The upcoming Commission’s Communication on the topic, to be published mid-2021, will aim to support the debate at European level on the future of rural areas by 2040 and the role that these areas can play in our society. It follows the Roadmap on the long-term vision for rural areas published by the European Commission on 22 July 2020, and the public consultation currently open until 30 November 2020.
The need for designing a long-term vision for rural areas was underlined in President Von der Leyen’s political guidelines and in the mission letters to Vice-President Suica, Commissioner Wojciechowski and Commissioner Ferreira.
In this context, the European Parliament’s Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development (Research for AGRI Committee) has published in September 2020 the in-depth analysis: The upcoming Commission’s Communication on the long-term vision for rural areas, that provides a preliminary examination of the upcoming Commission’s communication on a long term vision for rural areas.
It presents the key features of the communication and its implications for the CAP, takes stock of the current and future EU policy tools to support rural areas and provides background material on the economic, demographic, social and spatial challenges they face. Among the key findings, it is highlighted that the coordination between policies and in particular the coherence between the Cohesion Policy and the CAP rural development policy will be key to ensuring the implementation of the Rural Agenda and avoid overlaps.
The Communication on this long-term vision will also have links to the Commission report on the impact of demographic change and the Green Paper on ageing. In addition, it will embrace further relevant aspects for the future of rural areas including the implementation of the European Green Deal and the Conference on the future of Europe.