Commission approved 217 local action groups for LEADER I development plan for the 1989‒1993 period. At the end of the programme 215 were evaluated. The programme included atotal area of 362.000 km² and 11.3 million inhabitants, and it affected 60% of the target regions: Spain, France, Portugal, Italy, Ireland, and Greece. TheLEADER programme is in many ways interesting to applied geography. Theprior (ex-ante) situation analysis, the determination of spatial arrangements and relationships meant an excellent professional task for higher education institutions (including German universities) that were actively involved in innovative local development plans and completed sections of ex-post evaluation. Science thereby contributed to apositive vision for the future where the idea of the Regions of Europe could be realised. LEADER Imethodology and its effect on geography had the following results: (a) the designation of the LEADER areas was enabled by geographical, economic, social, and administrative demarcation. Of course, during the demarcation of areas anumber of conditions were taken into account (Fig. 1); (b) based on the geographical environment it can be stated that instead of coastal and insular areas aslight dominance of hilly-mountain areas emerged. In the North fisheries while in the South tourism were the dominant activities. Furthermore, it can also be stated that regions characterized by peripheral and the so-called ultraperipheral position (remote, disadvantaged areas) were sufficiently represented; (c) the LEADER Iareas are basically sparsely populated with often unfavourable demographic conditions and specifically limited economic development opportunities. Of course, there were exceptions, for example Portugal, where cities were also part of the programme (but not subsidy beneficiaries). Portugal is the future of LEADER because the focus today is on village-city relation systems, at least in Germany (Hutter, Neidhardt, 2005) Population density was higher in these areas than in the 5/b regions, which is not surprising, since the 5/b objectives were directed at rural regions. 5. TheleaDer iprogramme in germany, and the overall experience in Bavaria LEADER Iprogramme started in the 5b regions: high agricultural employment, typically agricultural regions (Horvath, 2002). In Germany, atotal of about 13 Pilot areas received agrant of 23.8 million ECU. Theexchange rate between € and ECU was 1:1 in 1999, so the subsidisation per local action groups calculating with 270 HUF exchange rate was about 494 million HUF (31/12/2009). Out of 13 local action groups 10 were implemented by regional institutional framework; 0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% A B C D E fig. 1. Feature selection conditions of LEADER ILAG Explanation: A– geographical identity; B – economic coherence; C – traditional roots; D – administrative boundaries; E – political motivations Source: Own work 90 Csaba Ruszkai, Tibor Kovács / Bulletin of Geography. Socio-economic Series 19 (2013): 87–97 Csaba Ruszkai, Tibor Kovács / Bulletin of Geography. Socio-economic Series 19 (2013): 87–97 91 2 groups were guided by Ltd.; and the Hesseni Rhön group was guided by an association. Thefocus of the association’s activities in the first stage of the programme concerned transport and tourism, and the planned investments were to begin within the framework of LEADER II. TheRhön Biosphere Reserve local business development group primarily supported design work and awhole series of smaller projects. LEADER also supported interregional projects concerning regional development, except those concerning investments, in which only local target forces could be complemented. Of course, there were other opinions stating that money should rather be invested in investments instead of planning and paying the professionals of the local action groups but they admitted that without careful groundwork the future of LEADER was in question (StöhrSchenk, 1997). TheGerman LEADERIcontained the following elements: (a)tourism; (b) increasing the value of agricultural production (valueadded); (c) small and medium-sized enterprises, local crafts; (d) investment in intangible assets (training, extending new development methodology); (e) further arrangements (protected areas, Environmentalism, improving the quality of local life– the concept includes evolvement and development of urban services e.g.: configuring Internet