Promoting urban-rural cooperation for territorially balanced development

Description

As Eurocities, we have welcomed the Rural Vision 2040 as an opportunity to strengthen urban-rural cooperation in the coming years. This cooperation is key to localise and successfully implement the  European Green Deal on the ground, and to promote a territorially balanced development across Europe in  line with the principles of Cohesion Policy. 
 

To provide a starting point for an internal and external discussion on urban-rural cooperation together with our members we have drafted the policy statement ‘Delivering EU’s Rural Vision 2040 through urban-rural cooperation’ which calls for greater attention to the theme and provides concrete recommendations on metropolitan cooperation can promote urban-rural cooperation. We have developed this policy statement in the context of our dedicated working group on metropolitan areas governance which brings together close to 40 metropolitan areas all over Europe. The statement indicates a strong commitment from our network and in particular our dedicated working group to continue exchanging and working on the theme moving forward. 

As a next step, we are gathering case-studies that will be elaborated into a dedicated publication on urban-rural cooperation. This will be another basis for further discussion, particularly to look at gaps and opportunities in terms of instruments and policies required to bring urban-rural cooperation to the next level.
 

In line with the recommendations of our policy statement, we are also aiming at promoting a political dialogue, both at the European level and at national level, on how to strengthen the cooperation and build reciprocity between territories. We also hope to be able to develop these points at the technical level building on the expertise of our members, in cooperation with other urban and rural stakeholders, and with the support of researchers (e.g. ESPON; JRC). 

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Activities

Expected Outcomes

Continued dissemination and discussion of the recommendations so far developed, highlighting urban-rural partnerships to support the EU Rural Vision implementation. 

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