COMMISSION OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES 
COM(94) 261 final 
Brussels, 11.07.1994 
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\ lllfl REPORT CONCLUSIONS 
Article 25 of Regulation (EEC) No 4253/88 
EAGGF GUIDANCE SECTION 
1992 
(presented by the Commission) 
_ -A>-
REPORT CONCLUSIONS 
Article 25 of Regulation (EEC) No 4253/88 
EAGGF GUIDANCE SECTION 
1992 
This document, which was drawn up as a supplement to the Report 
provided for in Article 31 of Regulation (EEC) No 4253/88 and to the 
Commission's communication on "Community Structural Policies -
Assessment and Outlook" (COM (92)84 final), is the fourth annual report 
on the EAGGF Guidance section. It gives an overview of all the work 
carried out in 1992 under this Fund, whose purpose is to contribute to 
the achievement of Objectives 1, 5(a) and 5(b). While the EAGGF 
Guidance section assists Objective 1 regions and Objective 5(b) areas 
in cooperation with the ERDF and ESF, it bears the full cost of 
financing horizontal structural measures under Objective 5(a). 
The 1989 reform of the Structural Funds provided a legislative 
framework for the implementation of Objective 1 and 5(b) measures 
within Community support frameworks which set priorities and determine 
forms of assistance and the indicative financing plans. The procedure 
is the same for Objective 5(a) measures under Regulations Nos 866/90 
and 867/90, while other assistance under this Objective takes the form 
of reimbursements of expenditure declared by the Member states. 
With regard to the Community initiatives, the EAGGF Guidance Section 
contributes to the financing of the Envireg, Regis, and Interreg 
programmes and, above all, to the Leader programme. The entire 
Community contribution to Leader, financed by the three Funds and paid 
to Member States in the form of global grants, was committed in 
1991/92. At the end of 1992 all the Member States had received the 
first advance, which constituted 40% of the total grant for the 
programme. 
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I. ANALYSIS BY OBJECTIVE 
The nature of the work accomplished in 1992 varied according to 
Objective. 
For Objective 1, it was necessary both to ensure that the operational 
programmes (OPs) adopted in previous years were properly implemented 
and to analyse the new OPs submitted by the Member States. However, 
EAGGF Guidance Section contributions to this Objective represent only 
proportion of Community assistance, which is financed principally by 
the European Regional Development Fund, and to a lesser extent the 
European Social Fund. 
in 1992 work under Objective 5(b) concentrated on adopting the seven 
most recent OPs, of which there are now a total of 73. At the same 
time, implementation in financial and physical terms progressed 
considerably. 
Objective 5(a) measures concerned all three aspects of this Objective, 
aid schemes for agricultural holdings (Regulation (EEC) No 2328/91), 
encouraging the formation of producer groups (Regulation (EEC) 
No 1360/78) and aid for processing and marketing firms (Regulations 
(EEC) Nos 866/90 and 867/90). 
Objective 1 regions and the new Lander 
objective 1 concerns regions whose development is lagging behind as 
defined in Regulation (EEC) No 2052/88, i.e. regions with a per capita 
GDP of less than 75% of the Community average. 
In 1992 14 new operational programmes were added to the 93 already 
adopted since 1989 for such regions. Two were for Community 
initiatives. The majority of these new programmes concern Portugal 
(7), while the rest are distributed among Greece (2), Spain (2), France 
(2) and Italy (1). All these regionalized measures correspond to 
specific needs in each region and the EAGGF Guidance Section 
contribution is designed to improve the use made of agricultural 
resources and assist rural development. The programmes are thus 
concerned principally with aid to agricultural holdings, aid for the. 
diversification of sources of income and aid for maintaining activity 
in rural areas. 
overall, implementation has been satisfactory in all the Member states 
except Italy, where most of the programmes (apart from those in 
Campania, Sicily and Sardinia) slowed down substantially. 
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EAGGF Guidance Section contributions to Objective 1 measures in 1992 
totalled ECU 1 635 million. 
The six operational programmes for the new Lander, adopted in 1991, are 
also proceeding as forecast, or even faster. 
Objective 5(b) areas 
Objective 5(b) measures to promote development in rural areas which do 
not fall within the scope of Objective 1 are being applied in 50 
regions which represent 5% of the population and 17% of the territory 
of the Community. 
The seven operational programmes adopted in 1992 bring the total number 
of OPs to 73, of which more than 70% are multifund. 
Assistance from the Structural Funds concentrates on five major 
aspects: diversification of the primary sector, development of non-
agricultural sectors, development of tourism, conservation and 
development of the natural environment and development of human 
resources. 
Financial and actual implementation progressed substantially in 1992. 
Administration was streamlined through the establishment of a single 
Management Committee for both the CSFs and the OPs. 
