Debate: A long-term vision for the EU's rural areas
Date: MONDAY, 12 DECEMBER 2022
Speaker: Dubravka Šuica
Language: EN

First, in relation to the budget, one of the EU financing instruments helping the development of rural areas from an agricultural perspective is the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development. I see your proposals for earmarking part of the other dedicated instrument, the European Regional Development Fund, for rural areas. We will analyse it attentively, including from a coordination, synergy and complementarity point of view.  This also brings me to the toolkit on access to EU funds. Our ambition is that this tool will also capitalise on the experience and good examples of rural peers and reproduce successful stories.  We also share the emphasis you put on seizing the opportunity of a rural proofing mechanism to use fully and coherently all relevant policies, as well as your call to implement rural proofing at national, regional and local levels as well. For the European Union Rural Observatory, which went live, as I already said, on 8 December, it is a major milestone to improve the visualisation and accessibility of the data we already have, and improve collection of more detailed territorial data and analysis that are still missing on the needs and challenges of rural areas.  I take this opportunity to let you know that last week the new rural vision website went live. It provides informative pages grouping in one place all the rural vision-related actions and also includes the Rural Observatory.  I want to thank you once again for your support for the creation of the Rural Pact, because our shared goals of the vision can only be achieved if we work together. So our ambition is to gather all the actors playing a role in rural areas. I am confident that the rural vision, with its strategic objectives, including the demographic ones, together with the Rural Pact process and EU operational funding support, is on the right track to deliver on its goals. Next year we will assess our progress and reflect on ways forward.  Since many of you mentioned predation and carnivores, I want to tell you that while predation by large carnivores may not be considered to be a key driver of abandonment of livestock farming in European mountain areas, or cannot be blamed for the demographic challenges of rural areas, it is a particular challenge for livestock grazing in areas where these species have long been absent.  Believe me – as I have repeated several times in this House – we established a new portfolio on demography. A new portfolio on demography is not established by coincidence. We are aware of demographic change and we are aware of territorial disparities. We are aware that, geographically, 80% of European territory is covered by rural areas and we know that only one third of the European population lives there. And we know that this is a huge potential and this is the reason why we adopted and we offer this long-term vision for rural areas.  We will do our utmost to make these areas attractive, prosperous and also efficient again. And we want them to attract newcomers also. This is our goal, too, and this is the reason why we are talking about this under the portfolio of demography. So we want to make these areas vibrant again.  We understand what you are saying on services, on infrastructure. But of course, we are not talking only about farming. We are talking about beyond farming, beyond agriculture, because we know that digital and green priorities, which are priorities of this Commission, should also be implemented in rural areas. And this should be a very important issue in order to have new jobs, new jobs that are not only in farming, but of course we know that farming is very important as we know that we have problems with food nowadays.  So I praise very much the work of the rapporteur and the co-rapporteurs on this resolution. I strongly support your calls on the Council to express its opinion about the future of rural areas in formal Council conclusions. In that regard, we are already in contact with the Spanish authorities, with the Spanish presidency of the Council for the second half of next year, and your call definitely gives further impetus for some genuinely strong conclusions. There is only one more comment from my side. Yes, we want to do this rural tax and all this together, but a lot depends on local, regional and national authorities. Funding is here, but they have to use it in the best possible way and use it consistently. Thank you very much once again and I am looking forward to making this long-term vision a reality together.