• The National Rural Network (RRN) is organizing a meeting on "Young People and the Long-Term Vision for Rural Areas in the European Union."
• The Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, Luis Planas, opened the meeting.
• The European Commission has set out a long-term vision for rural areas in the EU until 2040, which includes a Rural Action Plan.

For this reason, the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, Luis Planas, inaugurated the National Rural Network (RRN) conference on "Young People and the Long-Term Vision for Rural Areas in the European Union." and in which nearly 200 people have participated.

Luis Planas highlighted the intensive work being done by the Ministry in designing the future Strategic Plan for the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP). The new CAP for the period 2023-2027 addresses three key challenges for Spain:

1. Generational change , since without the next generation there is no future.

That's why, during this semester, the National Rural Network's work is focused on the younger population in rural areas, who will be the long-term protagonists of our rural areas.

2. The gender gap , since without women “there is no future,” as Luis Planas has expressed.

In this regard, the Ministry has played a key role in the gender approach of the new CAP, guiding it towards equality .

3. The digitalization of rural areas, which will enable the development of new business models and the optimization of existing ones.

In this regard, the minister emphasized that connectivity throughout the country is a commitment of this government, and that is why broadband will reach the entire country by 2025, including rural areas.

Day

María Gafo, from the Directorate-General for Agriculture (DGAgri) in Brussels, presented the communication on the long-term vision for rural areas in the EU until 2040, which the European Commission (EC) published last July.

Gafo reviewed the four areas of action on which this vision is based, and which the RRN used to classify the day's participants by thematic rooms:

• Strength : through the provision of services. Innovation plays a key role here.
• Connectivity : strengthening transport systems and internet connectivity.
• Resilience : environmental, agricultural and social sustainability (inclusion).
• Prosperity : through the diversification of economic activities in rural areas.

Gafo noted that, in the public consultation launched by the European Commission to design this long-term vision in 2020, Spain was the EU country with the greatest participation.

Challenges and measures

María Gafo outlined the challenges Europe must address by 2040: the demographic challenge, income deficit, public services, physical and digital connections, and—to top it all off, and as a new development—the recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic facing rural and urban areas.

Therefore, the Communication of the Long-Term Vision for Rural Areas proposes the development of both a Rural Pact and a Rural Action Plan by the European Union.

The Rural Pact involves local, regional, national, and EU stakeholders who will participate in achieving the common objectives of the vision and promoting economic, social, and territorial cohesion. To this end, they will use the rural networks of each Member State as a framework for contact and discussion. The Rural Action Plan includes the provision of political support to rural areas through the CAP and cohesion policy.

Calendar and next steps to follow

The EC has set the following deadlines for achieving its long-term vision for rural areas:

• By the end of 2021 : The EC and the Committee of the Regions will define the paths to be taken to achieve the objectives.
• 2021-2023: launch of the Rural Pact .
• End of 2023 : evaluation of the Rural Action Plan .
• 2024: Reflections on the new programming period 2028–2034.

The NRN and Rural Europe 2040

In Spain, the National Rural Network (RRN) was responsible for disseminating, encouraging, and supporting local organizations to organize participatory workshops—through its Regional Antennas—and for sending the results to the European Rural Network.

To this end, the RRN's Regional Antennas held a total of ten outreach sessions between January 8 and 13, 2021, and were later responsible for compiling the results of the workshops organized by the local rural development entities of the autonomous communities. The results obtained were as follows .

You can find more information on the long-term vision for rural areas in the EU here .