EU Rural vision

Help us identify key areas where the Rural Pact Support Office can offer enhanced support and networking opportunities to the Rural Pact and its community – fill in our short survey by 19 July 2024. The survey is available in 22 EU languages and takes approximately 10 minutes to complete – please share it with your networks! Your feedback will provide valuable insights to help shape the future of EU rural development policies and initiatives.

Sign up to attend our upcoming Policy Action Lab on 19 September 2024 and discover key opportunities for rural communities to benefit from the green transition and enhance their territorial development tools. Express your interest to attend by 27 August.

Our Good Practice Webinar on rural mobility of 20 June 2024 highlighted the importance of understanding local communities’ needs and tailoring mobility solutions as much as possible. Discover the presentations and video recordings for practical local examples and approaches.

The highlights report of the Good Practice Webinar ‘Rural youth participation in policymaking' is now available online. It features a range of successful methods for youth engagement, based on various experiences of rural young people.

Hot off the press! Discover a new set of 10 projects, tools and methodologies from across Europe on topics ranging from energy-efficient house renovations, to strengthening rural youth participation, to transforming rural regions through sustainable tourism.

Rural parliaments are key platforms to encourage the implementation of the EU’s rural vision and important to effectively translate the Rural Pact at the national level. The Swedish and other rural parliaments present important opportunities for synergies and complementarities with Rural Pact initiatives – find out what!

Mountains and mountain value chains play a key role in achieving EU political targets by 2030 and shaping the post-2027 political agenda. The debate on the future EU rural policy is already open and mountain stakeholders are encouraged to actively participate in the forthcoming public consultations.

Unified political support and cooperation across various public administration departments are key to enhance access to health services in rural areas Patricia Martínez, policy analyst at the Rural Pact Support Office, emphasised at Interreg Europe’s webinar of 5 June 2024. Achieving collaboration among departments dealing with education, health, agriculture, and rural development is needed to prevent working in silos and ensure respective regulations are rural-proofed.

The FLIARA project recently launched a Community of Practice and visibility campaign to support and accelerate women-led innovation in rural areas. The new Community, driven by 20 ambassadors, will enable networking and collaboration among key stakeholders, and share success stories of innovative women-led practices.

The new, EU-funded SERIGO project will work between 2024 and 2027 to enhance the resilience, social inclusion, and well-being of vulnerable groups in European rural areas through socially innovative solutions involving social economy actors.

Discover a new set of resources on eight Horizon 2020 research projects that demonstrate the EU’s commitment to conserving Europe’s cultural heritage and transitioning to sustainable cultural tourism. The projects results include analysis and tools of particular relevance for rural, remote and peripheral areas.

The EU-funded SMARTA-NET project has produced two guidance documents on enhanced rural mobility solutions, based on existing knowledge and practical experiences.

A new OECD paper identifies factors that can support social innovation in rural areas, provides guidance for policymakers, and proposes an approach to measure readiness and capacity to embark on rural social innovation.

A new report by EUROCROWD highlights the potential of crowdfunding to transform Spanish rural areas by fostering innovation and community engagement. It further stresses the importance of supportive policies and infrastructure to sustain the benefits of these actions. The report is available in English and Spanish.

A new publication by the LIFE-funded RENOVERTY project overviews the specific characteristics of EU rural areas regarding energy efficiency and energy poverty.