EAGGF Guidance Section appropriations for measures under objective 5(b) 
totalled ECU 476 million in 1992. 
objective 5(a) measures 
Horizontal structural measures under Objective 5(a), applicable 
throughout the Community, provide three types of aid: for agricultural 
holdings, for processing and marketing firms and for producer groups. 
The first category includes measures provided for in Regulation (EEC) 
No 2328/91 - the most important being compensatory allowances for 
farming in mountainous and less-favoured areas, investment aid and aid 
for the installation of young farmers - plus services for farmers, 
management assistance and vocational training. 
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The other category of aid to assist processing and marketing firms is 
for the modernization of the processing and marketing of agricultural 
and forestry products under Regulations (EEC) No 866/90 and No 867/90. 
There were no very significant changes in aid to agricultural holdings 
in 1992 and the success of these measures was confirmed. Compensatory 
allowances, investment aid for agricultural holdings and the 
installation premium for young farmers ranked highest in budget terms. 
This also highlights the significant role that these measures play in 
maintaining agricultural activity, protecting the countryside and 
promoting rural development in general. 
Aid for processing and marketing came fourth, and the impact of other 
measures to aid agricultural holdings was modest. 
EAGGF Guidance Section contributions to Objective 5(a) measures outside 
the Objective 1 regions totalled ECU 701 million in 1992. 
The EAGGF Guidance Section also helped finance measures under the 
Community initiatives Interreg, Envireg and Regis. 
II. BUDGET EXECUTION IN 1992 
Commitments totalled ECU 2 874.8 million, of which ECU 1 634.7 million 
went to Objective 1 regions1, ECU 701.3 million to objective 5(a), 
ECU 475.8 million to Objective 5(b) and ECU 63 million to transitional 
measures and technical assistance. It should be emphasized that the 
amounts listed under Objective 5(b) refer only to regionalized 
measures. This presentation differs from that relating to objective 1, 
in which all expenditure, including that relating to general measures 
(Objective 5(a)) is listed. 
In 1992 the principal beneficiaries were Spain (ECU 633.6 million), 
France (ECU 554.4 million), Greece (ECU 392.2 million), Italy (ECU 
375.9 million), Portugal (ECU 289.8 million) and the 11 German Lander 
(ECU 253.8 million) 
in terms of measures, the largest proportion of the appropriations was 
spent under Regulation (EEC) No 2328/91 on improving the efficiency of 
agricultural structures. This Regulation concerns numerous categories 
of expenditure in all regions of the Community. The largest items of 
expenditure related to the compensatory allowance (Article 19): ECU 
473.2 million; investment in agricultural holdings (Article 7): ECU 
237.8 million; and young farmers (Articles 10 and 11): ECU 151.9 
million. 
Including Objective 5(a) expenditure in these regions. 
- 5 -
Commitments for operational programmes for the processing and marketing 
of agricultural and forestry products totalled ECU 389.5 million under 
Regulations (EEC) No 866/90 and No 867/90. 
Regional measures should be divided into those which existed before the 
reform of the structural Funds and those which were established 
subsequently. Among the former, two measures received major funding: 
the measure to encourage the development of agriculture in certain 
regions of Spain (Regulation (EEC) No 1118/88): ECU 115.3 million; and 
the specific programme for the development of agriculture in Portugal 
(Regulation (EEC) No 3828/85): ECU 65.4 million. IMP measures in 
Greece, Italy and France also received various amounts totalling ECU 
74.9 million. 
Under the new regional measures, commitments relating to the 
operational programmes totalled ECU 908.7 million (ECU 523.9 million of 
which was allocated under Objective 1) and went principally to Spain 
(ECU 259.9 million), France (ECU 215.5 million), Greece (ECU 118.0 
million) and Italy (ECU 117.9 million) for Objectives 1 and 5(b). 
ECU 187.8 million was committed for measures under the Community 
initiatives. 
Community initiatives 
The EAGGF Guidance Section participates, with the two other Funds, in 
four Community initiatives: Leader, Interreg, Envireg and Regis. It 
has the principal responsibility for Leader. 
The Leader initiative, with an allocation of ECU 450 million, is 
intended to define and implement flexible and integrated approaches to 
rural development in Objective 1 and Objective 5(b) areas. Community 
funding, which comes from the three Structural Funds and is paid out in 
the form of a global grant, was fully committed in 1991/92. In 1992 
the first advance, 40% of the total, was paid to the Member States. 
One of the German Lender (Lower Saxony) received the second advance. 
Nearly all the 217 local action groups funded under this heading were 
able to begin operating in 1992. 
The total amount made available to the Community initiatives in 1992 
was ECU 187.8 million, of which 128.9 million was for objective 1 
regions and ECU 58.8 for Objective 5(b) areas. 
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ISSN 0254-1475 
COM(94) 261 final 
DOCUMENTS 
EN 13 03 01 
Catalogue number : CB-CO-94-280-EN-C 
ISBN 92-77-71001-2 
Office for Official Publications of the European Communities 
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