Event - Seminar

Policy Lab ‘Enhancing policy coordination for vibrant rural areas: Learning from experience to build a sustainable rural future’

This Policy Action Lab, organised by the Rural Pact Support Office, explored the best policy tools to ensure institutional, governance and integrated support for rural areas at all levels. It further discussed how to improve the availability of policy-relevant information on rural policy tools and funding streams, without increasing the administrative burden.

Organised by Rural Pact
28 Nov 2024, 09:00 - 28 Nov 2024, 16:30 CET
English
Hotel Le Plaza Brussels - Brussels, Belgium
In-person

English language

Agenda

(PDF – 209.22 KB)

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Objectives

Facilitate reflection on existing national and regional rural strategies and action plans, including identification of key challenges and lessons learned;
Enable critical analysis concerning the availability of information on the various streams of funding and policy tools targeted at rural areas, and scope for improvements;
Develop proposals and recommendations for the way forward with EU policy tools for the achievement of the rural vision.

The event took place in Brussels and was held in English with no interpretation. Travel and accommodation costs were covered for a limited number of accepted participants.

Videos

Background

The European Commission’s report on ‘The long-term vision for the EU’s rural areas: key achievements and ways forward’ published in March 2024 shows the significant progress achieved in the implementation of the rural vision. During the last months of 2024, EU policymakers, including the new European Parliament and the College of European Commissioners, will be speeding up the preparation of the European policy and funding package post 2027.

This crucial time is an opportunity to mobilise rural stakeholders and policymakers and discuss how the rural challenges and opportunities can be taken into account in all public policies, both at the EU level and in Member States and regions.

It would be particularly important to ensure that funds and other policy tools with an impact on rural areas are effectively integrated to ensure complementarity and synergies. Additionally, monitoring information on how these funds are spent in rural areas needs to be readily available and feed into the policymaking process.

This Policy Action Lab offered an opportunity to discuss how policy tools for EU rural areas can be improved. In particular, the exchange of views focused on two of the nine open questions asked by the European Commission in its report on the implementation of the rural vision, namely:

What are the best policy tools to ensure institutional, governance and integrated support for rural areas at all levels? At EU level, would turning the rural vision into a strategy have added value in terms of meaningful actions on the ground? How can the EU further help Member States, regions and local communities develop national and regional rural strategies and action plans?
How to improve the monitoring and assessment of the resources from the different EU funds and programmes?

The event put in place innovative and interactive methods of group work to facilitate exchange and peer learning among rural policymakers.

Target audience

The Policy Lab gathered 100 participants:

Policymakers at national and regional levels in charge of designing, implementing and monitoring policies with an impact on rural areas;
Rural stakeholders involved in advocacy and representing the voice of rural communities.