REPORT on a long-term vision for the EU's rural areas – Towards stronger, connected, resilient and prosperous rural areas by 2040

8.11.2022 - (2021/2254(INI))

Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development
Rapporteur: Isabel Carvalhais
Rapporteur for the opinion of the associated committee pursuant to Rule 57 of the Rules of Procedure:
Álvaro Amaro, Committee on Regional Development

Procedure : 2021/2254(INI)
Document stages in plenary
Document selected :  
A9-0269/2022


PR_INI

CONTENTS

Page

MOTION FOR A EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT RESOLUTION

EXPLANATORY STATEMENT

OPINION OF THE COMMITTEE ON REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT

OPINION OF THE COMMITTEE ON WOMEN'S RIGHTS AND GENDER EQUALITY

INFORMATION ON ADOPTION IN COMMITTEE RESPONSIBLE

 



 

MOTION FOR A EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT RESOLUTION

on a long-term vision for the EU's rural areas – Towards stronger, connected, resilient and prosperous rural areas by 2040

(2021/2254(INI))

The European Parliament,

 having regard to the Commission communication of 30 June 2021 entitled ‘A long-term vision for the EU’s rural areas – Towards stronger, connected, resilient and prosperous rural areas by 2040’ (COM(2021)0345),

 having regard to the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the Sustainable Development Goals,

 having regard to the Paris Agreement reached at the 21st Conference of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change,

 having regard to Articles 39 and 174 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU),

 having regard to Council Regulation (EU, Euratom) 2020/2093 of 17 December 2020 laying down the multiannual financial framework for the years 2021 to 2027[1],

 having regard to Regulation (EU) 2021/1119 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 30 June 2021 establishing the framework for achieving climate neutrality and amending Regulations (EC) No 401/2009 and (EU) 2018/1999 (‘European Climate Law’)[2],

 having regard to Regulation (EU) 2021/2115 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 2 December 2021 establishing rules on support for strategic plans to be drawn up by Member States under the common agricultural policy (CAP Strategic Plans) and financed by the European Agricultural Guarantee Fund (EAGF) and by the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development (EAFRD) and repealing Regulations (EU) No 1305/2013 and (EU) No 1307/2013[3],

 having regard to Regulation (EU) 2021/2116 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 2 December 2021 on the financing, management and monitoring of the common agricultural policy and repealing Regulation (EU) No 1306/2013[4],

 having regard to Regulation (EU) 2021/1060 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 24 June 2021 laying down common provisions on the European Regional Development Fund, the European Social Fund Plus, the Cohesion Fund, the Just Transition Fund and the European Maritime, Fisheries and Aquaculture Fund and financial rules for those and for the Asylum, Migration and Integration Fund, the Internal Security Fund and the Instrument for Financial Support for Border Management and Visa Policy[5],

 having regard to Regulation (EU) 2021/694 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 29 April 2021 establishing the Digital Europe Programme[6],

 having regard to its resolution of 27 October 2016 on how the CAP can improve job creation in rural areas[7],

 having regard to its resolution of 4 April 2017 on women and their roles in rural areas[8],

 having regard to its resolution of 15 November 2017 on an Action Plan for nature, people and the economy[9],

 having regard to its resolution of 30 May 2018 on the future of food and farming[10],

 having regard to its resolution of 3 October 2018 on addressing the specific needs of rural, mountainous and remote areas[11],

 having regard to its resolution of 8 March 2022 on the role of cohesion policy in promoting innovative and smart transformation and regional ICT connectivity[12],

 having regard to its resolution of 8 October 2020 on the European Forest Strategy – The Way Forward[13],

 having regard to its resolution of 20 October 2021 on a farm to fork strategy for a fair, healthy and environmentally-friendly food system[14],

 having regard to its resolution of 9 June 2021 on the EU Biodiversity Strategy for 2030: Bringing nature back into our lives[15],

 having regard to the Commission communication of 11 December 2019 on the European Green Deal (COM(2019)0640),

 having regard to the Commission communication of 20 May 2020 entitled ‘A Farm to Fork Strategy for a fair, healthy and environmentally-friendly food system’ (COM(2020)0381),

 having regard to the Commission communication of 20 May 2020 entitled ‘EU Biodiversity Strategy for 2030 – Bringing nature back into our lives’ (COM(2020)0380),

 having regard to the Commission communication of 12 November 2021 entitled ‘Contingency plan for ensuring food supply and food security in times of crisis’ (COM(2021)0689),

 having regard to the Commission communication of 16 July 2021 entitled ‘New EU Forest Strategy for 2030’ (COM(2021)0572),

 having regard to the Commission communication of 4 February 2022 on the 8th Cohesion Report: Cohesion in Europe towards 2050 (COM(2022)0034),

 having regard to the Commission report of 17 June 2020 on the impact of demographic change (COM(2020)0241),

 having regard to the Commission green paper of 27 January 2021 on ageing – fostering solidarity and responsibility between generations (COM(2021)0050),

 having regard to the Cork 2.0 Declaration entitled ‘A Better Life in Rural Areas’, adopted by the parties to the European Conference on Rural Development held in Cork in September 2016,

 having regard to the Bled Declaration for a smarter future of the rural areas in the EU, signed in Bled, Slovenia, on 13 April 2018,

 having regard to the UN Declaration on the Rights of Peasants and Other People Working in Rural Areas, adopted by the Human Rights Council on 28 September 2018,

 having regard to its resolution of 3 May 2022 on an EU action plan for organic agriculture[16],

 having regard to general recommendation No. 34 (2016) of the UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women on the rights of rural women, adopted on 7 March 2016,

 having regard to Principle 20 of the European Pillar of Social Rights,

 having regard to the study requested by Parliament’s Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development entitled ‘The future of the European Farming Model: Socio-economic and territorial implications of the decline in the number of farms and farmers in the EU’, published by Policy Department for Structural and Cohesion Policies in April 2022,

 having regard to the Commission communication of 25 March 2021 on an action plan for the development of organic production (COM(2021)0141),

 having regard to its resolution of 24 March 2022 on the need for an urgent EU action plan to ensure food security inside and outside the EU in light of the Russian invasion of Ukraine[17],

 having regard to the Commission staff working document of 8 April 2021 entitled ‘Evaluation of the impact of the CAP on generational renewal, local development and jobs in rural areas’ (SWD(2021)0078),

 having regard to the opinion of the European Committee of the Regions of 26 January 2022 entitled ‘A long-term vision for the EU’s rural areas’[18],

 having regard to the opinion of the European Economic and Social Committee of 23 March 2022 entitled ‘A long-term vision for the EU’s rural areas’[19],

 having regard to Rule 54 of its Rules of Procedure,

 having regard to the opinions of the Committee on Regional Development and the Committee on Women’s Rights and Gender Equality,

 having regard to the report of the Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development (A9-0269/2022),

A. whereas rural areas represent around 83 % of the total EU territory and are home to around 137 million people (30 % of the EU population); whereas the EU’s rural areas are of great importance as places for food production, forests and energy production, in particular renewable energy, as well as for delivering on the European Green Deal, climate neutrality and the Sustainable Development Goals; whereas rural areas, in particular remote and less developed rural regions, mountainous areas, islands and outermost regions face specific long-term unresolved challenges and a lack of recognition of their unique potential for development and innovation;

B. whereas the overall share of population in rural areas has been decreasing slightly at EU level over the past decade, and significantly over the past 50 years, due to ageing and outmigration (urbanisation); whereas the share of people aged over 65 years is generally the highest in rural areas, and is expected to increase in the future; whereas populations are likely to shrink in four out of five rural regions of the EU by 2050, with remote rural areas set to lose further inhabitants;

C. whereas Article 174 TFEU states that the Union must aim at reducing disparities between the levels of development of the various regions, paying particular attention to certain regions, notably rural areas; whereas, in order to achieve sustainable development, rural territories must receive adequate financial support;

