The publication of the long-term vision for rural areas by the European Commission is a major success for the European Committee of the Regions (CoR), which has been asking for a rural agenda since 2016. Local leaders welcome the proposal of a Rural Pact and Action Plan setting objectives and reinforcing the political ownership for investment on sustainable rural developments. The CoR appreciates the long-term vision of rural areas in all their diversity and the effort to revitalise them in a way that goes beyond agriculture and considers every policy area through the rural lens. As foreseen in the Commission's proposal, the Committee is ready to promote the mobilisation of local communities in the implementation of the rural action plan and vision. At the same time, the CoR demands that EU's Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) is coordinated not only with cohesion policy but also with the Recovery and Resilience Facility.

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On Thursday afternoon, members of the CoR commission for Natural resources and their counterparts from the Parliament’s Agriculture committee discussed ways to boost recovery in Europe's rural areas and to enable regions to continue to play their role in the preparation and management of future Common Agricultural Policy. MEPs and local leaders agreed that the EU’s future rural development policy must be more ambitious and contain a concrete policy framework that will be monitored and evaluated.

Europski odbor regija (OR) raspravljao je s Januszom Wojciechowskim , europskim povjerenikom za poljoprivredu, o tome kako potaknuti oporavak u europskim ruralnim područjima. Regije i gradovi zahtijevaju „ruralni plan” za postavljanje ciljeva i koordinaciju zajedničke poljoprivredne politike, strukturnih fondova i Mehanizma za oporavak i otpornost kako bi se prevladala kriza u ruralnim područjima, ojačala kohezija, poljoprivredno-prehrambena industrija učinila zelenijom, poduprli lokalni proizvođači i diversificirale mogućnosti rasta u ruralnim zajednicama. U okviru tog ruralnog plana trebalo bi predvidjeti i uključivo upravljanje kojim bi se mobilizirali europski, nacionalni, regionalni i lokalni akteri radi ostvarivanja održivog oporavka u europskim ruralnim područjima. Ta su pitanja naglašena u mišljenju „Strategija EU-a za revitalizaciju ruralnih područja“ (kao istinski poziv na uspostavu ruralnog programa), koje su donijeli članovi i članice OR-a.