European agricultural policy is a paramount example of a highly subsidized policy field. Yet, while the overall amount of subsidies provided by the European Support schemes remains on a high level, the public justification of agricultural subsidies changed fundamentally. The shift to a paradigm of a multifunctional, sustainable agriculture and the growing importance of rural development projects as part of agricultural policy opened the door for a substantial public support of alternative, innovative and green farming and corresponding food supply chains. This is especially true for the so called second pillar of the EU’s Common Agricultural Policy, the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development (EAFRD).
Unlike the highly communitized first pillar, European nation states and in some cases even regional governments are allowed to develop their own programmes within the EAFRD. As a result, nation states and even regions differ substantially in the public funding of Green Social Innovations. In the first part of my paper, I will analyze the national and regional programmes for rural development and will show the different prioritizations for the support of ecological farming, local agri-food chains and other green social innovations. The programmes differ surprisingly strong in the provision of public financial aid for such kind of innovations. In a second step, the paper examines the factors that influence this prioritization from a policy analysis perspective. In the end, I will discuss the conflict between the provision of money in the programmes and the implementation of such projects on-site.