D. whereas the average employment rate in the EU’s rural areas evolved favourably from 2012 to 2020, although with differences between Member States and with variations in the quality of employment on offer; whereas the share of population that is at risk of poverty or social exclusion is higher in rural areas than in cities and towns;

E. whereas the working conditions of a considerable proportion of workers employed in the EU agricultural sector are extremely challenging and precarious, characterised by poor wages, long working hours, undeclared work, high incidence of accidents and illness and deplorable housing conditions;

F. whereas access to water services, sanitation, road connectivity, healthcare, education, broadband internet and other basic services is essential for the development of rural areas; whereas households in some rural areas still do not have access to essential basic services, notably water and sanitation services, while differences persist between the Member States[20]; whereas transport infrastructure and connections have been identified by citizens as the key needs in rural areas;

G. whereas ultra-high-speed broadband connections are available to only one in six rural residents; whereas there is a substantial gap between rural and urban areas concerning basic digital skills, with 28 % of adults living in rural areas possessing basic or above basic digital skills, compared to 62 % of adults living in cities (2019); whereas significant differences among the Member States regarding internet connectivity still persist, while in some Member States up to 25 % of rural households still do not have access to the internet[21];

H. whereas gender equality is a fundamental value of the EU, recognised in the Treaties and in the Charter of Fundamental Rights; whereas significant gender inequalities persist in rural areas, with women suffering from higher rates of unemployment, precarious contracts and informal working conditions, as well as being under-represented in decision-making bodies such as agricultural cooperatives, trade unions and municipal governments;

I. whereas the number of farms in the EU-27 declined by 32 % between 2003 and 2016, with the decline strongest among small farms below five hectares(38 %); whereas in 2016, there were 10.5 million farms in the EU, of which the majority (92 %) were family farms; whereas by 2040, the EU might lose an additional 6.4 million farms, resulting in a remaining number of approximately 3.9 million farms across the EU, an extraordinary 62 % decrease compared to 2016;

J. whereas in 2016, for every farmer younger than 35 years of age, there were more than six farmers over 65 years of age[22], making the ageing of the EU’s farmers one of the greatest challenges rural areas are facing; whereas the share of young female farmers is especially low;

K. whereas EU livestock farms employ around 4 million people and are the main beneficiary of common agricultural policy (CAP) second pillar aid to farms in disadvantaged areas, which account for 50 % of the utilised agricultural area in the EU;

L. whereas the thematic groups of the European Network for Rural Development have proven to be an effective tool for public-private territorial partnerships; whereas these groups have succeeded, moreover, in providing a single forum in which to address issues related to territorial revitalisation, innovation, bottom-up and integrated approaches in agriculture and rural development, decentralised management, networking integration and cooperation;

M. whereas one of the objectives for the CAP for the current programming period is to promote employment, growth, gender equality including the participation of women in farming, social inclusion and local development in rural areas;

N. whereas concerns have been raised about the negative effects of mining activities on water, protected areas and the environment, and the ecological damage it can cause to the surroundings and to other sources of livelihood, potentially affecting people’s incomes, health and quality of life[23];

1. Challenges and opportunities for stronger, resilient and inclusive rural areas

1. Highlights the historical, geographical, economic and social diversity of rural areas across the EU; recalls that rural areas close to urban centres, coastal areas, cross-border areas or mountainous areas, in outermost regions and in sparsely populated areas face different challenges requiring tailored-made targeted solutions, to be implemented in cooperation with local stakeholders;

2. Stresses that policies and actions at EU level combined with national, regional and local ones with a place-based approach, are key to securing the prosperity and well-being of rural European citizens, as well as to tackling the challenges they face, namely population decline and ageing, higher risk of poverty and social exclusion and fewer quality job opportunities; recalls that rural areas have a per capita GDP significantly below the EU average;

3. Highlights further that rural areas lack access to high-quality services of general interest such as water services, sanitation, road connectivity, healthcare, childcare and quality education and training, and that they are poorly connected, with limited transport options and a lack of high-speed broadband, as well as of other basic services such as postal and banking services, in addition to the insufficient quality and availability of housing, climate and environmental pressures, the gender equality gap and limited opportunities for innovation and access to technological developments; points out that remoteness adds a significant element of  difficulty in rural areas;

4. Highlights that demographic decline and ageing will affect all regions but most particularly rural areas due to population shift towards urban areas and youth outmigration, which will negatively influence their growth potential, quality of life, skills development and access to services; notes that public policies have not been able to reverse the trend of depopulation in rural areas;

5. Highlights the central role rural areas can play in addressing social, economic and environmental challenges, by providing ecosystem services to mitigate climate change and environmental deterioration, ensuring sustainable, sufficient food production, including organic food, preserving tangible and intangible rural heritage, fostering nature conservation and biodiversity, and providing unique cultural landscapes for leisure and recreation purposes, as well as developing the circular economy and contributing to a just, green and digital transition;

6. Stresses in this regard the synergies between rural communities, environmental protection, food security and animal welfare awareness; stresses the need to adequately support farmers and compensate them for the provision of public goods and ecosystem services, contributing to the economic viability of rural areas;

7. Draws attention to the growing discontent among rural populations who feel their needs are insufficiently considered in political decision-making and who feel underrepresented, which creates fertile ground for civic and political disengagement, which in turn needs to be addressed and which could lead to the development of various forms of democratic disenfranchisement; insists that an increasingly stark rural-urban divide, geographical remoteness and a lack of basic services are combining to increase this discontentment; believes that the involvement of young people in local community life can contribute to slowing down the migration of young people from rural areas;

8. Takes note of the fact that EU citizens still have strong confidence in regional and local governments, as shown by Eurobarometer surveys, and stresses the importance of engagement from these levels of government in reviving support for the European project in rural areas;

9. Stresses that rural areas are particularly vulnerable to the impacts of crisis, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, the war in Ukraine and climate change, but are also capable of offering new opportunities and solutions in response to such crises and of playing a key role in ensuring food security, food self-sufficiency and independence from fossil fuels or energy imports, given the adequate support framework;

10. Highlights that the COVID-19 pandemic resulted in new behaviours in living, working and interacting, including teleworking, which generates new opportunities with many positive externalities for the regeneration for rural areas; notes that citizens have understood that rural areas can offer solutions to this crisis;

2. A long-term vision for the EU’s rural areas

11. Welcomes the Commission’s communication on a long-term vision for the EU’s rural areas; agrees with its general aims and considers it a most valuable opportunity for coordinated and reinforced action on the present and future of rural areas, addressing new possibilities for social, economic and environmental renewal; stresses the importance of ensuring that EU funds and policies complement one another to support rural areas and that information is accessible to local stakeholders;

12. Emphasises that the development of rural areas must remain high on the EU agenda and calls on the forthcoming Presidencies of the Council of the European Union to fully pursue this ambition and express in their conclusions the need to act for rural territories;

13. Takes note of the proposal for a rural action plan, which should evolve into a dynamic tool for future action, with concrete results, supporting integrated strategies for sustainable development in accordance with the partnership principle; calls on the Commission and the Member States to give the highest priority to its implementation, setting clear quantitative binding targets for delivery, to ensure that it is accompanied by the necessary resources for effective implementation and to attain the goal of stronger, more connected, resilient and prosperous rural areas by 2040;

14. Agrees on the need for a common, EU-wide, definition of functional rural areas, incorporating the distinction between rural and peri-urban areas and recognising the complexity, diversity and specificities of these areas;

15. Urges the Commission, in collaboration with national, regional and local stakeholders to quickly develop and operationalise such a definition; considers that this definition could be used to compare the evolution of European rural areas and inform the more targeted implementation of policies and measures in those territories; invites the Commission to develop a common methodology while including sufficient flexibility to cater for Member States’ specific characteristics and needs;

