On 27th March 2024, the European Commission published a report entitled “The long-term vision for the EU’s rural areas: key achievements and ways forward” presenting the activities of the European Commission conducted in relation to the rural vision and the Rural Pact. The report relates to the communication of the EC published in 2021 entitled “A long-term Vision for the EU’s Rural Areas – Towards stronger, connected, resilient and prosperous rural areas by 2040”.
It is worth reminding that a significant contribution to this communication was ensured by the Horizon 2020 project SHERPA in which participated the ERDN teams from Bulgaria, Czechia, Hungary, Lithuania, Poland and Romania.
The just published report presents, i.e. the role of the Rural Pact Coordination Group (RPCG) of which ERDN is a member as one of the NGOs invited to this group. The RPCG explores the way to develop the Rural Pact and evaluates the progress towards the Rural Pact objectives.
The report also mentions the creation of the EU rural observatory and the importance of improving rural data. In this context the project GRANULAR was named. ERDN is a member of the consortium created for GRANULAR and is responsible for supporting the creation and activities of replication living labs.
Moreover, there are listed Horizon Europe projects directly related to rural development and the Rural Pact objectives including the new ERDN project ESIRA devoted to the development of social innovation in rural areas.