The Communication of the Commission on the Long-Term Vision for Rural Areas (LTVRA) is planned for June 2021. To prepare this Communication, a roadmap and a public consultation were open in the Autumn 2020.
Mario Milouchev, Director of DG AGRI, took stock of the main message coming out of this consultation (speech available here) during the 3rd meeting of the ENRD Thematic Group on the Long Term Rural Vision, organised on 27th January 2021. He underlined the challenges of demographic changes or green transition, such as the need to take into account the diversity of rural areas, the need to access to good quality and affordable services and the importance of well-being.
In addition, he reflected on 8 main points, quoting directly Euromontana three times to insist on the need to develop rural-proofing, the need of a adequate governance between EU, national, regional and local levels, and the need to develop an integrated and multi-fund approach. Euromontana is particularly pleased to see that its response to the public consultation has inspired the European Commission and hopes that these elements will be integrated into the final Communication.
During the same meeting, the Joint Research Centre (JRC) presented its foresight exercise and its 4 draft scenarios for 2040. These 4 scenarios have been developed to highlight possible futures and their opportunities and challenges, but they do not represent a forecast directly. They should have a decision-making utility and be building blocks to prepare the future Communication on the LTVRA. These 4 draft scenarios (rurbanities / rural renewal / rural connections and rural specialisation) are based on two distinct axes, based on networked /fragmented governance and on expanding / shrinking rural areas. More information on these draft scenarios can be found in the JRC presentation and Euromontana members can directly contact our Director at marie.clotteau@euromontana.org.
