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23 Oct 2025

New report on rural resilience through a gender lens

Gender-sensitive rural development is an investment in the long-term resilience of rural communities – a recent report by the EU-funded project GRANULAR explores the intersection of gender and rurality in shaping employment outcomes across Europe.

23 Oct 2025

Rural youth joining forces for a better future

How do young people see the future of their villages and mountain communities? That’s the question behind the Erasmus+ ECO project which brought together teenagers from France’s Hautes-Pyrénées and Spain’s Sobrarbe regions to explore what connects them – and what challenges they share.

22 Oct 2025

Europe’s climate transition starts locally: insights from the EU Covenant of Mayors Ceremony

Europe’s path to climate neutrality will be shaped locally – empowered municipalities, equipped with resources and partnerships, are key to achieving Europe’s climate ambitions. The 2025 edition of the EU Covenant of Mayors Ceremony of 16 October confirmed the essential role of local and regional governments in delivering the climate and energy transitions.

22 Oct 2025

What does our energy and climate future look like? Insights from the IEECP conference

A successful European energy transition requires coordinated policies, community engagement, and evidence-based innovation replication. The IEECP conference of 15-16 October set out a roadmap for implementing efficient, resilient, fair, and smart energy strategies, ensuring Europe meets its climate objectives, while fostering prosperous and empowered rural communities.

21 Oct 2025

Rural youth call for choice and opportunity: new EURYO policy brief highlights ‘im/mobility’ as a right

A new policy brief by the European Rural Youth Observatory (EURYO) calls for a transformative shift: from viewing youth mobility as a symptom of rural decline to seeing it as a vital expression of choice and renewal.

20 Oct 2025

STRAT-Board: a new tool to explore Europe’s Integrated Territorial Strategies

Explore the interactive STRAT-Board platform for a visual overview of integrated territorial strategies across Europe. The tool maps out strategies supported under cohesion policy funds during both the 2014–2020 and 2021–2027 programming periods, offering valuable insights for rural, regional, and urban development.

17 Oct 2025

First rural depopulation Congress spotlights European cooperation through the Rural Pact

Europe’s demographic resilience depends on empowering rural communities and ensuring that even the smallest villages remain “alive and full of future,” a headline message from the first International Congress on Depopulation of 23–24 September, Aragón, Spain.

16 Oct 2025

Rural Impact Hub: shaping the future of rural Portugal through social innovation

The Rural Impact Hub (RIHU) is not a common incubator, it’s a living ecosystem for rural innovation inspired by the natural flow of a river. Born in the Mirandese Plateau, on Portugal’s northern border with Spain, RIHU springs from the desire to transform rural areas into vibrant, sustainable and inclusive places.

15 Oct 2025

Social economy conference highlights potential for regional revitalisation

The social economy is a driver of innovation, employment and service provision, but it faces a visibility challenge that requires a shared narrative recognising its full contribution across Europe’s rural and regional territories. This headline message emerged from a dedicated social economy conference of 3 October in Gorizia, Italy.

13 Oct 2025

Insights into business dynamics in rural regions: new JRC report

A new analysis from the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre (JRC) sheds light on persistent gaps and emerging strengths in rural entrepreneurship across the EU, revealing that it has significant potential if supported by integrated, place-based policies.