16. Supports the development of a Rural Pact, stressing the importance of the inclusive involvement of local, regional and national stakeholders in its governance, including civil society, for the successful outcome of the initiative;

17. Considers that the Rural Pact needs concrete objectives, deliverables, multilevel governance and monitoring systems, along with clear institutional responsibilities; believes that the Rural Pact should serve as a platform to share good practices between rural areas and support them in employing the available tools, contributing to synergies, complementarity and coherence of EU interventions and facilitating the strategic autonomy of the EU;

18. Welcomes the announcement of a Rural Observatory to improve data collection and analysis on rural areas; considers it a valid instrument for informing, designing and monitoring better public policies, as well as for monitoring progress on the implementation of the long-term vision and future EU policies and rural strategies, including the EU rural action plan;

19. Considers that the rural observatory should be an opportunity to identify data gaps and improve databases, especially regarding gender-disaggregated data, to promote a more granular statistical approach and to develop indicators at an adequate geographical level to capture the population’s needs; stresses the need for sufficient funding and resources, transparency and a clear roadmap with time frames and objectives;

20. Stresses the importance of implementing a rural proofing mechanism for EU initiatives so as to assess the coherence and complementarity of EU policies and their potential impact on rural areas; urges the Member States to promote the development and implementation of effective mechanisms for rural proofing at national level, assessing the impacts of proposed legislation in rural areas to ensure that it is fit for purpose, and calls on the Commission to assist them to this end; considers that the rural proofing mechanism should be mandatory and underlines the importance of involving local and regional authorities in the definition and implementation of rural proofing mechanisms, as well as in their governance at both European and national levels;

3. A path for the future of rural areas for 2040

21. Insists that rural citizens must benefit, like any other citizen, from equitable conditions for achieving their professional, social and personal goals, with a particular focus on more vulnerable groups, and insists that the European Pillar of Social Rights be applied;

22. Stresses that rural communities must have equal access to services of general interest in order to ensure inclusive and equitable conditions of living and well-being, notably healthcare services, education, training for up- and reskilling and lifelong learning, social care, child and elderly care, connectivity and mobility, and housing, as well as postal and banking services, social meeting places and cultural activities and infrastructure;

23. Highlights in this regard the importance of public investment and public partnerships, as well as of improving cross-border and rural-urban cooperation; points out the potential of decentralised and multifunctional service centres and of tailored repurposed renovated buildings, as well as of innovative approaches for service provision;

24. Considers that special attention should be paid to vulnerable groups living in rural areas, such as people with disabilities, older people and migrants, notably seasonal workers, ensuring that their specific needs are being addressed while promoting social inclusion; calls on the Commission to further harmonise practices between Member States in terms of inclusion of people with disabilities;

25. Stresses that targeted interventions supporting young people and fostering effective generational renewal should be a priority, in order to encourage the permanent presence of young people in rural areas and counteract the demographic decline; stresses that particular attention should be paid to overcoming the main challenges and remove existing barriers, such as access to higher education and the transfer of knowledge, employment opportunities, the acquisition of business skills and access to land and capital; stresses the need for high-quality agricultural education systems for the training of young professionals; highlights in this regard the important role of young farmers in modernising EU agriculture and in creating more opportunities in rural areas; stresses the need to support their successful integration, notably by facilitating the buying and leasing of farmland, noting in this regard the potential of farm incubators;

26. Calls on the Commission and Member States to develop and strengthen measures, in line with the European Pillar of Social Rights, to improve the rights, working conditions, safety, health and social protection of workers in rural areas, including the living and working conditions of seasonal and migrant workers, while ensuring coherence between policy areas affecting this issue;

27. Underlines that the European Green Deal, including the farm to fork strategy and the digital transformation, can open up new opportunities in rural areas, a new dynamic for a more resilient future and possibilities for sustainable jobs; points out the need to ensure a just and inclusive transition, promoting rural economic vitality and territorial and social cohesion, and to provide adequate support and resources to face the challenges in this regard, in particular in face of the current crisis;

28. Underlines the central role agriculture, the agri-food sector and sustainable forestry play in rural areas, in providing jobs and in ensuring high-quality, diverse food and sustainably produced biomass; insists that social, environmental and economically sustainable agriculture, including agroecology and organic farming, providing fair income to farmers, is crucial for the vitality of these territories;

29. Draws attention to the important role of small and medium-sized farms and family farms in maintaining rural populations and preserving land management and landscapes, and argues that they should benefit from support to ensure adequate living conditions and to mitigate the decline in farm numbers; highlights that farmers in remote and rural areas, particularly small farmers, still do not have sufficient access to technologies;

30. Recognises the importance of supporting cooperation initiatives in agriculture and the social economy as a tool for rural development; draws attention to the role of agri-food cooperatives in the environmental, economic and social sustainability of rural areas, adding value to products, creating employment and diversifying the local economy; urges the Commission and the Member States to encourage and promote cooperatives in rural areas;

31. Stresses the importance of promoting the EU quality schemes, notably geographical indications, as a means to improve the quality and fair distribution of economic value within food chains and, ultimately, to maintain rural populations in the EU’s territory;

32. Stresses that unfair trading practices are still a serious problem in the agricultural sector and highlights the fact that further steps are needed to ensure better distribution of value along the chain; recalls the potential of short supply chains for bringing consumers and producers closer together, providing better remuneration for farmers and reducing greenhouse gases in the food production cycle; stresses that the impact in rural areas of free trade agreements should be taken into account;

33. Notes that a fair distribution of direct payments is needed in order to ensure the balanced development of regions and rural areas; underlines the importance of CAP payments for areas with natural constraints in preserving sustainable activities in those areas; calls on the Member States to nurture strong territorial CAP rural development networks for the coordination of all rural development stakeholders;

34. Points out that extensive permanent grassland-based, silvo-pastoral or extensive livestock breeding, often involving pastures of high environmental value and endangered farmed species and breeds, especially in remote mountainous areas, are key features of European rural areas, which must be supported and encouraged;

35. Points out that the importance of access to tailored-made investments, research and innovation for sustainable agriculture; takes note of the success of the European Innovation Partnership on agricultural productivity and sustainability and calls for the continuation and expansion of this innovative and bottom-up approach to delivering tailored solutions designed by local stakeholders, as well as of other multi-actor-based rural innovation partnerships and innovation hubs; considers that innovation should be compatible with traditional practices and knowledge, especially those adapted to the characteristics of each area;

36. Recalls that large carnivores, especially wolves, can have an impact on the viability of farming, particularly in some kinds of extensive managed farmland rich in biodiversity; notes that this highlights the need to ensure balanced coexistence between humans and these animals in rural areas; calls on the Commission and the Member States, in this regard, to take concrete action to ensuring this coexistence, so as not to compromise the sustainable development and dynamism of rural areas, and in particular to safeguard traditional agricultural practices such as pastoralism; recalls the responsibility of the Commission to assess progress in achieving conservation status and, where appropriate, to amend the protection status of species, if the desired conservation status is reached; urges the Commission to encourage a discussion on large carnivores with rural actors, to provide information on financing possibilities for preventive measures against attacks on livestock and to promote coordinated approaches across Member States;

37. Stresses that diversification of and innovation in the rural economy, with a more territorial approach based on local potential and characteristics, are crucial to drawing opportunities from the digital and green transitions; calls on the Member States to put in place measures to support the fair transition and diversification of the rural economy as well as to support quality job creation in rural areas; emphasises the potential of bio-districts, eco-regions, carbon farming and eco-tourism for rural economy diversification; recalls that sustainable agriculture, forestry and fishery can also offer opportunities for business diversification in rural areas;

38. Recognises that tourism can represent an important source of income for rural communities, highlighting the potential of diversified models of sustainable tourism; points out the often underexploited potential of recreational fisheries and angling tourism to attract tourists throughout the year; calls for efforts to strengthen the place of rural tourism, such as wine tourism, in strategies for diversifying the rural economy, hand in hand with the agricultural and food sectors;

