EU Rural vision

On 26 and 27 October 2022, more than 150 mountain stakeholders from all over Europe gathered in Camigliatello Silano in Calabria, Italy, to take part in the XII European Mountain Convention on “Smart mountains: how to make our territories attractive and future oriented”.

Some stakeholders and national authorities in the community are exploring ways to setup a pre-financing system to improve access to EU funds of beneficiaries, such as small rural municipalities, who cannot access these funds because they cannot advance payments. You have a good system in your country financed by state of private banks? Let us know by email EC-RURAL-VISION@ec.europa.eu .

The open call for youth-led actions aims to advance the green transition in EU carbon-intensive regions is covered by the Just Transition Fund and open until 9 January 2023.

The Horizon Europe Work Programme 2023 for food bioeconomy, natural resources, agriculture and the environment has been published and includes calls for proposals (‘topics’ in jargon) that are particularly relevant for rural areas and communities.

SHARED GREEN DEAL is calling for local experiment partners. Find out more about this possibility to apply for € 22 000 to create local change in support of the Green Deal.

The Commission will carry out in 2023 a study on competition for land use and sustainable farming and provide a sound and comprehensive analysis of the main impacts of sectoral developments on land use in the EU’s rural areas.

To deliver on the Green Deal and reach climate neutrality by 2050, this call aims to fund projects that will green the processes and activities of SMEs in the social economy by boosting the development of sustainable practices through capacity building, knowledge transfer and transnational cooperation.

The Commission has launched the second set of calls for proposals under the Connecting Europe Facility Digital programme to support investments in digital connectivity infrastructures. The 5G for Smart Communities action will contribute to the deployment of 5G-based systems that support services of general interest for citizens around the EU.

Congratulations to the five winners who were announced at the Award Ceremony that took place on the 6th of October during the EU CAP Network Launch Event. Successful stories can inspire people to replicate similar initiatives elsewhere, to help rural areas address the challenges they face.

This fifth and last award takes us to Finland, and in particular to the most pessimistic town of the country, even after the project was declared the popular vote winner. The project developed a new type of territorial marketing based on pessimism, a landmark feature of the Puolanka village. By turning pessimism into a positive brand, the project used wicked humour for territorial marketing purposes. Local youth were actively involved in association activities and producing social media content.