Road map towards smart rural areas

The European Committee of the Regions, together with the Rurality-Environment-Development Network, calls for the rural dimension to be included in all European policies in order to meet the Europe 2020 objectives

"The concept of 'Smart City' has become the reference for sustainable economic development, but the huge growth potential of rural areas should not be forgotten. Failure to see rural areas as a vital resource could jeopardise the achievement of the Europe 2020 targets and undermine EU territorial cohesion", said Anthony Gerard BUCHANAN on behalf of Randal LÄNTS (EE/PES), rapporteur of the European Committee of the Regions and member of Viljandi City Council, at the 19 April conference on development policy in rural areas in post-2020 programming.

The Commission for Natural Resources (NAT) of the European Committee of the Regions, together with the international organisation Rurality-Environment-Development (R.E.D.), held their second seminar on the future of rural areas, facilitated by Patrice COLLIGNON, director of R.E.D. The meeting was opened by Anthony Gerard BUCHANAN (UK/EA), councillor, East Renfrewshire Council and first vice-chairman of the NAT Commission, who reiterated the need for a European Commission white paper on rural areas and for full recognition of these areas in integration and territorial cohesion policies.

Gérard PELTRE , president of both R.E.D. and the European Countryside Movement (ECM), outlined the major issue: making the rural agenda the strategic reference in the post-2020 programming, an objective shared by the ECM's international NGO partners, the Walloon minister of rurality, René COLLIN, and the French Minister for planning, rurality and local authorities, Jean-Michel BAYLET. In his message, Mr BAYLET fully endorsed "the necessary integration of the specific issues of rurality in the post 2020 strategy".

"Places of opportunity", "areas of excellence and innovation", "territorial development accelerators": these are just some of the expressions used at the conference, acknowledging rural territories as development clusters.

Owing to their demographic diversity, rural areas play an important part in ensuring the success of European integration as centres of development and innovation. To this end, Mihael DUMITRU, deputy general director of the Commission's Agriculture DG, made an appeal to join forces and use European resources for multi-stakeholder rural development.

The MEP and vice-chairman of the EP's Commission for Agriculture and Rural Development, Eric ANDRIEU (FR/S&D), pointed out that in many countries, rural areas were suffering from depopulation and an ageing demographic. “A "CAP for employment" is possible", he said. "It requires a paradigm shift and a new social contract with territories .

In the words of Mercedes Bresso MEP (IT/S&D), chair of the EP's Intergroup on Rural, Mountainous and Remote Areas (RUMRA), "a white paper is now more urgent than ever, since rural areas are faced with a crisis that is linked to difficulties in the EU Common Agricultural Policy. We need to reshape the vision of how rural and mountainous areas should develop, and a white paper by the European Commission is the right tool for putting rural and mountain communities back on the EU political agenda. It would mobilise institutions, stakeholders and experts at all levels, boost innovative strategies that balance the use of natural resources and improve connectivity for both transport and digital broadband".

The representatives of local and regional authorities highlighted the urgent need for:

an increase in financial support for rural development, including an increase in the EAFRD budget, and improved vocational training in those areas;

account to be taken of the rural dimension in all European policies: the first priority should be access to broadband telecommunications networks, a key factor for competitiveness and economic growth, and of urban-rural interdependence;

emphasising the integrated territorial approach in the operational programmes, making wider use of the available ITI and CLLD tools.

The seminar participants thus renewed the call for a white paper on rurality and for the rural agenda to be placed at the heart of the post-2020 EU policy as a matter of necessity. The meeting also provided an opportunity to publicise the R.E.D. proposal for a European political strategy for 2030: "Making Europe grow with rural territories"