27 November 2020, from 9.30 am to 1 pm
 
An event co-organised by the NAT Commission of the European Committee of the Regions and the RUMRA and Smart villages Intergroup, with the support of RED and Euromontana.
The Vice-President of the Commission, Dubravka Šuica, introduced the session alongside Franc Bogovič, by recalling the willingness of her institution to draft a concrete vision and action plan for rural territories, in line with the recovery and Green Deal policies. 
 
The seminar, divided into two parts, is devoted to the lessons to be learnt from the responses of rural territories to the health crisis, and to the recommendations to be developed in a long-term vision for rural territories. Click here to discover a list of solidarity initiatives relayed by R.E.D.
 
At the invitation of R.E.D., the French Secretary of State Joël Giraud, in charge of Rurality, insisted on the need to formalise the Long-Term Vision for Rural Areas within a strategic framework, a European Rural Agenda. Like in France, which adopted a Rural Agenda in September 2019, a European Rural Agenda is an essential tool for the integrated development of rural territories.
 
The President of R.E.D. and the European Countryside Mouvement, Gérard Peltre, insisted on the fact that “Rural areas are a mosaic of resilient rural territories in which local actors cooperate to meet the challenges of a changing world”. He called for the then ongoing consultation on the Long-Term Vision for Rural Areas to lead to a White Paper for rurality. 
 
Gérard Peltre also called on the European Commission to adopt a European Rural Agenda with ambitious and concrete political objectives to reinforce the innovative dynamics of rural territories, to organise intelligent inter-territorial cooperation and to stimulate the mobilisation of citizens in local development strategies. 
 
Clara Aguilera MEP, co-president of the RUMRA & Smart villages intergroup (rural, mountain and remote areas), closed the event by declaring: “We need a horizontal vision when designing the European Rural Agenda, in line with the European Green Deal, enabling citizens that live in rural areas to have good access to basic services and to benefit from equal opportunities with those living in urban areas”.
 
Find the Press Release of the NAT Commission of the Committee of the Regions by following this link.