Agriculture and Rural Development

Introduction: The mission of the Directorate-General for Agriculture and Rural Development is to promote the sustainable development of Europe's agriculture and to ensure the well-being of its rural areas.

The mission will be achieved through:
Promoting a robust and competitive agricultural sector which respects high environmental and production standards, ensuring at the same time a fair standard of living for the agricultural community;

Contributing to sustainable development of rural areas, in particular through helping the agricultural sector to adapt to new challenges, protecting the environment and the countryside, especially in view of climate change, and improving the quality of life in rural areas, whilst ensuring growth and jobs in the countryside;

Promoting the European agricultural sector in world trade.

The Directorate-General commits itself to achieving high standards in implementing its objectives and policies, and will in particular:

Implement policy in an effective manner, in line with Treaty and international obligations and the need to simplify legislation;

Contribute to other Community policies, in the fields of cohesion, competitiveness, employment, research, environment, food safety and external policies (enlargement, trade and development);

Manage the Community Budget in accordance with high standards of financial management, ensuring value for money, legality and regularity of transactions as well as transparency.