‘Smart Villages’ project

6.2.2017

Question for written answer E-000828-17
to the Commission
Rule 130
Viorica Dăncilă (S&D)

The ‘Smart Villages’ project is a pioneering project that can be used as a solution in the development of rural areas and in the reduction of the disparity between rural and urban areas in, for example, the IT and e-services sectors.

The ‘Smart Villages’ project requires an adequate strategy at EU level that works with European regional policy, and its objectives should include: reducing urban overcrowding and pollution, resettling young people in rural areas, creating employment and reducing the risk of depopulation in rural areas, and encouraging elderly people to return to living in the countryside through programmes designed to achieve active ageing, developing biological areas, and so on.

With a view to supporting the development of as many ‘Smart Village’ projects as possible in the EU, how will the Commission work with the Member States on the exchange of good practices through the creation of platforms at a European level, and on cross-border collaboration with third countries?