European Neighbourhood Programme for Agriculture and Rural Development (ENPARD initiative — Neighbourhood Policy)

15.12.2017

Question for written answer E-007802-17
to the Commission
Rule 130
Eric Andrieu (S&D)

In 2011, the Commission launched the Partnership for Democracy and Shared Prosperity with the Southern Mediterranean with a view to helping the countries in that region to revitalise their economies.

The development of farming and rural areas was proposed as an important partnership aspect which could help to foster sustainable and inclusive growth, the development of poorer areas and job creation in the region. That approach should eventually have led to the establishment of the ENPARD for the Mediterranean, financed by the regional component of the Neighbourhood instrument; however, DG NEAR appears to have dropped this agricultural and rural priority recently.

Why did the Commission take that decision for its 2018-2020 regional programming despite the fact that, in the light of the migratory movements affecting those countries and the security issues which those movements create in Europe in the short and long term, the arguments to support making agriculture and rural development a partnership instrument are even more relevant today? Is it not clear that it is the most disadvantaged rural areas which are a breeding ground for migration and extremism?