In line with the EU2020 strategy for a smart, sustainable and inclusive growth, the overall Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) objectives offer a holistic and integrated approach to policy support during the 2014-2020 programming period.

In addition, a common and coherent overall EU policy framework is established for all European Structural and Investment Funds (ESIF), including the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development (EAFRD), the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), the European Social Fund (ESF), the Cohesion Fund (CF) and the European Maritime and Fisheries Fund (EMFF), to improve coordination between them and strengthen the complementarity of the different programmes under a Common Strategic Framework (CSF). It is noted that the EU rural development policy was created as a second Pillar of the CAP, with the first (non-CSF) Pillar being direct payments and agricultural market measures. Each Member State (MS) has developed its Partnership Agreement (PA) with the European Commission (EC) before building its RDPs for the 2014–2020 period. This PA is based upon the CSF developed by the EC to reflect the objectives and targets of EU2020 and lays out how each MS will integrate the ESIF. As part of this process MS explored using the multi-fund approach and in particular which funds to use and how to successfully integrate these.