Statement | Written by Heli Walls, Leader work development manager, Leader division
The government program Strong and Caring Finland presents cuts to the administrative branch of the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry for regional and local rural development. The cuts would target the years 2025-2027, and according to the proposal, would be a total of 137.5 million euros from national funds. In total, the cuts would total more than 240 million. EUR, including EU funding, i.e. almost half of the funds reserved for rural development.
Cutting the national compensation is always harmful to the member state itself. Vastinraha lives up to its name: it is a magnet that pulls the membership fees we pay to the EU, our own tax euros, back to Finland to be used for the common good. Nationally, in this country, in these regions and in our villages. Even the best rural development program cannot be implemented without a national contribution. The CAP27 entity of agriculture and rural development is Finland's largest single mechanism for returning our EU membership fees.
If the national financial contribution is cut, the corresponding EU financial contribution will be restored through the EU to be used in another member state, for example Italy or Romania.
Next year in the EU, and also in Finland, the planning and negotiations of the next program period will already start. Finland worsens its own negotiating positions in the coming season by renouncing the EU funding share, as if the Finnish countryside does not need all the development euros. How to justify the funding needs of the new season, when it has just been shown that good results can be achieved in Finland with only half of the amount of money that was previously agreed upon? Finland is already a net contributor to the EU, and with the cuts, Finland's contribution will increase even more.
Leader looks for and finances new business start-ups in rural areas. Leader supports entrepreneurs' changes of ownership, business development and investments. The proposed cuts to Leader funding in the government program would target small businesses and services in particular. 94.7 percent of companies operating in rural areas are micro-enterprises, and their main development support funding comes from Leader groups.
The core of Leader's activities is to empower communities by supporting sports facilities, village hall activities, nature trails, cultural events and much more. Every program season, Leader channels millions of hours of volunteer work for the common good.
Fortunately, the Leader activity is in many ways a locked entity within the CAP plan, but not completely secured. Cuts should not be allocated to Leader funding, whose share of CAP's rural funding is still the lowest of all EU countries. The Leader section of Suomen Kylie will do everything it can to ensure that the cuts are not implemented in their proposed form.