Thematic Group on Rural Revitalisation
This Thematic Group worked to identify and understand the key enabling conditions to drive rural revitalisation, share best practices and provide inputs for policy.
Context
The Rural Vision identifies the challenges and concerns EU rural areas are facing and highlights some of the most promising opportunities that are available to these territories. The ambition of the Vision is to revitalise rural areas so that by 2040 they are stronger, more connected, resilient and prosperous.
In this context, the Thematic Group (TG) on Rural Revitalisation ran from December 2021 to June 2022.
Note: The TG was organised by the European Network for Rural Development (ENRD) before the official launch of the EU CAP Network on 6 October 2022.
Objectives
The objectives of this TG were to:
- Identify and understand the key enabling conditions to drive rural revitalisation across Europe (e.g. governance, policy alignment, cooperation, innovation, etc.), and share best practices.
- Explore the needs, and develop ideas and recommendations, to help shape the Rural Revitalisation Platform to be developed by the European Commission.
Activities
The first TG meeting (15/12/2021) provided a space for exchange on the key enabling factors that support rural revitalisation, with particular attention to those rural areas affected by population loss, ageing and a lack of economic opportunities.
The second TG meeting (31/03/2022) allowed TG members to draft a tool to support the design of rural revitalisation policies, to provide input for the European Commission's Rural Revitalisation Platform, as well as for the Rural Pact Conference (15-16 June 2022).
Informal online exchanges took place between the two formal TG meetings and allowed for further discussion among the TG members and the exchange of experiences and good practices.
The TG produced a series of outputs that are presented in the Related Publications section further down on this page.
Key findings
The TG identified the key ingredients to be considered in policy design to create an enabling environment for rural revitalisation, namely: high-level political leadership and engagement; enhanced capacities of local actors and authorities to plan and implement action; Local Integrated Strategies backed with flexible and easy-to-access funding; and integrated and multilevel governance structures.
These elements, together with practical inputs for the design of rural revitalisation policies, are collected in the key output of the TG: the briefing Enabling factors for rural revitalisation & a self-assessment tool for policy design.
The TG also allowed sharing inspiring experiences, such as the regional law in Castilla-La Mancha (Spain) to combat rural depopulation, which is available as a downloadable case study.
Importantly, the TG provided a unique opportunity for CAP stakeholders to feed into the upcoming Rural Revitalisation Platform, a flagship initiative of the Rural Action Plan of the Long-Term Vision for Rural Areas. The platform assembles, in one place, information and resources useful for rural communities facing population loss, ageing and demographic decline.
Scroll down this page to find all the outputs of this Thematic Group and relevant resources related to this topic.
Learn more
You can find other useful resources about this theme in our Publications section and in our Good Practice database.
If you have any questions or suggestions, please contact us at [email protected].
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