network, creating telecentres, community spaces); (f) creating acommon image (forming the LEADER ‘image’ and standards – trademarks, ensuring the quality of local products) (Stöhr-Schenk,1997). The opinions about the success of German LEADER I: according to the presented opinions LEADER Iwas able to ensure the success of the developers’ work by providing targeted interventions, it managed to generate positive reactions concerning the development of the regions, and also proved to be supplemented by other subsidisation (Table 1). Thepresented opinions were less conclusive about the financial backing of LEADER and pointed to bureaucratic obstruction. Theydid not think that the European LEADER was apriority. TheGerman experiences should have been exemplary for our country in the sense that instead of building up resources relaying on LEADER only they should have also based their territorial strategies on community or regional resources. Theincrease of regional development and territorial cohesion was an important experience according to the presented opinions. We used geographic and regional development issues of the evaluation of the Bavarian LEADER I ex-post (2010). The results showed significant differences from those documented at that time. Although the research did not focus on Germany, but one province only, solid conclusions can be drawn on the basis of 50% of the received questionnaires. The results show decrease in the role of LEADER and also in the value-added development set in the region. Thefirst and perhaps one of the most important issues in regional development is the designation of the region’s geographic boundaries. In LEADER+ and the 2007‒2013 LEADER Community planning documents LEADER regions are referred to as homogeneous with respect to geographic, economic and social aspects. In the configuration of aregion these aspects should be considered. A further provision of the Community directives states that it is about free groups of settlements, that is why other administrative boundaries do not play any role in the configuration of the regions. In many cases it is not recommended to adjust the border of the regions to administrative boundaries because it makes it more difficult to create an integrated geographical, economic or cultural region. Region defining conditions are shown in Fig. 2. Unfortunately, it is clear that the most important factor in defining the boundaries of aregion is the adoption of administrative boundaries. Theimportance of geographical boundaries dropped from 84% to 46% compared to LEADER I. Economic homogeneity did not play a major role in the 2007‒2013 region defining process which is amajor factor in terms of tourism, agricultural, craft and wine regions. Thestudy also involves the major factors of the current local action groups that ensure territorial cohesion. Therespondents had to weigh the listed conditions where 1 is marked as the most important factor and 5 is marked as the least important factor (Fig. 3). Therespondents linked the long-term survival of the local action groups to local political conditions. table 1. Judgement of the LEADER Isubsidy A B C B A Theidea of LEADER as aEuropean network had great significance during practice ◦ ○ ○ ◦ ◦ Theidea of LEADER as aEuropean network had minimal significance during practice LEADER created satisfactory opportunities for the realization of our goals ● ○ ◦ - - LEADER excluded many thoughtful development initiatives LEADER has enabled targeted interventions for the regions ● ○ ---LEADER has disabled targeted interventions for the regions LEADER was adapted to the situation andthe problems of the regions ◦ ● ◦ ◦ -TheLEADER objectives are too general innature LEADER gave room for me to realise mylocal development notions ◦●◦ - - LEADER did not help with my local development notions LEADER has anon-bureaucratic structure ◦○◦○○LEADER is bureaucratic LEADER is afinancially well supplied program ○ ◦ ◦ ◦ ○ LEADER does not have sufficient financial resources LEADER promotes local developmental effects ● ○ ---LEADER does not promote local developmental effects LEAER principles have apositive impact onthe region ● ○ ---LEAER principles have little impact on the region LEADER proved to be well supplemented by other subsidisation ● ○ ◦ - - LEADER prevented the involvement of other potential subsidisation Explanation: Thevarieties of the ‘○’ symbol mean the weighted percentages calculated from