39. Recognises the importance in social, economic, cultural and biodiversity conservation terms of sustainable game management for the future of rural areas;

40. Calls on the Commission and the Member States to take urgent action to design and implement measures to fight gender gaps, notably on pay and pensions; stresses that gender mainstreaming should be applied at every level of policymaking, ensuring the implementation of the EU gender equality strategy 2020-2025, notably in rural areas;

41. Regrets that the work of rural women is still not properly recognised, notably in agriculture; points out that women in rural areas are more affected by hidden unemployment and participation in the informal economy, which contributes to the more frequent outmigration of young women; stresses the need for targeted measures to overcome their specific challenges in the labour market and to improve their access to adequate services, including broad healthcare, with a special focus on the inclusion of the most vulnerable groups; reiterates the importance of a positive work-life balance, welcoming in this regard the forthcoming European care strategy;

42. Insists on the need to improve the participation of women in decision-making and political participation in rural areas; calls on the Member States to promote gender equality and foster equal participation in all rural organisations, associations and public institutions, in decision-making positions, business ownership and access to quality jobs; stresses the need for targeted training and skills development, as well as for an enabling environment, facilitated access to financial resources and the promotion of women’s entrepreneurship in rural areas;

43. Calls on the Commission and the Member States to promote the inclusion of women in farming, in particular by exploring the possibility of supporting co-ownership of European farms; asks for the work of women in farming activities, especially the work of assisting spouses and partners in agriculture, to be fully recognised through the granting of legal recognition and full access to social security rights; underlines the role of women in rural areas in moving towards sustainable agriculture and in the green transition;

44. Highlights the central role of rural areas in the transition to a carbon-neutral and circular economy, including a sustainable bio-economy and forestry; calls on the Commission and the Member States to enable the uptake of initiatives by local actors, such as the creation of  rural energy communities, contributing to local acceptance of renewables;

45. Stresses that initiatives in rural areas, such as the development of renewable energy infrastructure, must contribute effectively to the economic, social and environmental vitality of these areas and take into account the need for local social acceptance; insists that the objectives of food production and the protection of high environmental value areas, such as Natura 2000 areas, should be a priority;

46. Calls on the Commission and the Member States to further support rural areas in expanding sustainable renewable energy production, including by removing existing barriers, decentralising production and storage systems, reinforcing energy grids and training qualified professionals, as well as to promote the use of renewables as a means to contribute to energy autonomy, income diversification, and the fight against energy poverty and climate change; notes the importance of increasing farm circularity;

47. Notes the importance of microgeneration on farms; stresses that farmers must not be disadvantaged when supplying electricity into the grid as a result of the use of public grants, including the CAP;

48. Highlights that rural areas suffer higher risks of social exclusion and energy poverty owing to longer distances to be covered and mobility constraints in many rural areas; highlights furthermore that these risks are related to both infrastructures and services; points out that accessible, public, green and innovative rural mobility solutions and investments are needed to achieve equitable growth and territorial cohesion, in harmony with a sustainable energy transition;

49. Calls for inclusive infrastructure planning that leaves no region behind, namely by reinforcing public investment and by swiftly implementing the EU and national funds that contribute to connectivity in rural areas, supporting and developing integrated and intermodal transportation systems and prioritising isolated and disconnected areas in the trans-European transport network;

50. Stresses that the digital transition raises new opportunities for rural areas, which are only accessible if there is adequate, stable, high-speed and accessible broadband coverage, which is not completed in all rural areas; highlights that digital development increases the attractiveness of rural areas, reduces problems related to remoteness, improves access to services and facilitates digitalisation in agriculture; calls for the creation of locally-based high-speed ‘digital hubs’ tailored for remote working;

51. Warns of the risks of the widening of the rural digital gap as a result of the lack of 5G coverage, and calls on the Member States to mobilise all available instruments to improve the full roll-out of 5G networks and remove administrative barriers, with the particular support of EU cohesion policy funds and Member States’ Recovery and Resilience Facility plans, but also of private investments; stresses the need for a timely revision of the relevant State aid guidelines for rural areas not served by the market;

52. Draws attention to the fact that the comparative lack of digital skills in rural areas can preclude rural communities from benefiting from the opportunities of digitalisation and hamper the development of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs);

53. Calls for measures at the EU, national, regional and local levels that ensure digital inclusion, especially in a context of population ageing, and promote adapted digital skills while supporting an enabling environment for innovation and the development of tailor-made digital solutions; points out the potential of digital tools for sustainable agriculture and smart farming, for local, short supply chain development and for increasing the attractiveness of the agricultural sector to young farmers;

54. Believes that smart villages should be considered as a flagship project of the EU rural action plan, to better promote its development post-2020; underlines the importance of balanced public-private partnerships in this context; points out the potential of smart city technologies, which should be adequately funded, and believes that the Smart Cities Marketplace[24] digital platform could serve as a model for further development of the smart villages ecosystem; stresses that the LEADER rural economy and development method and community-led local development (CLLD) funding tools should also be used for further development of smart villages;

55. Notes that rural communities are still faced with challenges related to access to basic services and economic opportunities, and encounter some degree of incoherence with regard to planning related to the rural-urban divide; stresses that investments in environmental protection, rural infrastructure and rural health and education are critical to sustainable rural development; calls on the Commission and the Member States to establish minimum welfare criteria that should be ensured in relation to the populations of certain areas;

4. First steps for defining a vision and strategy for rural areas

56. Regrets the late publication of the Commission’s communication, which has precluded its full integration into the legislative instruments and planning of the current programming framework; calls on the Commission to ensure that the integrated and Community-led rural territorial dimension is properly addressed by all Member States and to assess its implementation and impact in the common agricultural policy strategic plans, the cohesion policy programmes, the European Maritime, Fisheries and Aquaculture Fund programmes and the Recovery and Resilience Plans;

57. Urges Member States to address the specific challenges of rural territories and their communities during the implementation of the current multiannual financial framework programmes, providing and facilitating access to the investments needed for social inclusion, economic and environmental performance and job creation, in order to foster competitiveness, enable a just digital and green transition, and increase the attractiveness of and quality of life in rural areas; calls on the Commission to monitor the indicators in the EU programmes and evaluate their alignment with the objectives of the long-term vision for the EU’s rural areas;

58. Welcomes the REPowerEU plan which can play a key role in reducing dependence on fossil fuels, in particular of Russian origin, and highlights the possible numerous opportunities for rural areas in this regard, but is strongly concerned with the proposals to increase significantly the possibility to transfer resources from shared management funds, with potential detrimentally implications for medium- and long-term policy planning towards a fair green and digital transition, including for rural areas;

59. Calls on the Member States to make effective use of the various funding opportunities with a view also to improving the prospects of SMEs, given their major role in generating employment in rural areas, and calls on the Commission to monitor and assess whether its support reaches rural areas and benefits their communities; stresses the importance of supporting entrepreneurship, social economy and social innovation, including the silver economy, especially when contributing to the implementation of the European Pillar of Social Rights;

60. Calls on the Member States to make better use of all available tools to support rural areas, including tax incentives for individuals and businesses looking to settle in rural areas, aimed at facilitating job creation and incentivising the establishment of new residents, as well as to encourage private companies to promote remote working, aiming at actively combating depopulation; invites the Commission to consider other support possibilities in the framework of State aid in rural areas with very low population density;

61. Regrets the persistent obstacles to the multi-fund approach, despite its value, which hamper the deployment of integrative approaches in rural areas, and asks for clear guidelines for its implementation; calls on the Commission to put forward a legislative proposal in early 2023 extending the possibility of the ‘lead fund’ approach to interventions co-financed by more than one shared management fund, as well as to further simplifying it by specifying that the rules of the lead fund must apply in their entirety; invites the Commission, in parallel, to explore alternatives to multi-fund approaches for integrated territorial development;

