On 25 February 2021, members of the Polish MAP Zielone Sąsiedztwo held an online meeting to sum up the first MAP cycle and to discuss the SHERPA Position Paper in comparison with the MAP’s own Position Paper.
During this meeting, the Polish SHERPA team presented shared characteristics of visions for European rural territories by 2040 mentioned in the SHERPA position paper together with the indication whether the MAP’s own position paper also included these characteristics.
The MAP members found it very surprising that despite diversity of rural areas in the European Union and their different level of socio-economic development the MAPs identified similar needs and issues that must be tackled to make the EU rural areas attractive territories for living and working.
The figure below shows the percentage of MAPs mentioning in their position papers the five most popular characteristics of visions. The green bars show the characteristics that were also indicated by the Polish MAP Zielone Sąsiedztwo. The only top-five issue that was not mentioned in Poland was sustainable and stable demographic structure. However, during a discussion the MAP members agreed that this issue is also vital for rural areas in Mazowieckie region, Poland.