the responded answers; A–agree; B – rather agree; C – neither Source: Stöhr, Schenk, 1997 64% 46% 46% 19% 18%18% 9% 0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% A B C D E F G fig. 2. LEADER region defining factors in the 2007‒2013 period (own work) Explanation: A– administrative boundaries; B – local identity; C – landscape boundaries (geography); D – accommodation to the catchment area; E – economic coherence; F – expertise of the regional university; G – application to political pressure Source: Own research 92 Csaba Ruszkai, Tibor Kovács / Bulletin of Geography. Socio-economic Series 19 (2013): 87–97 Csaba Ruszkai, Tibor Kovács / Bulletin of Geography. Socio-economic Series 19 (2013): 87–97 93 This statement raises significant concerns regarding the role of the LEADER programme and puts long-term sustainable development of the regions at risk. Thenext, but minor factor is the existence of local identity and it has roughly the same weight as the dependence of administrative structure. The geographical borders which represent both a natural and social geographical confine were marked as less important among the conditions which ensure the cohesion, what contradicts the LEADER principles. 6. launching of the hungarian pilot programme leaDer inhungary, orthe hun garian leaDeriprogramme, particularly inthe north-hungarian region In 2001 the Department of Rural Development Programmes intended to spend the remaining SAPARD money to create LEADER development programmes. SAPARD (Special Accession Programme for Agriculture and Rural Development), apre-accession fund, was created to promote common agricultural policy for candidate countries. One of the most important prerequisites for the acquisition of resources was the creation of aRural Development Plan for that period identifying the main priorities for improvement (Kozma, 2003). This methodology is intended to promote the LEADER programme in smaller territorial units fitted into alocal context. The programme is considered to be pioneering since it was the first that tried to prepare the accession countries for domestic application of integrated rural development (Fazekas, Nemes, 2005). This conclusion, however, is not entirely appropriate since the SAPARD development plans also tried to work with integrated multi-sector partners (Madarász,2000). Thebasic goal of the programme was preparing for the LEADER+ Community Initiative, so that all levels of government and stakeholders acquired the relevant practical knowledge in the programme. Many LEADER areas do not form an administratively homogenous unit apart, of course, from urban areas that can lodge into the area of the local action groups, if it cannot be otherwise. Cities may not be LEADER fig. 4. Categories of Pilot LEADER territories in Hungary 2001‒2004 Source: http://www.fvm.hu/main.php? folderID=908&articleID=3859&ctag=articlelist&iid=1 beneficiaries, not to mention middle cities, although there are numerous examples in our country (e.g.: Békés, Gyomaendrőd, Kaposvár, Putnok). Territorial units did not exist in Ózd-Putnok Rural Development Working Group, Dél-Zalai Rural Development Working Group or Sárrét Helyi Rural Development Working Group (Fig. 4). According to the LEADER principles the selection of local action groups should not be implemented by ministries (FVM). Here one of the main LEADER principles suffered: the bottom-up approach. The situation therefore predetermined local unsustainability of rural development plans: regions did not participate either in the stage of implementation – LEADER+ – or in other community development programmes (see Table 2). Other disadvantages of the Pilot LEADER Programme include: (a) excessive and pointless bureaucracy, which discouraged the involved civilians from further cooperation (see Fig. 3); (b) through post-financing, the implemetation of projects was often difficult, especially if the beneficiary was acivil organisation; (c) payments were delayed from the summer of 2002 until the beginning of 2004, so local participants could not receive back the money they invested in the projects, if they started at all; (d) ex-post evaluation of the Pilot LEADER programme is not available; (e) programme manual necessary for proper conduct was not finalised in time; for along time it was not possible to know exactly how much money was available, what caused continuos uncertainty; (f) the change of government caused difficulty