Rural proofing in the spotlight for the Polish Council Presidency
- Rural Pact
- Rural Revitalisation Platform
- Stronger Rural Areas
- Connected rural areas
- Prosperous rural areas
- Resilient rural areas
Policymakers at EU, local, regional and national levels should achieve a full integration of rural areas into development processes and ensure further investments in infrastructure, education, labour market, health, culture, and the environmental, digital and energy transformations.
© European Union, 2025
The recent meeting (24 February 2025) of the Agriculture and Fisheries Council – gathering of relevant ministers from each EU Member State – exchanged on the implementation of the rural proofing principle. Discussions focused on whether and how it should be improved, and how to better integrate rural development into EU policies.
Rural proofing is one of the key priorities of the Polish Council Presidency in the area of agriculture and rural development.
A responsible inclusion of rural areas in development processes and strengthening their resilience to crises requires the use of the rural proofing principle not only in the sense of examining the impact of draft legislative solutions on the development of rural areas. It also implies taking adequately into account the needs and challenges of rural areas at the stage of designing financial, organisational and strategic planning solutions. See the Presidency note for more information.
“We are advocating that funding for many development-oriented tasks should be provided not only by the common agricultural policy, but also by other EU policies. Furthermore, we are working on cross-sectoral solutions to prevent rural depopulation.”
Czesław Siekierski, Polish Minister for Agriculture and Rural Development and Agriculture and Fisheries EU Council Chair