• The Rural Revitalisation Platform is part of the European Union's Long-Term Vision for Rural Areas strategy.
• It is a one-stop shop where rural communities, rural project owners and local authorities can connect and collaborate by sharing information.
• The Platform will be presented at the Congress "Taking Action to Address Rural Depopulation" organized by the Rural Pact Office

The European Union hopes that rural communities will be stronger, more resilient, and more connected by 2040, ultimately becoming more prosperous. These are the key elements of the " Long-Term Vision for Rural Areas" strategy , presented in 2021 by the European Commission, which includes an Action Plan .

Within this framework—and aimed at making rural areas much stronger—is the "Rural Revitalization Platform ," created to bring together in one place useful information and resources for rural communities facing demographic decline.

For this reason, the Platform was created for all stakeholders working on rural development at the national, regional, and local levels, includingLocal Action Groups (LAGs), the various national rural and CAP networks, and local organizations.

Purpose

The Platform aims to become a self-assessment tool for designing local policies that achieve rural revitalization . The recently opened Rural Pact Office plays a key role in this effort, contributing content and organizing events related to it. Not surprisingly, the Platform will be present at the upcoming Congress "Taking Action to Address Rural Depopulation ," organized by the Rural Pact Office.

Above all, the Platform aims to become a virtual collaborative medium that provides two-way communication channels and interactive tools to facilitate the exchange of experiences and mutual learning among the various rural stakeholders. Therefore, the inclusion of good practices will be particularly important .

Rural revitalization

The keys to successful rural development policies have been identified:

A) Structures: covers the design, coordination and integration of policies at the regional and national levels, through the following factors:

• Integrated strategies
• Multi-level governance

B) People: covers local capacity building and innovation (national, regional and local) through:

• Local capacities
• Territorial cooperation
• Local innovation

Improving these factors gives rural stakeholders greater capacity to address the challenges and opportunities facing rural areas in key areas such as infrastructure, services, social inclusion, the environment, and basic goods.

If you'd like to learn more about rural development factors and self-assessment tools, you can find them here .