10. Points out that municipal authorities with real powers at local level or supra-local level provide a guarantee of successful participation by local civil society, in keeping with the Leader approach; notes that, in all the EU Member States, local authorities are the first tier of the state
with which citizens come into contact and calls, therefore, for rural development measures to include provision for strengthening the capacity
of urban and rural municipalities and for the relevant regional bodies actively to shape development
...[+++]at the local and supra-local levels;