The European Commission has published the statistical and economic report 2010 on Rural Development in the EU which provides information covering the three objectives for the 2007-2013 period. The report includes an overview of the Rural Development budget over this period as well as information on the financial monitoring of programmes in Member states and in Candidate Countries.

In order to provide the information required to establish a coherent and sustainable framework for the future of Europe's rural areas, the European Commission's Directorate-General for Agriculture and Rural Development issues every year a specific report aiming to provide, on a regular basis, a comprehensive set of information on rural areas and the implementation of the EU's rural development policy.

The Rural Development in the European Union - Statistical and Economic Information - Report 2010  gathers information coming from various sources and documents such as Eurostat databases, European Environmental Agency, DG Agriculture and Rural Development's statistical and financial reports and is presented in a structured way and integrated in a single document.

The report points that due to the evolution of Rural Development Policy since year 2000, as well as to the enlargement of the European Union, there are now different financial instruments that have been used to implement the policy. However, for the programming period covered by the 2010 report (2007-2013), considerable simplification has been introduced. A single fund named European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development (EAFRD) has been created to finance Rural Development Policy within Member states, while for candidate countries (i.e. Croatia, Macedonia and Turkey) a specific Instrument for Pre-Accession Assistance (IPA) has been set up with a component dedicated to rural development (IPARD).

The report provides statistical and economic information covering the three objectives of  Rural Development policy 2007-2013, at national and regional levels, namely

• improving the competitiveness of agriculture and forestry
• improving the environment and the countryside
• improving the quality of life in rural areas and encouraging diversification of economic activity

The report makes a statistical description of rural areas for the period covered addressing their situation and statistical description. It also provides an overview of the EU rural development policy for the programming period 2007-2013 describing the policy framework for such period as well as financial aspects and the financial structure of programming.