The EAFRD shall act in the Member States through rural development programmes. These programmes implement a rural development strategy through a set of measures grouped together in accordance with the axes defined in Title IV, for the achievement of which aid from the EAFRD will be sought.

Each rural development programme shall cover a period between 1 January 2007 and 31 December 2013.

A Member State may submit either a single programme for its entire territory or a set of regional programmes.

Member States with regional programmes may also submit for approval a national framework containing common elements for these programmes.