in the programme, and in the meantime the SAPARD programme started, which limited the sources; (g) the average 30‒35 million HUF subsidisation was not sufficient to support major improvements (e.g.: creating situation analysis and development strategy, reviving local products and helping their market access by building effectively managing agent organisations fig. 3. Factors that determine the territorial cohesion of the Bavarian local action groups Explanation: A– application of political pressure; B – local identity; C – administrative boundaries; D – landscape boundaries (geography); E – economic coherence Source: Own research 1,81 A B C D E 2,36 2,45 2,64 3,09 94 Csaba Ruszkai, Tibor Kovács / Bulletin of Geography. Socio-economic Series 19 (2013): 87–97 Csaba Ruszkai, Tibor Kovács / Bulletin of Geography. Socio-economic Series 19 (2013): 87–97 95 and effective community partnerships, etc.); (h)the programme was quite acomplex institutional system, which made it significantly more difficult for the beneficiaries to acquire resources (see Fig. 5); (i) the difficulties mentioned above discouraged the participants of the LEADER programme (eg.: BAZ County Public Educational Institution left the programme: as stated in Riz Gabor’s letter sent to the Programme Director, ‘Such behaviour of the Hungarian State Treasury shows how domestic civil society can be discredited and its harsh anti-social activities are also essentially illegal’. Of course, the programme director was not blamed for the difficulties and the Institute thanked for the kind assistance. Implementation of the programme also rendered tangible results such as building a cooperation network of 12 local working groups which worked according to the European model of local action groups with more or less success. Thelocal action groups could compile locally initiated development plans and if these development plans were carefully designed it increased the chances of the region to participate in the following LEADER programmes (e.g.the ‘Ipolymente healthy sub-region’ programme, the ‘Local value’ programme of the ZalA-KAR local working group).The persistence and quality work of the local action groups led to the following positive results: (a) developing local partnership with 3 sectors (civil, public, private); (b)the concept of subsidiarity acquired practical value; (c)despite minimal resources some significant developments were realised; (d) most importantly, the concept of local value was grounded (appreciation of sub-regional socio-economic subsystems); (e) it is required for local governments to define the joint development together (most small settlements do not have local development strategy). 7. results of the pilot leaDer programme in the north-hungarian region (hungarian pilot programme leaDer) TheNorth-Hungarian Pilot LEADER programme made little noticeable impact on the beneficiary areas. Thepoor result was due to three things: disorganisation of area selection and management; the availability of scarce resources and late payments; and development strategies with no real added value. Payments were strongly affected by the change of government in 2002, and ex-post evaluation was not made for this region. The population of the selected cities in many cases did not meet the criteria set by the EU. Population should have reached 100 km² per capita density barrier, or of at least 10,000 inhabitants. The overall low population and the prevention of the continuation of the LEADER + essentially question the real purpose of the Pilot LEADER Programme. Of course, the domestic programme had positive results as well. Thedesignated area that was selected was one of Hungary’s most disadvantaged regions, in principle, money went into agood place. The Ménes–patak menti and the Belső-Cserhát Local Action Group emphasised the importance of preparation for LEADER+. These two local action groups had high-quality regional identity and landscape development concepts and implemented projects (Table 3). Unfortunately, anumber of investments of the two local action groups lost their meaning due to the prevention of the continuation of the programme because in many cases investments were created in the LEADER+ period with channelled additional funds. Examples include: the Ménespatak menti Local Action Groups’ farm model, the establishment of regional information centers, Roma craftsmen incubation workshop, or the creation of