More than ten years after its first audit, the European Court of Auditors concludes in a new report, published on Wednesday 6 July, that there is little evidence that the benefits of the Leader approach outweigh the costs and risks it entails.
The EU has used the Leader approach (local actor-led development) to fund projects in rural, urban and coastal areas, providing up to €9.2 billion of funding for the period 2014-2020. Local action groups play a decisive role in this process.
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