European Parliament
Duarte Freitas (PPE-DE ),
in writing
(PT)
The Community’s strategic guidelines for rural development will form the basis of future national rural development programmes, harmonising the objectives and measures to be implemented under the scope of this important European sector.
It is extremely important to set out the strategies clearly and thoroughly, with a view to boosting the development of Europe’s rural areas, improving the living conditions for people in those areas and enhancing the rural environment.
I warmly welcome both the Commission’s proposal, which offers a broad range of objectives and measures, and the McGuinness report, which fine-tunes the strategic guidelines in a number of specific areas, such as the protection of rural cultural heritage and the rural landscape.

