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Family farm eco-business focuses on adaptation to climate change.

Discover how a Czech eco-farm, implementing agri-environment-climate measures, fostered ecosystem services and climate adaptation on-farm, as well as promoting wider uptake throughout the farming community.

Find out more about this project, which is also a RIAwards2020 winner.

This consultation aims to collect views on current opportunities and challenges in rural areas, aspirations for rural areas in 2040 and the actions needed to achieve these aspirations. If you are interested in the future of EU rural areas and their inhabitants, participate and share your opinion by 30 November 2020.

You can find more information about the public consultation here and about the long-term vision for rural areas initiative here. Also read about the ENRD’s work on this topic here.

This sector will play an important role in achieving the European Green Deal ambition, and reaching the objectives set out in the Farm to Fork and Biodiversity Strategies. The questionnaire will be available online until 27 November 2020.

You can find out more information and related documents here, as well as a comprehensive set of Questions and Answers on the European Green Deal and organic farming here.

In her first State of the Union address on 16 September 2020, President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen presented her vision for a Europe that emerges stronger from the pandemic and leads the way towards a new vitality. The key messages for the future are the need for Europe to become green (stressing the European Green Deal) and to develop and release its digital economy potential. Both these key political elements also hold potential for development of rural areas (i.e. new approach to green energy and hydrogen valleys, ensuring full coverage of rural areas with broadband).

For more information about the State of the Union 2020, including President von der Leyen's speech, Initiatives proposed in the Letter of Intent to President Sassoli and Chancellor Merkel, and ‘Von der Leyen Commission: one year on’, please visit this webpage.

The ENRD Contact Point has recently set up two new Thematic Groups, one on the Long Term Rural Vision and one on the European Green Deal in Rural Areas and more information on their work will follow soon. The groups are meeting virtually for the first time at the end of September 2020. Keep an eye on our website and on our social media channels to find out the latest news!

'Farmers of the future' is a foresight study being carried out jointly by the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre (JRC) and its Directorate General for Agriculture and Rural Development (DG AGRI). The study aims at identifying possible future professional roles of farmers in 2040, and at exploring the potential implications for relevant EU policies.

For more information on the study and other projects in the EU Policy Lab, please consult this webpage.

The European Commission published a Demography Report that presents the main drivers of demographic change and the impact they are having across Europe.

The report highlights differences between urban and rural areas such as population size and density or the quality of life, infrastructure and access to services, noting that effective policy responses to challenges at a regional level have to reflect the reality on the ground. At the same time it launches a process that will help identify concrete actions and solutions, mindful of lessons learned from COVID-19, to support people, regions and communities that are most affected and to enable them to adapt to changing realities and ensuring that no region and no person is left behind. The report will also feed into the preparation of the Long term Vision for Rural Areas.

The Irish National Rural Network (NRN) is launching a NRN LEADER Impact Campaign. The purpose of this campaign is to celebrate the impact of the LEADER Programme, which has been in operation in Ireland since 1991, on rural communities across the country. Impacts refer to a positive change that has resulted due to the LEADER programme, that may have not been possible otherwise. They can be tangible, such as a much-needed community amenity or service, or something intangible, like an increased sense of community pride or well-being.

The FARMID project has created an e-learning platform to give to anyone interested in employing people with mild intellectual disabilities (PMID) on their farms, providing the opportunity to access training resources and materials. It is composed of five modules and aims at equipping farmers with the necessary knowledge, skills and competences for the establishment of an on-farm social enterprise with special emphasis on inclusion of PMID through employment on farms.

The project has also created guidelines on how to employ PMID on farms and have developed several best practice case studies. FARMID was co-funded by the Erasmus+ Programme.

More than 300 agriculture-related examples are available in our database of projects supported by EAFRD under EU Rural Development Programmes

These cover a wide range of topics such as risk management tools for farmers, promotion of organic production, supporting areas suffering from natural handicaps, forestry, farm diversification, young farmers and many, many more. See, search and share these agricultural projects from the ENRD website's database.

The Spanish Ministry of Culture has published a map of cultural projects with links to rural areas in Europe. The cartography already collects over 150 projects and is open to new submissions.

The tool is expected to foster exchanges, learning and collaborations between European cultural and rural agents.

The ENRD is continuing and extending its work of collecting examples of projects and initiatives launched primarily by rural communities to cope with the COVID-19 pandemic, support rural businesses and foster solidarity with those more vulnerable in this exceptional situation.

This page aims to disseminate good examples that can inspire other rural stakeholders, and also provides information about European Commission initiatives aimed at alleviating the current challenges faced by rural Europe and promoting recovery. To submit your contributions, contact: publications@enrd.eu.

The ENRD CP office in Brussels remains closed until further notice due to the COVID-19 outbreak and as teleworking increasingly becomes a new norm. However, our team remains fully operational and available via email, social media and our website. We invite you to keep an eye on the Upcoming Events section of our website, where we list relevant forthcoming events. Feel free to contact us at any time!

The latest EAFRD Projects Brochure 'Vibrant rural areas' presents 12 projects which used EU rural development support to help their rural areas become, or remain, attractive places to live and work.

The highlights report of the ENRD Workshop on Vibrant Rural Areas: Access to Services examines the accessibility of services across rural Europe and the role of public support, including that of the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development (EAFRD).

The three case studies focus on concrete examples from various EU Member States which aim to find innovative solutions to different aspects of climate change and low-carbon transition in agriculture.

The Evaluation Helpdesk has published the Working Package 1: Balanced Territorial Development, a tool to assess RDP effects on achieving balanced territorial development of rural economies and communities.