ELER programme

Shaping rural areas into a sustainable economic and ecological area and an attractive and socially liveable living space will also be an important challenge for the future funding period of the ‘Europäischen Landwirtschaftsfonds für die Entwicklung des ländlichen Raumes (ELER)’.

Within its Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), the EU promotes the development of rural areas with the help of the ELER. The new funding phase began at the start of 2023. In 2021 and 2022, i.e. the period between the two funding phases, a transitional regulation formed the formal legal framework for the Common Agricultural Policy.

In Germany, each federal state has so far decided in its own programme how to use EAFRD funds. For the new funding phase 2023-2027, this is regulated by the CAP Strategic Plan for the whole of Germany. It also contains the respective objectives and measures that the individual federal states define for themselves.

The majority of people in Schleswig-Holstein live in rural areas - and they like living there. They are closely connected to agriculture and forestry, to the rich cultural and attractive natural landscape. The basic social needs for optimised transport networks, clean air, fast internet, schools and kindergartens as well as good care in old age hardly differ between the urban and rural populations. However, solutions in rural regions are more complex and require village commitment and initial ideas from individuals.

The European Agricultural Fund is a financing element that can be used to promote greater environmental and climate protection, greater dissemination and utilisation of knowledge and innovations, the competitiveness of agriculture and forestry and the attractiveness of rural areas in Schleswig-Holstein.

Schleswig-Holstein is involved in the implementation of funding from the Europäischen Landwirtschaftsfonds für die Entwicklung des ländlichen Raums (ELER) with its own funding measures as part of the national CAP strategy plan.

These funding measures will be implemented in Schleswig-Holstein in the 2023-2027 funding period:

• Contractual nature conservation
• Organic farming
• Equalisation allowance
• Natura 2000 premium
• Investing in nature conservation
• Co-operation in nature conservation
• Waste water treatment
• Flood and coastal protection
• Preservation of cultural heritage