Information and Communication Centre by the Belső-Cserhát Local Action Group. Acquiring regional market and cross-border co-operation is Fig. 5. Theinstitutions of LEADER Iin Hungary Source: Promei Foundation, www.fvm.hu table 2. Working groups of the Pilot LEADER programme, their settlements and their participation in the LEADER+ programme a B c Belső-Cserhát Local Rural Development Working Group Buják no Cserhátsurány no Herencsény no Szanda no Terény no Bükki Hegyhát Local Rural Development Working Group Borsodbóta no Csokvaomány no Lénárddaróc no Nekézseny no Sajómercse no Sajónémeti no Sajóvelezd no Sáta no Uppony no Settlements of the Ménes-patak menti Local Rural Development Working Group Endrefalva no Karancsság no Ludányhalászi no Piliny no Szalmatercs no Szécsényfelfalu no Ózd-Putnok Local Rural Development Working Group Arló no Bánréve no Borsodszentgyörgy no Királd no Putnok no Serényfalva no Explanation: A– name of the working group; B – settlements; C – participation in the LEADER + program (yes/no) Source of data: www.fmv.hu DoA: 01/04/2010 96 Csaba Ruszkai, Tibor Kovács / Bulletin of Geography. Socio-economic Series 19 (2013): 87–97 Csaba Ruszkai, Tibor Kovács / Bulletin of Geography. Socio-economic Series 19 (2013): 87–97 97 essential for the development of the farm models and also for the Roma craftsmen’s projects because without them there is no guarantee of long-term operation. So the directions were good, the problems were not due to national policy. However, the Bükki-Hegyhát and Ózd-Putnok Local Action Groups created a number of investments that were highly questionable during the time of implementation. The projects were fragmented basic infrastructure developments. TheÓzd-Putnok local Action Group inserted the LEADER management into an existing institution of completely different use which raised serious concerns. Results of the Pilot LEADER programme did not serve the organic evolution of the selected villages and even today all Local Action Groups belong to other LEADER regions, so both in space and time the effect and efficiency of the Pilot LEADER programme missed the targets contained in Community legislation. As a consequence, the Pilot LEADER Programme did not take into account the fact that selected areas continue to thrive in new funding cycles and successfully overcome adverse situations arising from acute problems.Uncontrolled bureaucracy and unpredictable financial performance worsened the overall domestic picture of the LEADER programme. 8. conclusion LEADER I Programme of the European Community was amilestone in the foundation of anew approach to regional development and in the redefinition of Europe’s rural areas. Since Hungary has only been afull member of the EU since 2004, the Pilot LEADER programme should not be considered as a complete community development intervention, even if it is about the transfer of the SAPARD pre-accession funds. Hungary’s government noticed the LEADER rural development methodology as a potential new approach and tried to plant the approach in the national regional development practice before joining the EU but unfortunately only with modest success. Themain reason is that the programming sometimes ignored the European methodology, and the exiguous subsidisation and its many years of delay. Of course, implementation was not smooth in the case of the old Member States as well, and the differences in national statistical sampling often beclouded the actual results. The unquestionable success of the programme is the planting of the local development strategies at community and domestic level and the creation of territorial demarcation, which can be integrated in later LEADER programmes and rural micro-regions. references Bogumil, J. and Jann, W., 2005: Verwaltung und Verwaltungswissenschaft in Deutschland – (Public administration and science of public administration in Germany – in German). In: Introduction to the Science of Public Administration, Wiesbaden: Springer VS-Publisher for Social Sciences, pp. 65‒132. Dubost, m., 2008: Gestaltung von Territorien (Forming of regions – in German). In: Leader+ Magazine, 2008/3, pp. 6‒22. European Commission, 1997: Ex-Post Evaluation of the LEADER I Community Initiative 1989‒1993, 1999, pp.3‒55. European Spatial Planning Observation Network, 2003: Theterritorial impact of CAP and rural development policy, Third Interim Report August 2003, p. 190. fazekas, ZS., and nemes, g., 