62. Calls on the Commission to improve synergies and coordination between EU funding instruments such as cohesion policy, the CAP and the NextGenerationEU recovery instrument, as well as with national instruments, for successful rural development in the EU; urges the Commission to put forward in early 2023 with a targeted legislative proposal for enabling the transfer of resources between all shared management funds when supporting rural territorial strategies and enhancing synergies between funds and programmes;

63. Calls on the Commission and the Member States to pursue further simplification and reduce administrative burdens, namely by coordinating their internal administrations to avoid duplication of tasks, in particular for smaller projects and microfinancing, which are key for rural areas; notes that some rural areas are not able to benefit from the funding opportunities available owing to a lack of information and capacity issues, and require support to rectify this; considers the application of simplified cost options to be an effective measure to achieve administrative simplification;

64. Stresses the role that all EU policies and funds, both shared and those under direct management, must play in supporting rural areas, by incorporating a rural dimension in the design of their measures and interventions, and underlines the need for policy coherence; calls on the Commission to develop a mechanism to assess and monitor the contribution each fund makes to rural areas;

65. Asks the Commission to pay particular attention to the implementation of Article 174 TFEU and ensure that all EU policies apply the ‘do no harm to cohesion’ principle, particularly in rural areas;

66. Recalls that EU cohesion policy, which seeks to promote the economic, social and territorial cohesion of the Union, is vitally important to rural areas, especially those requiring particular attention; notes that in accordance with the provisions of the cohesion policy, the EU must pay special attention to addressing the challenges of disadvantaged regions and areas;

67. Highlights the Commission study’s conclusions on LEADER’s effectiveness in delivering solutions to address economic, social and development challenges and opportunities at local level and in contributing to solutions for sustainable rural development;

68. Calls on the Member States to support CLLD, including LEADER, encouraging participation in local action groups while facilitating and promoting multi-fund approaches and ensuring effective autonomy for local action groups in terms of their composition and decision-making; considers that the meaningful earmarking of assistance for CLLD under all relevant funds at EU level, similar to that in the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development (EAFRD), would contribute to stronger integrated strategies and more sustainable, resilient territorial development;

5. Partnership principle, governance and empowerment of rural areas

69. Stresses that empowering rural communities, particularly in the most remote, island and sparsely and less populated areas, will promote greater social cohesion, innovation, entrepreneurship and a stronger sense of belonging and identity, and that it will require stronger capacity building efforts to set up and implement projects; emphasises that rural communities are crucial for EU cohesion and should thus be supported to encourage balanced socio-economic development; recalls the specific nature of the outermost regions as laid down in Article 349 TFEU and stresses that rural areas in the outermost regions are subject to additional constraints, also in this regard;

70. Calls for the effective application of the principle of subsidiarity, with more community-based, decentralised and bottom-up policies and support measures involving local actors including farmers and local organisations, authorities and civil society, and insists therefore that they must play an active role from decision-making to policy development, implementation and evaluation, in order to best identify the needs of each territory;

71. Notes that while EU legislation envisages multilevel governance approaches and partnerships, there is resistance to their application in a meaningful way, in some Member States; calls on Member States to support these approaches by allocating responsibility at the appropriate local level of governance and ensuring political ownership and strong coordination of policies and investments across all levels of governance; calls on the Commission to maintain a direct and structured dialogue with the different levels of governance involved in the management of EU policies with a strong impact on rural areas;

6. Shaping the future beyond 2027

72. Takes note of the Commission’s intention to take stock by mid-2023 of the actions taken by the EU and Member States for rural areas and to produce a public report on that basis in early 2024; considers that this evaluation could play a pivotal role, notably by identifying the areas where enhanced support and finance are still needed, and could pave the way to a rural strategy from the mid-term review and a rural action plan in the 2028-2034 programming period; invites the Commission, therefore, to directly involve all relevant stakeholders and managing authorities in this evaluation;

73. Invites the Commission to explore alternative policy strategies and approaches for funding articulation in the next programming period, including examining the option of one national strategy, in coordination with the regional and local authorities, and one regulation for all shared management funds, as well as of new ways of strengthening the partnership principle and multilevel governance approaches, promoting truly integrated territorial development in rural areas;

74. Calls for a strong rural dimension in future cohesion policy regulations, which should include dedicated funding to that end; suggests that the Commission launch a study, following a public consultation, on the possibility of earmarking a share of the European Regional Development Fund and the Cohesion Fund to rural areas, in addition to other beneficial investments, with special attention to regions with specific geographical characteristics such as mountains, remote areas, islands and outermost regions;

75. Recalls that the future and prosperity of rural areas is of paramount importance for Europe’s food security,  autonomy and resilience, as well as for a sustainable energy mix which contributes to the EU’s energy independence, as the recent COVID-19 pandemic and the Russian invasion of Ukraine have clearly demonstrated; highlights that agri-food systems have enabled continuous access to quality food during these crises, while opening new opportunities to shorten food supply chains and for local food and feed production, notably of protein crops;

76. Calls for the long-term vision to be developed into a concrete and measurable true rural strategy at EU level, including a strategic dialogue of cooperation with urban areas, and for the coordination of the contribution of all EU funds and policies to rural areas; stresses that this strategy must be fully integrated into future programming periods; calls on all Member States to develop rural strategies at national and regional level, defining the ways and means needed to address the issues faced by rural areas;

77. Calls on the Commission to assess in a timely manner the potential impact of the EAFRD’s detachment from the common provisions for shared management funds laid down in Regulation (EU) 2021/1060, in the development of integrated territorial approaches in rural areas, and to assess the needed holistic approaches for rural development and draw lessons for the next programming periods as regards their possible incorporation;

7. Rural areas beyond the EU

78. Believes that the EU has a strong interest in building not only cross-border partnerships but also partnerships beyond its own borders –in order to promote more prosperous rural societies and economies with long-term mutual benefits; stresses that not only are cooperation and knowledge-sharing important in this process, but that a level playing field must also be ensured;

79. Highlights the importance of the strategic cooperation links between Africa, Latin America and Europe, building on the progress made in the Africa-Europe rural transformation action agenda, which sets out initiatives designed to sustainably strengthen Africa’s agri-food sector and rural territories; underscores, in this connection, the fact that it will remain vigilant in the face of China’s changing role and increasing strategic influence on the African continent, in line with its resolution of 16 September 2021 on a new EU-China strategy[25];

80. Underlines the importance of learning from each other and harnessing the potential of the success stories of some rural areas; calls, to that end, for further exchange possibilities and the establishment of platforms in and among rural areas to promote cohesion, solidarity and EU-wide exchanges;

°

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81. Instructs its President to forward this resolution to the Council and the Commission.



 

EXPLANATORY STATEMENT

European Rural areas, challenges, opportunities and the path for the future .

The EU’s rural areas are an essential aspect of the European way of life and vital to the economic, social and environmental functioning of our society. They are home to 137 million people, 30.6 % of the EU’s population, but cover about 83 % of the total EU area.

Rural areas are key in ensuring our food production and autonomy, safeguarding our natural resources, landscapes and biodiversity, as well as our cultural heritage. The rapporteur is convinced that they can play a central role in addressing the major current societal challenges, by providing eco-system services, to mitigate climate change and environmental deterioration, promote sustainable food production and enabling a just green and digital transition.

Despite their strengths, rural areas, in particular remote and less developed ones, face significant challenges that have yet to be addressed, which has generated a growing discontent in the rural populations, who feel their needs are insufficiently considered in political decision-making, creating fertile ground to civic and political disengagement. Rural areas have been recently confronted with additional challenges triggered by the COVID pandemic and the war in Ukraine and linked especially to food security and autonomy.

