Local Actions Groups (LEADER groups)

The Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Fisheries has - through Local Action Groups - given local forces influence on the development in rural and fisheries areas. 

The setting up of Local Action Groups
A Local Action Group is an association with the purpose to urge the development in rural and fisheries areas in cooperation with the local community. The groups are open associations, and everybody wanting to participate in speeding up the process, creating new jobs and attractive living conditions in the areas, can participate.

A Local Action Group consist of people representing various locally based socio-economic sectors. At the decision-making level the social and economic partners, as well as other representatives of civil society, such as farmers, rural women, young people and their associations, must make up at least 50% of the local partnership.
 

A large part of the Local Action Groups duty is to distribute the means allocated to create new jobs and attractive living conditions. The means have to be distributed in accordance with the Local Action Group's development strategy. All Action Groups must create a local development strategy and the group can only finance projects within the strategy. They may choose realising part of their strategy through cooperation projects with Local Action Groups in for example other countries, regions etc.
 

Local Action Groups in Denmark
Local Action Groups are found all over Denmark, and all in all there is: 

• 40 Local Action Groups under the Rural Development Programme.
• 5 Local Action Groups under the Fisheries Development Programme. 
• 11 Local Action Groups working with both the Rural and Fisheries Development Programme. 

Grants from the Rural Development Programme depend on the kind/category of rural district. By use of a classification system, the municipalities in Denmark have been divided into four different categories defining the "rural degree" for each municipality:

1) remote municipalities

2) rural municipalities

3) intermediate municipalities

4) urban municipalities.

The Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Fisheries and the EU give grants to Local Action Groups in remote and rural municipalities. Additionally Local Action Groups in intermediate municipalities can receive grants from the EU, if the municipality or the region takes up part of the financing. Urban municipalities can't receive grants.
 

• Please find an overview and contactinformation of the Local Action Groups in Denmark