Rural Development Study Tour to

Galicia, Spain

June 2006

In June 2006, Concordia organised a group study tour to the Spanish region of Galicia in order to look at how Rural Development Funds have been spent by farm businesses there.

Galicia has been in receipt of EU funding since 2000, and has been working under the same common programmes as NI, such as LEADER Plus etc.

Concordia believed that it was vital that NI should learn from the region about their experiences in using EU funding for rural development, especially as this region has an autonomous regional government.

The tour focused on maximum learning. Participants met with officials to learn about local and regional partnership arrangements and visited local businesses such as "La Painza", a dairy farm and village redeveloped for rural tourism.

Participants engaged with business people, local administrators and regional representatives.

The tour gave participants an insight into the cultural context, the economic development and the political arrangements of an area of the European Union, which has been developing projects and administrating rural business initiatives. 

The post-tour report is available below.