The European Commission (EC) launched the Rural Pact at the end of December, an initiative within the European Union's (EU) "Long-Term Vision for Rural Areas," which aims to establish a roadmap for rural Europe by 2040.

• June 15 and 16 are the chosen dates
• The conference will bring together regional, national and European Union politicians along with local authorities, social and economic stakeholders.
• The Rural Pact is part of the European Union's Communication on the "Long-Term Vision for Rural Areas"

The European Commission (EC) launched the Rural Pact at the end of December, an initiative within the European Union's (EU) "Long-Term Vision for Rural Areas" that aims to establish a roadmap for rural Europe by 2040.

The participation form invites all rural stakeholders to express their support, taking into account the challenges and aspirations of their rural areas by 2040. This questionnaire is open until June 2022 .

From this date, the EC will organize a conference on June 15 and 16 to compile all the contributions received in the questionnaire and then define the set of actions to be taken. All of these actions will be aimed at developing the 10 objectives sought to be achieved with this Rural Pact, which are the result of the "Long-Term Vision for Rural Areas . "

Conference

The conference provides for participation at 3 levels :

1. Rural representatives: Their presence represents a commitment at all levels of European governments to take the interests of rural areas into account. In this case, case studies will be presented explaining how they are already working to achieve the long-term vision goals.
2. Breakout sessions: Participants will discuss how they can contribute to achieving the goals of the 2040 vision for rural Europe. These sessions will identify common interests and areas where local, regional, and national levels could interact. Since the European Commission has already presented and committed to a Rural Action Plan , the proposed actions will be compiled during the closing session and will form the basis of the Rural Pact work program.
3. Government representatives : participation of high-level political guests from the European institutions and Member States. This is intended to generate buy-in at all levels of government for the policy pact in rural areas.

The conference already has an agenda that you can consult here.

Plenary sessions will also be broadcast live, but not the working sessions. Registration will be published shortly at the following link .

The conference is organised by the European Commission in collaboration with the European Committee of the Regions , the European Economic and Social Committee , the European Parliament , the Presidency of the European Council and the European Rural Parliament .