Evaluating Structural, Territorial and Institutional Impacts of Rural Development Policies in Italy: Some Lessons for the Future Programming Period (2007-2013)

This paper aims to answer two main questions: a) which kind of impacts are generated under the EU's rural development policy?; and b) what are the main factors influencing the nature and the direction of effects which are generated under the rural development policy? In order to address the first question, the main effects of some important rural development programmes funded by EU and national/regional sources are summarised on the basis of 1994-99 and 2000-06 experiences. For the second issue,which, despite its importance, is frequently under-evaluated because of the relative difficulties in exploring such factors and the predominant tendency of undertaking partial analyses, the role of three key factors is explored: a) the institutional and managing structures that are involved in governing and implementing rural development policy; b) the so-called “first pillar of the CAP”, that is, a group of policies addressed to market and to direct supports to farm income. These policies play a significant role in governing and interacting with impacts generated by rural development policies. Although conceived within a common framework at European level, these policies are implemented through separate and sometimes conflicting modalities and structures at national and regional level; c) the dynamism of the social and economic local context, which plays a role on the side of the policy demand. The paper, on the basis of the scenarios deriving from the EU Financial Perspectives for the 2007-13 period, also raises some conclusions on the potential role that rural development policies can play in the future and on the likely economic and social impacts on the evolution of rural areas