Post-reunification Germany represents a unique case bringing together two types of territory. The old Bundesländer serve as a sort of reference area, while the new Bundesländer constitute testing grounds for transferring the model.

For more than ten years now, the implementation of community initiative programmes of the LEADER type in the new German Bundesländer have been helping to strengthen the process of territorial convergence in terms of local development. The LEADER programmes are only one of the instruments available for development in a country where the federal structure both allows for direct intervention from the Bund (National Parks and "model" regions) and also entrusts the Länder with the implementation of various options (regional national parks, micro-region cooperation, and LEADER programmes).

All these instruments share the same political objective of diversifying the rural economy and promoting local resources. But the LEADER programmes do more to mobilise local actors by creating Local Action Groups (LAGs).

The first investigations have taken place in two places:

The first experience on which the development of the LEADER Plus programme was based was gained during the pre-accession SAPARD programme. Since 2004, the EU initiative LEADER Plus (subsidised with 2.7 million euros) has been a measure for rural development in Lithuania. It comes under the responsibility of the Ministry of Agriculture. The aim of the LEADER Plus programme for the period 2004-2006 is to prepare rural communities to draw up and implement integrated development strategies based on the principle of partnership. The programme has two components. 

The first component of the programme, entitled "skill acquisition", supports various training and information initiatives for local actors in order to strengthen their capacity to plan and manage future local development projects. The second component of LEADER Plus offers financial support for the implementation of development strategies. These development strategies should be concerned with the four themes defined by the programme (use of new technologies in rural settings, improving the quality of life, development of small enterprises, and better use of natural and cultural resources). In 2006, ten LAGs were selected from among the 27 applicants.

Coordinator: M.-C. Maurel, Director of CEFRES
Correspondent: Prof. M. Halamska, sociologist, Institute of Rural and Agricultural Development, Academy of Sciences, Warsaw, member of PICS no. 3723 (2007-2009) of the CNRS / Academy of sciences.

In Poland, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development is also responsible for the definition and implementation of the LEADER Plus pilot programme, which is included in the Operational Programme for Agriculture and Rural Development (PODR). It is assisted in this task by the national coordinating unit, the Foundation for Assisting Rural Development Programmes (FAPA), which is responsible for receiving and processing the application forms and also for formally verifying the projects. The payment authority is the Agency for Agricultural Modernisation and Restructuring (ARMA), which dispenses funds after agreement with the FAPA foundation.

The LEADER Plus pilot programme has been implemented in two stages, which the Poles call "schemes". Scheme I, the aim of which was for the local communities to acquire more skills, was launched with a call for tenders announced in the autumn of 2004 which closed at the end of the same year. It supports training and advice initiatives intended to promote the involvement of local actors in an analysis of the potential development of local territories and in drawing up strategies for integrated development. 167 LAG projects were selected under Scheme I in July 2005. The call for tenders under Scheme II was launched in 2006. Its role was to provide financing for the implementation of development strategies. 187 LAGs submitted applications, of which 162 were eligible and 80 were selected. The formal selection procedure took place during 2006. The call for tenders was announced on 31 March 2006 and closed in mid-June, with the final selection taking place in mid-October 2006. The procedures for launching the Scheme and for selecting the candidates were delayed, and it was not until January 2007 that the first contracts were signed between the selected LAGs and the FAPA foundation.

In the Czech Republic, the growth in public policies in favour of rural territories has been going on for a long time. A number of programmes have dealt with rural areas during the course of the past decade: the programme for rural renewal, the SAPARD programme (2000-2004), and the Operational Programme for Rural Development (2004-2006). The first of these programmes, which supported training for the micro-regions and their projects, provided useful experience and a good basis for launching the LEADER Plus programme. Since 2004, LEADER Plus has been a sub-measure concerned with rural development and multifunctional agriculture within the framework of the Operational Programme for Rural Development. The LEADER Plus programme is administered by the Ministry of Agriculture, whose field of vision is relatively narrow, and takes an interest primarily in issues relating to agricultural activity. This Ministry is the principal partner for the LAGs. Six LAGs were chosen from among the thirty applications submitted at the end of 2004, and the funds intended for the implementation of the strategy have been allocated for a period of three years.

The Ministry of Agriculture is also responsible for the LEADER CZ programme (called Czech LEADER). This is a set of measures identical to the previous ones, functioning according to the principles and methods of LEADER. The LAGs respond to an annual call for tenders by submitting relatively modest projects – maximum funding is around 3.5 million crowns. The Ministry selects a small number of projects each year, commensurate with the budget allocated. The LEADER CZ programme supports micro-region cooperation between the local territories. In total, for the two programmes together, 75 LAGs have been selected in the Czech Republic (2004-2006).

Exploratory investigations have been carried out in two places of observation:
- In southern Moravia, the micro-regions of Ostrožsko and Hornacko (the former district of Hodonín) are currently pulling out of the transformation crisis thanks to a diversification of the rural economy, with businesses being established and a boom taking place in tourism. After a successful experiment with a first form of cooperation between local authorities, a LAG project and a strategy came into being between 2004 and 2006. This LAG was selected for the period 2007-2013.

- The Úhlava Ekoregion, in the Šumava Mountains in southern Bohemia, on the border with Bavaria, is a good example of the development of these new synergies. These border territories went through a long period of decline after the expulsion of the Germans in 1945 and the establishment of the Iron Curtain. The dismantling of the collectivist system gave birth to a more diversified economy, bringing together new forms of agricultural operation and tourist activities. Created in 1999, the Úhlava micro-region consists of six rural authorities in the neighbourhood of the small town of Nýrsko.

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