The European Committee of the Regions (CoR) discussed with Janusz Wojciechowski , European Commissioner for Agriculture, how to boost recovery in Europe's rural areas. Regions and cities demand a 'Rural Deal' to set targets and coordinate Common Agricultural Policy, structural funds and the Recovery and Resilience Facility to overcome the crisis in rural areas, strengthen cohesion, make the agro-food industry greener, support local producers and diversify growth opportunities in rural communities. The Rural Deal should also provide for an inclusive governance mobilising EU, national, regional and local actors to deliver a sustainable recovery in Europe's rural areas. These points were reinforced in an opinion on the EU Strategy for Rural Revival (a real call for Rural Agenda) backed by CoR members.

Local and regional leader called today on the European Commission Vice-President, Maroš Šefčovič, to devote every effort to mitigating the effects of the global pandemic and to bring local and regional authorities to the core of the EU resilience and recovery agenda. They stressed their readiness to actively contribute to the design and implementation of European Commission's key initiatives such as the health related covid-19 response, the Climate Pact or the recovery and resilience facility.

​The European Committee of the Regions (CoR) and the European Parliament Intergroup on Rural, Mountainous and Remote Areas (RUMRA)&smart villages intergroup at the European Parliament with the supports of the International Association Rurality-Environment-Development (R.E.D) and Euromontana have organised a conference in Brussels on 27 November to talk about the specific needs of rural areas post-2020.

The first plenary meeting of the Fit for Future (F4F) Platform chaired by European Commission’s Vice-President for Interinstitutional Relations and Foresight Maroš Šefčovič took place with three CoR members Mark Speich (DE/EPP), Anne Karjalainen (FI/PSE) and Ulrika Landergren (SE/RE). The F4F platform is the main instrument of the Better regulation agenda of the European Commission that aims at reducing unnecessary administrative burdens to citizens and businesses and to help make sure that EU legislation is future proof, more digital and better placed to tackle future challenges. The local and regional level of government, which is the closest to the citizens, is represented in the meetings of the F4F platform in the early drafting and the evaluation phases of EU legislation. This is the one of the achievements of the CoR work in the Task force on Subsidiarity and Proportionality.