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FUMObil – regional masterplan for the future of mobility

Discover a regional sustainable transport and mobility scheme from Austria, developed through coordinated data analysis, multi-actor engagement and innovative solutions with the aim of improving social inclusiveness.

Find out more about this project, which is also a RIA Awards2020 winner in the category “Climate change mitigation”.

Reminder! There are only a few days left to participate in the Commission’s on-line public consultation on the Long-Term Vision for Rural Areas. If you haven’t already replied, don’t miss the opportunity to have your say before it closes on 30 November 2020. You can read and contribute to it in any official EU language.

DG AGRI has been contacted by some public authorities who had doubts on how, as regional or local collective bodies, to reply to certain obligatory questions in the public consultation on the Long-Term Vision for Rural Areas which appeared to be more addressed to individual citizens. The questionnaire has now been adjusted to facilitate the replies of public authorities. Q1 and 13 no longer appear if you indicate in the drop down menu that you are replying as a public authority. Please note that you also have the option to upload an accompanying document after replying to the questionnaire.

The Long-Term Vision for Rural Areas Workshop Package for National Rural Networks and other stakeholders, entitled 'Welcome to our rural' and prepared by DG AGRI, is now available online on our Long Term Rural Vision Portal. The package is designed to help local groups or other stakeholders to run their own participative Workshops and feed in their views to the Long Term Rural Vision process. Currently it is available in 13 EU languages and other language versions covering the majority of EU languages will be uploaded on the website in the coming weeks.

As trilogues started between the co-legislators, the European Commission has published a new series of documents linked to the CAP Reform. The factsheet ‘Working with Parliament and Council to make the CAP reform fit for the European Green Deal’ provides the overview, the state of play and the essential elements of the Commission proposal, while the Questions & Answers document goes more in-depth and addresses potential questions of various stakeholders involved interested in the process.

For the latest news and more background documents, please visit this webpage. 

Healthy soils are essential to meet climate and biodiversity goals under the European Green Deal. Part of the EU biodiversity strategy for 2030, this initiative will update the current strategy to address soil degradation and preserve land resources (‘land degradation neutrality’). The European Commission would like to hear your views and your feedback will be taken into account for further development and fine tuning of the initiative. This roadmap is open until 10 December 2020.

Marketing standards have been a feature of the EU's agri-food quality policy in the overall CAP framework since its early days. EU marketing standards aim at establishing a standardised and satisfactory quality for agri-food products available on the EU market. 

Learn more about how EU marketing standards contribute to high quality standards for EU agri-food products.

The ENRD is always on the lookout for interesting rural stories. What is your experience with using Rural Development Programmes in your rural area? How is your community reacting to recent challenges such as the COVID-19 pandemic? How do you imagine the future for European rural areas? At the ENRD we will be glad to hear from you and we might use your story in our thematic work, publications and social media. Visit the dedicated webpage and feel free to get in touch if you need further assistance. We look forward to hearing from you!

The EU’s wine policy has played a key role in the sector’s transition towards increased competitiveness, innovation and quality. This is among the key findings of the ‘Evaluation of the CAP measures applicable to the wine sector’, just published by the European Commission which also notes that the EU is the world’s leading producer, consumer and exporter of wine.

Read more about how EU wine policy contributes to maintaining the reputation and competitiveness of EU wine.

The European Commission has adopted the forest reference levels (FRLs) for each Member State to apply between 2021 and 2025. FRLs are benchmarks to calculate the sum of greenhouse gas removals and emissions from existing forests in each Member State. CO₂ removal from existing forest land is the backbone of the EU land use sink and these FRLs are also part of the implementation of the LULUCF regulatory framework for 2021 - 2030.

Read more about the process for setting FRLs and the next steps involved in them becoming operational.

Nearly three out of four Europeans are aware of the common agricultural policy (CAP) and consider that all citizens benefit from it, according to the European Commission’s latest EU-wide Eurobarometer survey which presents a broad spectrum of public opinion about agriculture and the CAP. Almost all respondents (95%) think that agriculture and rural areas are important for ‘our future’ in the EU. Respondents highlighted access to high speed internet as the element that most improved in rural areas over the last 10 years (55% agree), while job opportunities is seen to have deteriorated most (42% agree).

Read the European Commission's press release for an overview of the results and the report for more in-depth information.  

To address challenges i.e. indicators and methodologies, the collection and management of data, or the assessment of net contributions, and to better prepare for the ex post evaluation in 2024, the Evaluation Helpdesk, in collaboration with thematic experts and DG AGRI, have launched the Thematic Working Group ‘Ex post evaluation of RDPs 2014-2020: Learning from practice’. Click here to download and use the updated fiches of the Working Package 2: Sustainable Management of Natural Resources and Climate Action.

The ENRD CP office in Brussels remains closed until further notice due to the COVID-19 outbreak but ENRD activities are all going ahead using digital approaches adapted to the new context. The team is as busy as ever networking, organising and delivering virtual events, producing publications and keeping you abreast of the latest news. 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 ENRD Contact Point and the rural networks of Flanders and Wallonia co-organised the 18th NRN meeting which explored how NRNs have responded to the challenges arising from the COVID-19 pandemic and specific lessons learned in adapting methodologies.

The presentations from the day are available on the event page.

The ENRD Contact Point organised a webinar on 'Preparing the CAP Strategic Plans: Designing the Intervention Strategy'. In response to stakeholders' interest, this half-day event discussed the design of intervention strategies for the future CAP Strategic Plans contributing particularly to the CAP Specific Objectives 1 - 'Fair farm income', 4 - 'Climate change action', and 8 - 'Vibrant rural areas'.

The presentations from the day are available on the event page.

The fourteenth meeting of the European Rural Networks’ Steering Group (SG) exchanged on the Long Term Rural Vision, the CAP Reform and other relevant EU Policy Initiatives. The meeting also provided an update on planned and forthcoming rural networks’ activities.

The presentations from the day are available on the event page.

This is the highlights report of the first meeting of the ENRD Thematic Group on the Long Term Rural Vision. It offers insights for the Foresight exercise that will feed into the forthcoming EU Communication, as well as activities and steps that are planned for developing the Vision, key trends and drivers that are shaping the future of European rural areas and ways to support stakeholder engagement.

This is the highlights report of the first meeting of the ENRD Thematic Group on European Green Deal and Rural Areas. It includes recommendations on how to reduce nutrient leakages and identify the role of rural areas in delivering the Clean Energy Package, as well as how to help EU Member States (MS) design CAP Strategic Plans (CSP) that effectively deliver on these EGD targets.

This report summarises the major outcomes of the Good Practice Workshop, 'Assessment of Resource Efficiency and Climate', which was hosted by the European Evaluation Helpdesk for Rural Development.