the Council was clearly in favou
r of a strong rural development policy which would also make a tangible and signific
ant contribution to achievement of the Lisbon objectives; the
rural development policy would be of benefit not only to farmers but also to the
rural community as a whole and society generally; the
rural development policy would contribute to growth, employment and sustainable development, and to the achievement of sustainable and multif
...[+++]unctional agriculture distributed throughout the territory of the European Union; in this context the Council agreed to include support for innovation and development among the measures to be implemented.