2005: Kísérleti LEADERjellegű program Magyarországon. Promei Faluműhely Alapítvány (Experimental LEADER Programme in Hungary – in Hungarian), AVOP LEADER+ készségek elsajátítása, Promei Foundation, pp. 342‒369. geiddendörfer, m., 2005: Evaluation von Programmen und Konzepten der ländlichen Strukturentwicklung dargestellt am Beispiel der EU-Gemeinschaftsinitiative LEADER (Evaluation of programs and concepts in the development of rural structures in the case of LEADER programme – in German), PhD Thesis, pp. 5‒68. horváth, g., 2002: Regional policy and development in East-Central Europe. In: Domański, R. editor, Cities and Regions in an Enlarging European Union, Warszawa: Polish Academy of Sciences, Committee for Space Economy and Regional Planning, pp. 107‒127. hutter, a. and neidhardt, r., 2005: Stadt-Land: Ein Verhältnis im Wandel, Entwicklung & Ländlicher Raum (City and countryside: development of mutual relation– in German), 2005/5, DLG-Publisher, pp.13‒15. Kozma, g., 2003: Az Európai Unió regionális politikája (TheRegional Policy of the EU – in Hungarian). In: Szerk Süli-Zakar I., aterületés településfejlesztés alapjai, Szeged: Campus Dialog, pp.181‒205. Leader Koordinierungstelle/AEIDL, 1994: Verzeichnis der deutschen lokalen Aktionsgruppen (Registry of the local action groups in Germany – in German), p. 32. madarász, i., 2000: Hogyan készítsünk vidékfejlesztési programot? (How to create rural development programs? – in Hungarian), p. 194. ray, c., 1998: Territories, Structures and Interpretation – Two case studies of the European Union’s LEADER IProgramme. In: Journal of Rural Studies, Vol. 14, No.1, pp.79‒87. ruszkai, cS., 2006: Theco-operation of rural areas in the LEADER+ Programme. In: Süli-Zakar, I. and Horga, I. editors, Regional Development in the Romanian-Hungarian Cross-border Space – from National to European Perspective, Debrecen: Kossuth Egyetemi Kiadó, pp.393‒396. ruszkai, cS., 2009: Aterületiség vizsgálata aLEADER fejlesztési módszertan keretén belül (Building up regional structures in the LEADER Programme – in Hungarian). In: Acta Iuventutis Geographica, Institutium Socio-Geographie Universitatis Debreceniensis, Szerk: Süli-Zakar I, pp. 159‒166. Shucksmith, m., 2000: Endogenous development, social capital and social inclusion: perspectives from LEADER in the UK. In: Sociologia Ruralis, 40, Issue 2, pp.208–218. Stöhr, l. and Schenk, W., 1997: Die Umsetzung des EUFörderprogramms LEADER (Implementing the European LEADER Programme – in German). In: Raumforschung und Raumordnung, 6, pp. 421‒431. http://ec.europa.eu/agriculture/rur/leader1/ (DoA: 2010.03.26) http://lexikon.freenet.de/Kreisfreie_Stadt (DoA: 2011.01.02). http://www.adata.hu/_Kozossegi_Adattar/parolaar.nsf/0/3 9e3b00209fa1072c1256ec500283e86?OpenDocument (DoA: 2010.10.10). http://www.arfolyamkereso.com/? currency=EUR&all=1&start_date=2009‒1111&end_date=2010‒01‒10#graph (DoA: 2011.01.03). http://www.fvm.gov.hu/main.php? folderID=908&articleI D=3859&ctag=articlelist&iid=1 (DoA: 2010.10.10). table 3. Features the Pilot LEADER areas in the North-Hungarian Region name of lag (pilot program leaDer) piedmont of Bükk mountains ménes creek internal cserhát mountains towns of Ózd and putnok Population (2001) 6,852 5,681 5,325 15,438 Area inkm² 113.29 87.66 153.86 137.3 Density of population 47 65 35 112 Number of settlements 9 6 5 6 Organisation form Association Association Deposit company Cultural Institute Subsidy (€) ~ 100,000 ~ 100,000 ~ 100,000 ~100,000 Flagship theme in the development strategy Regeneration of the Hungarian ‘Semmering Land Reformation of the style of living in the Region of Ménes Creek Valuable life in Internal Cserhát Mountains Regional actions to develop local community Comments Realisation of small projects to develop local facilities in field of nature and landscape value TheLAG did avery useful and complex Program. Thegoal was to increase value of local agricultural products Acouple of tourism projects were established to improve youth tourism in the region. Population number was low, although this area has alot of small settlements Realised projects did not fit the development strategy of the region. Density of population was too high for the category of arural area Innovation value low high high low Source: http://www.fvm.hu/main.php? folderID=908&articleID=3859&ctag=articlelist&iid=1, https://teir.vati.hu/ © 2013 Nicolaus Copernicus University Press. All rights reserved.