The European Commission is currently finalising the Leader+ draft guidelines document, having regard to the observations of the European Parliament which have been accepted by the member states. It is expected that the Commission will shortly issue the approved guidelines. Based on these guidelines, member states will draw up operational programmes for Leader+ for forwarding to the Commission for approval with a view to commencement of the Leader+ programme as soon as possible. The Commission over a period of some months will subject the programmes to detailed examination to ensure in particular that they show evidence of significant innovation to the requisite standard for approval.