Advancing EU rural policies for resilient, inclusive, and future-oriented communities: insights from the Rural Pact Conference 2025
- Rural Pact
- Rural Revitalisation Platform
- Stronger Rural Areas
- Connected rural areas
- Resilient rural areas
- Prosperous rural areas
Over 250 rural stakeholders from across Europe gathered in Pecq, Belgium, on 16–17 September 2025 for the Rural Pact Conference, a two-day event dedicated to generating concrete actions for the EU rural vision. Organised by the Rural Pact Support Office, the Conference focused on shaping policies that strengthen rural resilience, competitiveness, and inclusiveness, while feeding directly into the upcoming update of the EU Rural Action Plan.
Explore the speaker presentations, video recordings and photos from the Conference! A comprehensive highlights report will be made available in the coming weeks.
Empowering rural communities for inclusive and integrated EU policies
The European Commission’s Executive Vice-President for Cohesion and Reforms, Raffaele Fitto, and Commissioner for Agriculture and Food, Christophe Hansen, opened the Conference, emphasising the importance of rural areas for achieving the EU's strategic objectives. Both praised the EU rural vision, Rural Action Plan and Rural Pact as positive initiatives for rural areas, to which the Commission remains committed.
Executive Vice-President Fitto advocated the ‘right to stay’ in one’s home region, with a particular focus on rural areas. This right requires proactive action to ensure people can live, work, and thrive locally. The recent mid-term review of Cohesion policy regulations and the proposed Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF) called for a shift in rural policy governance, advocating greater subsidiarity, clearer accountability, and stronger local ownership, while urging meaningful participation of rural stakeholders.
Quoting the Vision for agriculture and food, Commissioner Hansen stressed that rural areas are essential to Europe’s green and digital transitions, competitiveness, resilience and security. He explained that the new proposals for the post-2027 EU budget and policies offer the necessary objectives and instruments to continue supporting rural areas in simpler and more integrated ways. Encouraging participants to engage in the debate on the next EU budget and policies, he reassured that the Commission will make sure the National and Regional Partnership Plans go in the right direction for rural areas.
In a citizen’s address, Ms. Lina Noreikaitė-Rimkienė from Lithuania shared the reality of rural life with Conference participants. She underlined that rural people have a lot to offer, they are not only asking for support, but need “the EU to meet them halfway”. Empowering people on the ground does not always mean big support, but small and simple funding, “seed money to start a dream”. The ‘right to stay’ requires concrete action to secure jobs, services, and opportunities, particularly for young people, as well as policies that truly listen to and reflect local voices.
High-level perspectives on strengthening rural development in Europe
High-level interventions from Finland, the OECD, and the Rural Pact Coordination Group emphasised that rural development must remain central to EU policy frameworks. Rural areas must be recognised as engines of resilience, innovation, and cohesion, requiring dedicated support in the post-2027 policy framework.
Finnish Minister of Agriculture and Forestry, Sari Essayah, stressed that the vitality of farming and that of rural communities are inseparable, calling for comprehensive policies supporting generational renewal, accessible services, and rural proofing.
OECD’s Dorothée Allain-Dupré countered the myth that rural areas would be in uniform decline, illustrating where rural regions outperform urban ones. She highlighted the importance of investing in digital infrastructure, services, and place-based policies to unlock rural potential that is central to competitiveness, resilience, and the green transition.
Radim Sršeň, Rural Pact Coordination Group Chair, stressed the need to amplify rural voices through stronger coordination and collective advocacy.
Future EU rural policies: priorities, participation, and effective implementation
The session highlighted that EU policies and post-2027 funding must effectively address rural needs. Iliana Ivanova, member of the Court of Auditors, stressed the importance of translating strategies into tangible results, targeting investments to viable projects, and tackling challenges such as broadband access, depopulation, and service delivery.
A high-level panel emphasised the need for place-based, integrated approaches in the National and Regional Partnership Plans, with strong local and regional engagement, rural proofing, ring-fencing of funds for rural areas and LEADER/CLLD, and simplified rules. Panellists called for legislation that strikes the right balance between flexibility and guarantees that rural needs will be addressed. Civil society, local governments, and socioeconomic actors were identified as essential partners to ensure policies reflect local realities, support generational renewal, and foster cohesion and prosperity.
Key priorities for future rural policies identified by the panel include inclusive participation, dedicated funding and capacity building for small organisations, holistic policy support across sectors, urban-rural synergies, and effective governance through instruments such as LEADER/CLLD and Smart Villages. Ensuring the ‘right to stay’, youth involvement, participatory governance, and robust monitoring with territorial and social indicators remain essential to deliver impactful and future-oriented policies.
Shaping the future Rural Action Plan and Pact: emerging recommendations
Opening the second day of the Conference, European Commission Director-General for Agriculture and Rural Development, Elisabeth Werner, highlighted success stories from the Rural Action Plan implementation. She announced the Plan will be updated in early 2026 with actions centred on the key role rural areas can play to contribute to new EU priorities.
EUROSTAT’s Teodora Brandmueller illustrated the progress made with rural statistics and the value of precise data to reveal the specificities of each rural territory.
The second day of the Conference then featured multiple group discussions to collect ideas and recommendations for updating the Rural Action Plan and guiding future actions of the Rural Pact. Place-based strategies, rural proofing, participatory governance, and capacity building for local actors emerged as central themes. Strong rural development depends on integrating EU, national, and local efforts, formalising Rural Pacts in every Member State, and ensuring rural communities have the resources, funding, and enabling conditions to shape their future.
Emerging recommendations from the discussions include:
- Rural society in the digital era: declare connectivity, including 5G, as a service of general economic interest to ensure access to digital infrastructure and technological innovation.
- Rural areas as key players in the energy transition: promote local energy communities and access to energy services, ensuring rural populations benefit from the green transition with reduced legal and bureaucratic barriers.
- Making rural areas attractive for young generations: establish incentivised spaces and mechanisms for youth participation in decision-making at local, national, and EU levels.
- Empowering local communities to enhance resilience: provide localised capacity building and one-stop-shop support to help communities and local authorities implement bottom-up strategies.
- Boosting innovative and competitive rural economies and businesses: improve data collection on rural businesses, foster innovation, and facilitate networking and mentoring.
- Ensuring the ‘right to stay’ in rural areas: create enabling conditions for sustainable rural living, including jobs, services, housing, and innovation spaces.
- Building inclusive rural communities: develop community-sensitive, place-based plans jointly with rural communities to integrate newcomers and vulnerable groups.
- Driving local prosperity through the bioeconomy and bio-districts: strengthen awareness, education and capacity building on bioeconomy, food quality, and organic produce.
In their closing remarks, the Commission’s Deputy-Directors General Hugo Sobral (Regional and Urban policy) and Mihail Dumitru (Agriculture and Rural Development) welcomed the rich inputs from the Conference discussions and invited Rural Pact Community members to engage in the debate on future EU and national policies for rural areas.