A changing rural reality requires a fresh approach
European rural policy is out of date and fails to reflect the reality of 21st century Europe, according to a major new report: ‘The New Rural Europe: Towards Rural Cohesion Policy.’ The report calls for a fresh approach, more attuned to contemporary realities and issues – a rural cohesion policy - which can help rural areas play their part in Europe’s emergence from the current economic downturn.
“These findings challenge many stereotypes about rural areas, but these myths still underlie reforms proposed for Europe’s rural policies from 2014,” according to Dr Andrew Copus, of the University of the Highlands and Islands, the project’s leader. “The latest reform proposals do not go far enough. A more radical shift is required, aimed at strengthening the capacity for entrepreneurship and growth in diversified rural economies”.
The report calls for tailored and locally managed approaches to stimulate more effective exploitation of rural potentials, including human and social capital; as such echoing the key message of the influential Barca report on regional policy a couple of years ago. However the European Development Opportunities in Rural Areas (EDORA) researchers make a number of points which apply specifically to rural policy:
- Rural change varies systematically across Europe, reflecting structural forces which cannot be addressed simply through localised, place-based actions. Local action needs to be complemented by macro-scale diagnosis, strategic planning and intervention. A ‘two-tier’ approach is required.
- While agriculture is important to rural areas, (especially in the South and East of Europe), it is rarely associated with rural prosperity. Growth is characteristic of diversified rural economies with a much broader mix of industries.
- The EDORA findings challenge out-dated stereotypes about the origins of rural economic growth. The assumption that growth is an urban phenomenon, and that rural areas benefit mainly through rural-urban linkages is clearly evident in recent EU policy documents. However the EDORA report shows that economic dynamism is just as likely in rural areas, even those which are remote or sparsely populated. Moreover, diversified and prosperous rural economies may be sustained by “translocal”, rather than rural-urban, linkages.
- Europe needs growth in the context of the economic downturn. But the potential of rural economies cannot be fully realised by sectoral rural policies, nor by promoting cooperation and linkages with adjacent urban areas. Instead policies should support rural businesses (across all sectors), as they seek to survive and grow in an increasingly interconnected and globalised world.
“The changing reality of rural Europe in the 21st Century means that a fresh approach is required,” says Dr Copus. “This is especially important in the current economic context, when policies should be supporting growth originating in all sectors and all areas, rural as well as urban.”
For further information contact
Dr Andrew Copus, University of the Highlands and Islands and Nordregio.
Andrew.copus@nordregio.se
07879 667895