EU to adopt long-term action plan for rural areas

(ANSA) - ROME, JUL 7 - The European Commission has presented a long-term strategy that aims to make the EU's rural areas "stronger, more connected, resilient and prosperous" by 2040.
    This vision features a platform for information exchange, incentives to create innovation systems in the countryside, sustainable mobility strategies and increased access to services and broadband.
    Tuscany Governor Eugenio Giani thinks that it is necessary for "rural communities to become active innovation agents," with the end of the "urban-rural dichotomy" and rural areas seen as "places of opportunities beyond only agriculture".
    In an article in TerritoriAll, a magazine produced by ESPON, the EU programme specialised in the analysis of regional policies, the Tuscan governor explained that "the EU offers several tools to foster innovation potential and for better connecting rural communities".
    He said these included the European Innovation Partnership for Agricultural Productivity and Sustainability.
    Giani added that these tools should be flanked by "a broader adoption of public-private partnerships to create new synergies among sectors and more investments in education, training, social services and security".
    In a statement presenting the new Rural Pact and a Rural Action Plan, the European Commission recommends combining interventions as much as possible with those of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) and the Cohesion Policy.
    It also calls for the adoption of the principle of "rural proofing" all decisions through a rural lens.
    European Commission Vice President for Democracy and Demography, Dubravka Šuica, stressed that the integration of the recovery plans, the cohesion funds and the CAP funds into a single strategy to make rural areas more attractive "today is a necessity".
    Agriculture Commissioner Janusz Wojciechowski said that, at the moment, "there is too much CAP in rural areas and too much cohesion in urban areas.
    "It is time to change," Wojciechowski added.
    Commissioner for Cohesion and Reforms Elisa Ferreira commented: "all the funds have been reinforced with the EU Recovery Plan.
    "The critical element is using them not just with a sectorial outlook, but also with a territorial one, in order for the resources to have a multiplier effect," she added.
    According to the 'Escape' research project carried out as part of the ESPON programme, the EU policies adopted up to now to stop the abandonment of rural areas have not had tangible results.
    It said three rural regions out of five in Europe - 40% of the territory and 30% of the population - have been hit by demographic decline or will be in the coming decades.
    Specifically, it is forecast that the populations of these areas will have fallen to 157 million in 2033, a drop of 21 million with respect to 1993.
    Photo: Tuscany Governor Eugenio Giani. (ANSA).