5. Calls on the Member States and their regional authorities to promote more dynamic forms of participatory governance as a way of implementing common territorial development projects able to cover all economic sectors, including tourism and, within the farming sector, the food and non-food industries, such as regional supply chain projects (concerning short supply chains, food chains, local slaughterhouses, methane production from agricultural biomass projects, green chemistry, bio-based materials, etc), with a particular focus on micro-businesses and new start-ups, on the basis of the gradual recognition of the identity of each territo ...[+++]ry, as defined and informed by its heritage; notes that these forms of governance are based on complex partnerships between actors and bodies, whose work may be coordinated around the concept of territorial excellence branding; therefore, calls on the Member States to create a platform for sharing best practice, using in particular the tools provided by the LEADER approach to rural development programmes;

24. Calls on the EU to support both the development of healthy agricultural production and rural development in the region, as part of the fight against poverty, which is a persistent evil in the countryside, and in order to strengthen the stabilisation process; stresses, to this end, the importance of institutional and infrastructural improvements (in such fields as irrigation, handling, storage, packaging, transport, marketing systems and access to services), in addition to technological improvements, and also the significance of education and training programmes, especial ...[+++]ly for women and in situations where producers are poorly organised and civil society is weak, given that these factors also slow down the development of an efficient agri-food system; emphasises the role of extension services in facilitating the diffusion of knowledge; stresses that global environmental and climate change concerns should determine support for the promotion of sustainable uses of natural resources and energy and compatible methods of production; stresses that the diversification of production, in order to increase resilience during market fluctuations and environmental crises, should be encouraged in the face of increasing global demand for food;

4. Calls on the EU to support both the development of healthy agricultural production and rural development in the region as part of the fight against poverty, a persistent evil in the countryside, and in order to strengthen the stabilisation process; stresses, to that end, the importance of institutional and infrastructural (e.g. irrigation, handling, storage, packaging, transportation, marketing systems and access to services) improvements, in addition to the technological ones, and the significance of education and training programmes, especially for wom ...[+++]en, as well as situations where producers are poorly organised and civil society is weak, which also slow down the development of an efficient agri-food system; emphasises the role of extension services in facilitating diffusion of knowledge; underlines that global environmental and climate change concerns should direct the support to the promotion of sustainable uses of natural resources and energy, and compatible methods of production; stresses that diversification of production to increase resilience during market fluctuations and environmental crises should be encouraged in the face of increasing global demand for food;

24. Calls on the EU to support both the development of healthy agricultural production and rural development in the region, as part of the fight against poverty, which is a persistent evil in the countryside, and in order to strengthen the stabilisation process; stresses, to this end, the importance of institutional and infrastructural improvements (in such fields as irrigation, handling, storage, packaging, transport, marketing systems and access to services), in addition to technological improvements, and also the significance of education and training programmes, especial ...[+++]ly for women and in situations where producers are poorly organised and civil society is weak, given that these factors also slow down the development of an efficient agri-food system; emphasises the role of extension services in facilitating the diffusion of knowledge; stresses that global environmental and climate change concerns should determine support for the promotion of sustainable uses of natural resources and energy and compatible methods of production; stresses that the diversification of production, in order to increase resilience during market fluctuations and environmental crises, should be encouraged in the face of increasing global demand for food;

76. Is worried by the Court of Auditors' finding that agri-environment policy is not designed and monitored so as to deliver tangible environmental benefits, in that the objectives of agri-environment payments are not sufficiently specific to permit an assessment of whether they have been achieved, the environmental pressures cited do not provide a clear justification of agri-environment payments, and the achievements of agri-environment policy cannot be easily monitored; calls on the Member States to establish clearly targeted rural development programmes, and calls on the Commission to assess those programmes more rigorously before ap ...[+++]proving them; underlines the importance of a well-managed Union evaluation network for rural development;

Following the adoption by the Council on 28 June 2001 of Regulation (EC) No 1447/2001 providing for exemptions for the outermost regions, such as an increase in the rate of public funding in smaller agricultural holdings and in the agri-food industries, the different Monitoring Committees approved the amendments to the SPD and programme complement for each of the programmes for the four overseas departments.