The rapporteur stresses that a holistic approach of policies and actions at EU level combined with national and regional ones, are paramount to secure the well-being of European rural citizens. Furthermore are key in tackling the unresolved challenges, namely population decline and ageing, fewer quality job opportunities, lack of access to high quality services of general interest, climate and environmental pressures, lower connectivity and access to innovation.

The rapporteur insists that rural citizens must benefit, as any other citizen, from equitable conditions to achieve their professional, social and personal goals, with particular attention to the more vulnerable groups in society, and concretizing effectively the European Pillar of Social Rights. On this regard, focused investments and policy interventions fostering effective generational renewal and addressing the gender gap still persistent in several domains are imperative. It is indeed essential to reach out to all and ensure that no one is left behind.

Diversification and innovation of the rural economy based on local potential is considered crucial by the rapporteur in order to attain the full potential offered by the digital and green transition, while stressing the vital role that agricultural activity plays in rural areas. A sustainable agriculture, providing a fair income to farmers and quality products to consumers, while contributing to environment protection will be a catalyst for the, resilience, vitality and prosperity of these territories.

The European Green Deal can open new opportunities in rural areas, namely on the transition to a low-carbon economy. It is crucial that these opportunities ensure a just and inclusive transition, and contribute effectively to the economic and social vitality of the rural communities, who, on top of their endogenous unaddressed structural difficulties, also suffer higher risks of energy poverty and social exclusion.

Adequate coverage of stable and accessible broadband service, digital capacity building and enabling environment for rural digital innovation are key conditions for rural areas to be able to benefit from the new opportunities digital transition brings for them. It could provide limitless potential in the efforts to improve people’s lives and mitigate the negative impact of reduced connectivity, insularity and remoteness, by enabling the application of new technological developments such as of tele-health technologies, e-government solutions and education services, by opening new learning paths, utilising the global knowledge and fostering life-long learning.

A long-term Vision for the EU’s Rural Areas, the first steps and future action towards stronger, connected, resilient and prosperous rural areas. 

The rapporteur welcomes the European Commission's Communication on the Long-term vision for the EU’s rural area and agrees with its general aims. Considers it a most valuable opportunity to give political visibility to the timely debate and reinforce the much needed urgent action on the present and future of rural areas.

This Communication is also an opportunity to bring into light the strengths and value of rural areas, focusing on positive and constructive messages, such as the innovative projects taking place that combine science, creativity, and ancestral knowledge, that attract and anchor young people and people from urban areas.

The Communication foresees a series of initiatives and policy tools to enable rural areas to make the most of their potential.

The Rural Action Plan, is supposed to create opportunities to promote territorial cohesion of rural areas. The rapporteur considers that this action plan should evolve into a perpetuate dynamic instrument, flexible and adjustable to the evolution on the ground, and calls on the Commission and Member States to give the highest priority to its implementation, setting clear targets for deliver as to attain the goals of stronger, more connected, resilient and prosperous rural areas by 2040.

The rapporteur fully supports the development of a Rural Pact, which needs to materialize in firm commitments and an effective action plan, with a clear definition of concrete objectives, deliveries, governance and monitoring system and institutional responsibilities, if it wants to deliver on its own aspirations as well as to the needs and expectations of rural areas.

A mechanism of “rural proofing to better identify and take into consideration the potential impact and implications of European policies during their inception, review and assessment, on rural areas is long overdue and needs to be effectively and promptly implemented. The rapporteur urges Member States also to promote the development and implementation of effective mechanisms of rural proofing at national level, benefiting from the experience and assistance of the Commission.

The rapporteur regrets the late launching of the Commission’s communication, precluding its full integration in the current programming framework, policy planning and interventions to unlock its full potential.

The rapporteur strongly believes that concrete proposals for immediate, short-term action; rural areas cannot afford to wait. Calls therefore on the Commission to ensure that the rural territorial dimension is properly addressed and to assess annually its implementation and impact in the CAP strategic plans, the Cohesion policy programs and the Recovery and Resilience plans. It recalls also that all European policies and funds, both shared and direct management ones, must play their role in supporting rural areas.

At the same time, Member States must also address the specific challenges of rural areas during the implementation of the current MFF and national programmes and to provide the needed investments for social inclusion and job creation, to foster competitiveness and enable a just digital and green transition;

The multi-fund approach could help significantly in addressing the rural needs in a more integrated way. However, persistent obstacles remain and the rapporteur calls on the Commission to improve synergies and coordination between the European funding instruments, and with the national ones, as well as to pursue simplification, in particular for smaller projects, which are key for rural areas.

The rapporteur points out that Europe's rural areas are very diverse. Rural areas close to urban centers, in remote areas or mountainous zones and in outermost regions face different challenges requiring therefore targeted development strategies and solutions.

A recent study promoted by the Commission confirms in its conclusions on LEADER’s effectiveness in developing solutions to address economic, social and development challenges and opportunities at local level and in contributing to sustainable rural development across the EU. The rapporteur calls on Member States to support LEADER/CLLD initiatives, facilitating and promoting multi-fund approaches, while considering that a meaningful earmarking of CLLD at EU level of all relevant funds, including EAFRD, would contribute to stronger sustainable territorial development.

This heterogeneity calls for more community-based policy design and tailor-made solutions, involving local actors, authorities and civil society organisations and the rapporteur insists therefore that they must play an active role in all phases of policy development, from decision-making to policy implementation and evaluation. Their participation brings added value with the unique experience and knowledge of the diverse challenges on the ground. Furthermore giving, stakeholders a voice in decisions making plays an important role in enforcing the political legitimacy and ownership of the interventions. The rapporteur firmly believes that this will promote greater social cohesion and sense of belonging.

Capacity building, particularly in the most remote and less populated areas is key for empowering of rural communities to have a stronger voice in shaping decision-making processes.

However, although EU legislation foresees multilevel governance approaches and partnerships, a resistance is still observed in the application of these principles in a meaningful way. Member States must foster these approaches by allocating responsibility to the appropriate local level and ensuring political ownership and strong coordination of policies and investments across all levels of governance.

The rapporteur calls for the evolvement of the long-term vision into a true rural strategy at the European level to be fully integrated in the next programming periods and urges all Member States to develop rural strategies at national level. Further considers that the take stock exercise announced by the Commission’s by mid-2023 should pave the way to fully integrate a Rural Action Plan on the 2028-2034 programming period.

The rapporteur considers very important that the Commission assesses the potential impact of the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development (EAFRD) detachment from the Common Provisions Regulation in the development of integrated territorial approaches in rural areas, drawing to inform adequately the proposals for the next programming period.

The EU is a global player that contributes to international peace and development and has a has strong interest in building partnerships beyond its borders to promote more prosperous rural societies and economies with long term mutual benefits.

In conclusion, the rapporteur believes that European rural areas play a vital role in contributing to the economic, social and environmental functioning of our continent. Their importance cannot be overstated and this Long Term Vision offers a good starting point towards the future while bold effective action is required already now for the benefit of rural areas working with all actors and at all levels in order to make rural areas stronger, more connected, resilient and prosperous.


