Date / Heure
Date(s) - 09 Nov 2016
9 h 30 min - 17 h 00 min
Emplacement
Committee of the Regions/European Economic and Social Committee - Jacques Delors Building, meeting room 51
The CoR NAT Commission together with the EESC NAT Section cordially invite you to the joint conference Cork+20: leaving rural areas behind is no more an option!, to be held on 9 November 2016 in the premises of the CoR-EESC Jacques Delors building, 99-101- rue Belliard, 1040 Brussels, meeting room 51.
The first Cork Declaration, adopted on 9 November 1996, forthrightly requested a fairer balance of public spending and investments between rural and urban areas. In the new Cork 2.0 Declaration adopted on 6 September 2016, there is only one concrete proposal with the potential to have a meaningful impact: the so called “rural proofing”, whose aim would be to systematically review other macro and sectorial policies through a rural lens.
The overall trend seems to be now towards a less ambitious and resolute consideration for the well-being and interests of rural areas. As a consequence, the concept of “rural preference” in the allocation of public funds, which was supposed to become the cornerstone of the nascent rural development policy twenty years ago, is now rather marginal. The only positive development seems to be the preference given to a more bottom-up approach –in contrast with the top-down orientation of the original declaration– which has demonstrated its validity in community-based initiatives such as LEADER and CLLD.
This joint conference has a double objective:
- to discuss with the Commission, the Parliament and the Council –under the rotating presidency of Slovakia– the current state of rural territories, twenty years after the first Cork declaration;
- to urge them to come up with concrete measures on how to implement the “rural proofing” of all EU policies, which will imply the review of the EU structural and regional strategies.
Please register online by 4th November (only registered participants will be granted access to the conference room).
You will find the latest draft agenda enclosed. Please do not hesitate to contact the CoR NAT Commission secretariat (Helene.Moraut@cor.europa.eu / +32 (0)2 282 2161) or the EESC NAT Section secretariat (Arturo.Iniguez@eesc.europa.eu / +32 (0)2 546 8768) should you require further information.
