• Organised by Rural Pact
  • CEST
  • English
  • European Union
  • Online

This Good Practice Webinar will explore initiatives that strengthen rural competitiveness through business support, access to finance, local value creation and social economy approaches. It will exchange practical examples and lessons on building resilient, diversified and competitive rural economies by valorising territorial assets, supporting entrepreneurship and fostering collective business models.

The event, organised by the Rural Pact Support Office, will explore initiatives that strengthen rural competitiveness by improving access to finance and business support, creating higher value from rural resources and territorial assets, and fostering entrepreneurial and business models, including social economy approaches. 

It will showcase policy measures and practical examples ranging from microfinance and business advisory centres to bioeconomy and circular value chains, quality schemes, territorial branding and cooperative business models. These examples will illustrate different ways of building more resilient, diversified and competitive rural economies that contribute to Europe's overall competitiveness.

English language

Draft agenda

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Objectives
  • Showcase initiatives and good practices that improve access to finance and business support for rural businesses, helping them strengthen their competitiveness, resilience and growth potential;
  • Explore how rural areas can create higher added value from local assets and resources through the bioeconomy, circular economy approaches, quality production, territorial branding and local value chains;
  • Foster peer learning and exchange on the contribution of social economy organisations, cooperatives and other collective business models to competitive, resilient and diversified rural businesses and economies.

The webinar is targeted at stakeholders involved in rural economic development, including business support organisations, social economy actors, financial intermediaries, public authorities, civil society organisations, researchers and project promoters.

Background

The European Commission’s Competitiveness Compass highlights the need to strengthen Europe’s productivity, resilience and competitiveness while advancing the green and digital transitions. Rural areas play an important role in this agenda, hosting a wide range of economic activities beyond agriculture, including manufacturing, renewable energy generation, bio-based industries, tourism, crafts and forestry. However, many rural areas face structural challenges linked to demographic decline, labour and skills shortages, lower productivity levels and more limited access to finance and business support. 

Rural economies are largely composed of micro-enterprises, SMEs, family businesses, cooperatives and self-employed entrepreneurs, which often face additional constraints linked to remoteness, small local markets and weaker connectivity. Strengthening the competitiveness of rural businesses and diversifying rural economies are therefore increasingly important to create local values, strength economic resilience and unluck the potential of rural areas. 

Several EU policy frameworks and initiatives support this objective. Cohesion Policy, and in particular Policy Objective 1 ‘A Smarter Europe’, promotes SME competitiveness, innovation, digitalisation and economic transformation across European regions. 

At the same time, the EU Bioeconomy Strategy identifies rural areas as central actors in the transition towards a more sustainable and circular economy, recognising the potential of sectors such as forestry, bio-based industries, renewable resources and ecosystem services to generate jobs, innovation and local value creation. EU geographical indications and quality schemes support rural producers and SMEs in creating higher added value through territorial identity, authenticity and know-how. The recently established EU framework for Craft and Industrial Geographical Indications further expands these opportunities to non-agricultural products, including rural crafts and artisanal manufacturing.

The EU Social Economy Action Plan also recognises the contribution of cooperatives, social enterprises and other social economy actors to entrepreneurship, local value creation, employment and service provision, including in rural areas. EU initiatives supporting SMEs, social economy actors, clusters and microfinance institutions increasingly acknowledge the specific needs of rural and small-scale businesses, including through microfinance, crowdfunding and community-rooted business support models.

Useful links