OPINION OF THE COMMITTEE ON REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT (20.6.2022)

for the Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development

on a long-term vision for the EU’s rural areas – towards stronger, connected, resilient and prosperous rural areas by 2040

(2021/2254(INI))

Rapporteur for opinion (*): Álvaro Amaro

(*) Associated committee – Rule 57 of the Rules of Procedure

 


SUGGESTIONS

The Committee on Regional Development calls on the Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development, as the committee responsible, to incorporate the following suggestions into its motion for a resolution:

1. Welcomes the Commission communication of 30 June 2021 on a long-term vision for the EU’s rural areas, including its commitment to leave no one and no place behind and bring the EU closer to its citizens; stresses the importance of focusing on rural areas as well as rural-urban linkages and the need to specifically address their challenges and potential; emphasises that the development of rural areas shall remain high on the EU agenda, as rural areas play an active role in the EU’s green and digital transitions;

2. Welcomes the new Rural Pact launched by the Commission on 20 December 2021, which aims to engage actors at EU, national, regional and local levels to support the shared goals of the long-term vision, foster economic, social and territorial cohesion and deliver a response to the common aspirations of rural communities by encouraging stakeholders and actors to join the Rural Pact community and share their reflections and ideas on its implementation and future development; welcomes, moreover, the EU rural action plan and the ‘rural proofing’ mechanism designed to assess the impact of future EU initiatives on rural areas;

3. Notes that Article 10 of Regulation (EU) 2021/1058 on the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) and Cohesion Fund (CF) provides for support for disadvantaged regions and areas, such as those with geographical or demographic handicaps;

4. Regrets the fact that the long-term vision was only presented following the conclusion of the negotiations for the regulations on the cohesion policy and common agricultural policy (CAP) for 2021-2027 and after the EU budget for this period had already been adopted and most Member States had already planned their investments under the Recovery and Resilience Facility; recalls that synergies between these funds and other relevant EU, national and regional means are crucial for the future of rural areas and their populations;

5. Notes that the COVID-19 crisis has shown that EU citizens have a desire for the countryside and have understood that part of the response to the current crisis may be found in rural areas, which offer a wide range of opportunities including teleworking;

6. Invites the Council to clearly express in its conclusions the need to act for rural areas, in particular to address the problems that they are facing, including areas with geographical specificities such as mountain, island and outermost regions, northern sparsely populated areas and other areas with low population density;

7. Recalls that rural areas in the EU face a number of challenges such as an ageing population, which is leading to a decline in the number of working-age people, as well as a weak labour market, a lack of infrastructure and services, a poorly diversified economy, the combination of low incomes and a higher risk of poverty and social exclusion, the abandonment of farmland, a lack of education facilities, high school drop-out rates and the digital divide;

8. Points out, furthermore, that the demographic challenge affecting the rural population is particularly acute in the EU farming population, as the majority of farmers are over 55, while young farmers are scarce, which poses a problem of generational renewal in agriculture with farmers playing a vital role not only in producing food for EU citizens, but also in keeping rural areas alive; calls on the Commission, therefore, to develop strategies to this end;

9. Stresses that in spite of the aforementioned problems, rural areas offer good opportunities and their diversity is a major asset to the EU, as they provide food and environmental resources and can contribute to the fight against climate change, providing alternatives to fossil fuels and developing the circular economy;

10. Calls for more investment in digitalisation in rural areas and underlines the fact that digital connectivity is of paramount importance to deliver infrastructure, public and health services and activities for people’s day-to-day lives in order to prevent the depopulation of rural areas;

11. Points out that rural areas have a GDP per capita that is significantly below the European average; recalls that EU cohesion policy, which seeks to promote the economic, social and territorial cohesion of the Union, is vitally important to rural areas, especially those requiring particular attention pursuant to Article 174 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU); recalls, furthermore, that EU cohesion policy acknowledges the important role of sustainable agriculture and involves all levels of governance, notably local and regional authorities;

12. Believes that local and regional communities, together with local businesses, non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and local action groups (LAGs) best understand the challenges of rural communities; emphasises, as co-legislator, that the rural proofing mechanism to assess the impact of EU legislative initiatives on rural areas should be made mandatory and advises the Member States to implement such a mechanism, including at national, regional and local levels;

13. Highlights the importance of strengthening the bottom-up approach to rural and local development, which is a vehicle for social innovation and capacity-building that empowers rural citizens by allowing them to take ownership of the development of their communities by devising and implementing strategies and projects;

14. Requests that the Commission proposes a single EU-wide definition of functional rural areas; welcomes the proposal for the creation of an EU rural observatory to further improve data collection and analysis; highlights that the specificities of each Member State and region should be taken into account by Member States when drawing up rural development plans;

15. Highlights that the community-led local development approach (CLLD), much like the LEADER programme, ensures that EU citizens in rural areas are involved in the decision-making and implementation process, as evidenced by its huge success in rural and regional development, especially in the long-term; calls on the Commission and the Member States to reinforce the LEADER programme by guaranteeing a high level of autonomy for the local action groups with regard to their decision-making and constitution, whereby there is no top-down design of areas and villages to be regrouped within a local action group but villages have the autonomy to get together and join forces within such a group, reducing the administrative burden on local authorities and simplifying access, promoting the local ownership of community-led development projects, and encouraging participation in local action groups; calls, meanwhile, for community-led local development to be strengthened within cohesion policy overall and for broader participation among the different stakeholders;

16. Calls on the Commission and the Member States to guarantee that the initiative on the long-term vision for rural areas includes practical solutions and means of support to deal with the demographic changes rural areas are facing, and reiterates the need to implement integrated projects based on the programmes under the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development (EAFRD), cohesion policy, national strategic plans under the common agricultural policy and instruments laid down in the national recovery and resilience plans;

17. Calls on the Commission to ensure that each Member State’s strategic plan under the common agricultural policy, as well as programmes under the current cohesion policy programmes, are drawn up in line with the objectives of the Fit for 55 package, the European Green Deal and the farm to fork and biodiversity strategies, and that those plans and programmes reflect the particular characteristics of each region;

18. Underlines the fact that a significant proportion of work in the EU’s agricultural and food sectors is carried out by low-paid workers, especially seasonal workers who very often live in precarious conditions; highlights the need, therefore, to strengthen the role of the EU’s social agenda in order to achieve higher minimum wages, good working conditions and social integration;

19. Calls for rural areas to get better access to finance to facilitate investments in the local energy transition, including energy efficiency, the decentralised distribution of energy and the circular economy as well as local production and consumption;

20. Calls for a stronger rural dimension in future cohesion policy regulations, which should include dedicated funding for this purpose through a multi-fund approach and through synergies and complementarities between EU funds such as the European Regional Development Fund, Cohesion Fund, European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development, European Social Fund Plus (ESF+) and European Maritime, Fisheries and Aquaculture Fund (EMFAF); suggests that the Commission should launch a study, following a public consultation, on the possibility of earmarking a share of the European Regional Development Fund and the Cohesion Fund to rural areas, in addition to other beneficial investments, particularly for those areas encompassing more than one region; is aware that nearly 25 % of all investments under the European Regional Development Fund and Cohesion Fund for 2014-2020 went to rural areas, where the location was reported by the national authorities[26], and that approximately 30 % of the EU’s population live in rural areas, which represent over 80 % of the EU’s territory[27]; underlines the fact that particular attention should be paid to regions with geographical specificities such as mountain, island and outermost regions, northern sparsely populated areas and other areas with low population density; calls on the Member States to provide a fair distribution of the financial support for rural areas in order to ensure equal development both within and across the Member States; deems it important to coordinate the work of the various EU funds at EU, national, regional and local levels;

21. Calls for the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development to be reintegrated within cohesion policy, as rural development encompasses not only agriculture but also regional development through a holistic approach;

22. Draws attention to the particular challenges faced by rural areas undergoing structural change or the transformation processes needed to carry out the green transition, such as energy use or production;

23. Underlines the fact that the main objective of the long-term vision should be to fight depopulation, brain drain, ageing, rural abandonment and climate change in order to make rural areas more attractive, including through investment in sustainable infrastructure and the provision of adequate public and private services such as energy, healthcare, education and training, culture, efficient connectivity and digitalisation, retail, postal, banking and social services as well as innovative mobility solutions and economic diversification, including investment in the creative industries and tourism, job creation, and support for the self-employed, micro-enterprises and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs); emphasises the importance of ensuring that current EU funding programmes are complementary to and in synergy with the different aspects relevant to rural development in order to optimise their use;

24. Underlines the need to greatly improve access to healthcare and innovative healthcare solutions in rural areas through appropriate and itinerant medical solutions and services, where necessary, such as properly equipped buses on which people in rural areas can undergo preventive screening tests or consultations;

