Brussels, 17 November, 2025
We launch today a targeted letter campaign addressed to Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) and members of the European Committee of the Regions (CoR), calling for concrete commitments to protect and strengthen the LEADER-CLLD approach within the upcoming 2028-2034 Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF).
Why this matters
In September 2025, we issued a call on the European Commission, Parliament and Council to amend the draft MFF regulations to ensure that LEADER-CLLD remains a robust instrument for rural development. Since then, we worked together with a specialised EU lawyer on concrete amendments of the relevant proposed regulations.
The architecture of the next MFF introduces significant changes in how EU funding is delivered, notably the shift to National and Regional Partnership Plans (NRPPs) and the consolidation of numerous funds and programmes. While this offers opportunities, it also poses risks for the distinct visibility, legal status and guaranteed funding of LEADER-CLLD. Our proposal aims at correcting all of this.
What the letter campaign aims to achieve
- Raise awareness among MEPs and CoR members of the critical role that LEADER-CLLD plays in rural communities across Europe, as a bottom-up, locally-anchored model for growth, social cohesion and territorial resilience.
- Encourage formal commitments from key decision-makers, further the proposed compromise that came out last week, to include earmarked funding, recognition of the partnership principle, and a clear legal statute for LEADER-CLLD within the next MFF regulations and implementing acts.
- Mobilise cross-party and cross-institution support for amendments in the Parliament and CoR opinions so that rural areas are not sidelined in the new budget architecture.
- Provide a channel for rural networks, LAGs, and rural practitioners to engage with their MEPs and CoR representatives, making rural voices visible and heard in the budget negotiations ahead.
Why timing is crucial
The next MFF for 2028-2034 will set the EU’s long-term spending framework for the coming decade and is due to be adopted after intense negotiations between the Commission, Council and Parliament. With the new architecture emphasising flexibility and strategic national/regional plans, there is a real risk that smaller, bottom-up instruments like LEADER could end up diluted, optional, or competing with other priorities unless specific safeguards are built in. The earliest we mobilise, the more changes we will be able to pass through, especially when it comes to significant asks (ie ring-fencing).
What we ask from MEPs and CoR members
In the letters, we invite each recipient to:
- 1. Recognise the added value of LEADER-CLLD for rural Europe: its capacity to mobilise local actors, foster innovation, strengthen social capital, support energy transitions, local businesses and inclusive governance.
- 2. Support the inclusion of a dedicated and minimum allocation (earmarking) for LEADER-CLLD within the next MFF regulations or accompanying acts.
- 3. Ensure that the partnership principle and devolved, multi-actor governance remain binding requirements in the new NRPP-based architecture.
- 4. Ensure that the social value of LEADER is recognised in all regulations and performance indicators
- 5. Advocate for simplified, but robust, legal safeguards to guarantee that LEADER-CLLD is not treated as optional or residual funding but remains a strategic instrument.
- 6. Engage directly with rural networks and LAGs in their constituencies to hear first-hand how LEADER-CLLD is working on the ground and to champion its continuation.
- 7. Bring these worries and our suggestions for amendments in their negociations with the Council and Commission.
What happens next
Over the coming weeks, we will send customised letters to a broad range of MEPs (particularly those on committees relevant to budget, agriculture, cohesion, rural development) and CoR members who represent rural territories and have influence on the CoR’s opinions on the MFF. Simultaneously, we invite our members to reach out to national and regional politicians, and to organise local meetings, briefings and stakeholder events to reinforce the message.
We need all of those who have an interest in the issue to relay the message as well. Download our letter and its attachement below, find your MEP’s email address here*, and your CoR members in the CoR directory (select “NAT” and “COTER” commission) and send the documents using the subject line “Do 90% of rural residents no longer count?”. If we all use the same slogan, our voice cannot be ignored!
For further information and to access our proposal for the next MFF regulations, please visit this page.
What to send to your MEP/CoR member?
* This list compiles publicly available contact details of Members of the European Parliament, published by the European Parliament for the purpose of citizen communication.