25. Stresses the importance of ensuring food security and the important role of small and medium-sized farmers in achieving it, as well as the importance of attracting young farmers to prevent the abandonment of rural areas;

26. Stresses the need to transition to sustainable production methods, encourage the development of short supply chains and process products at a local level in order to provide consumers with quality and healthy food obtained through more sustainable methods, which can generate new opportunities for farmers and the rural economy;

27. Stresses the need to diversify economic activities in rural areas through the use of low-carbon production methods to create new niches and opportunities that will enable rural communities to offer new jobs in sectors other than agri-food;

28. Underlines the fact that where jobs or other economic opportunities are scarce and salaries are low, the educated and skilled workforce tend to move to areas with more job opportunities – a trend that is making the situation in rural areas even more precarious; highlights the rise of new opportunities for remote working and calls for the creation of more common working spaces and ‘village offices’ to connect people working remotely in rural areas and thereby encourage them to remain in those regions; calls on the Commission, therefore, to set up an EU system of rural employment grants which will enable Member States and their regions to reverse the exodus from the countryside and persuade remote workers to relocate to rural areas with access to nature and cheaper rent and a lower carbon footprint;

29. Stresses the crucial role of cultural infrastructure and initiatives in rural areas in terms of social cohesion, territorial attractiveness and economic dynamism to connect people and create cultural exchanges; calls for coordinated support for these cultural projects, in particular through the EU structural funds in order to ensure that the related investments are effective and sustainable; calls, in addition, for specific projects to be set up in cooperation with stakeholders in rural areas;

30. Stresses that family farms are a feature of European agriculture, with around 90 % of the 22 million agricultural workers being family members of others; takes the view, therefore, that particular attention should be paid to families and women in rural areas when devising structural social support and regional development programmes;

31. Calls for support for equality and gender mainstreaming, particularly in rural areas; highlights the specific contribution of women in rural areas, as they play a major role in civil society and sustainable economic growth while having to contend with difficulties in accessing the labour market and public services such as health and childcare; emphasises the role of young women in rural areas and their susceptibility of being in a precarious position in rural societies;

32. Underlines the importance of smart specialisation strategies for the future of rural areas, with particular regard to young people, women, innovation, knowledge-sharing and cooperation, including the Start-up Village Forum and European Smart Villages Forum; affirms that achieving gender equality, as stipulated in the current Common Provisions Regulation, is an important step forward that could help the EU address demographic challenges in its regions, while promoting the inclusion of women and increasing the female employment rate;

33. Calls for smart villages to be made a flagship project, rather than being part of the flagship action on research and innovation for rural areas; underlines the importance of public-private partnerships within the smart villages ecosystem as key opportunities for the self-employed, micro-enterprises and SMEs, job creation, innovation, rural attractiveness and fighting depopulation;

34. Highlights the democratising and de-radicalising effect that the bottom-up approach of smart villages can have for a rural population that has taken ownership of its community;

35. Highlights the opportunities that the green transition and green economy can provide in terms of job opportunities, including green jobs, in increasing rural resilience to natural disasters, climate change and economic crises and in bringing renewed attention to rural areas, especially in the outermost regions; welcomes, in this regard, the ongoing initiatives for the energy transition of rural areas; stresses the importance of rural areas in ensuring food and energy self-sufficiency and renewable raw materials in Europe; points to the potential of the bio- and circular economy and nature services offered by rural areas; notes, however, that the process is complex, and that the level of challenge varies according to the individual situation of each Member State; envisages, in this context, particularly with the ongoing global crisis, a phased approach consisting of the necessary steps towards climate neutrality that does not disregard the risks of hunger, energy and economic poverty and widening social and regional disparities;

36. Recognises that tourism can create significant opportunities for rural areas and can represent an important source of income for rural communities; points out that the sustainable development of sea or freshwater recreational fisheries and angling tourism in particular can contribute to the development of rural areas by attracting tourists over an extended period of the year; emphasises that Member States can use the European Maritime, Fisheries and Aquaculture Fund and other EU structural funds to increasingly support such projects; highlights the role of fisheries local action groups in developing such activities in rural and remote areas; calls on the Commission to improve the collection of data on the environmental, social and economic effects of recreational fisheries and angling tourism in rural areas and to propose tangible measures to further develop these activities in rural and remote regions, particularly where their potential is underexploited;

37. Notes that rural tourism regions are coping with changing travel patterns due to COVID-19 and climate change; is of the view that cycling, hiking, mycology tourism, wellness tourism, gastronomy, community-based arts or arts workshops and exhibition centres could be models of further sustainable tourism development in rural areas; considers, furthermore, that the contribution made by cultural heritage and artistic and creative professionals to building a sustainable and prosperous future and to improving the attractiveness of rural areas for tourists will also improve the economic well-being of these communities;

38. Stresses that renewable energy production is also an opportunity for rural areas to combat energy poverty and generate energy self-sufficiency; underlines the fact, furthermore, that renewable energy production facilities are more likely to be accepted in rural areas if those areas are included in the share of the revenue generated by that production;

39. Believes that connections between rural and urban areas should be strengthened and addressed in a complementary manner in order to implement rural strategies and action plans accordingly; underlines the importance of partnerships across rural areas and remote rural areas in particular, as well as cooperation between rural areas across national borders; emphasises the importance of fighting the digital divide between urban and rural areas, especially as regards high-speed broadband connectivity and the promotion of digital skills and upskilling through education and training initiatives such as digital vouchers, which can improve the development of digital skills in rural areas; believes that the EU structural funds should be used to finance specific digital literacy programmes in rural areas;

40. Notes that the European Territorial Cooperation (Interreg) projects are creating cross-border best practices for the development of innovative approaches to integrated territorial development; points out that particular attention should be paid to infrastructure and cross-border cooperation in rural border regions;

41. Stresses the importance of entrepreneurship, the social economy and social innovation including the silver economy, especially when it comes to implementing the European Pillar of Social Rights in rural areas; calls on the Member States and the Commission to boost awareness and facilitate easier access to finance for entrepreneurs and the self-employed in rural areas; encourages the Member States and regional and local authorities to make use of the existing EU structural funds to target and promote women entrepreneurs and self-employed women in particular and fight poverty and social exclusion by defending the rights of children, elderly people and women and gender rights, fostering the inclusion of persons with disabilities, and integrating migrants, refugees and marginalised communities;

42. Highlights the diversity of rural areas and the crucial importance of multi-level governance, bottom-up tools and tailor-made territorial approaches in implementing the long-term vision, primarily in less developed, mountain, island and outermost regions, northern sparsely populated areas and other areas with low population density;

43. Welcomes the Commission’s intention to carry out a stocktaking exercise by mid-2023 of the actions financed by the EU and its Member States that have been carried out in rural areas; welcomes, in addition, the fact that this exercise will be included in a public report with the aim of identifying the areas where enhanced support and finance are still needed, including the way forward, based on the EU rural action plan;

44. Underlines the importance of learning from each other and harnessing the potential of the success stories of some rural areas; calls, to that end, for further exchange possibilities and the establishment of platforms in and among rural areas to promote cohesion, solidarity and EU-wide exchanges.


INFORMATION ON ADOPTION IN COMMITTEE ASKED FOR OPINION

Date adopted

15.6.2022

 

 

 

Result of final vote

+:

–:

0:

38

0

0

Members present for the final vote

François Alfonsi, Pascal Arimont, Adrian-Dragoş Benea, Rosanna Conte, Corina Crețu, Rosa D’Amato, Christian Doleschal, Raffaele Fitto, Chiara Gemma, Mircea-Gheorghe Hava, Krzysztof Hetman, Manolis Kefalogiannis, Constanze Krehl, Elżbieta Kruk, Dan-Ştefan Motreanu, Andżelika Anna Możdżanowska, Niklas Nienaß, Andrey Novakov, Younous Omarjee, Alessandro Panza, Tsvetelina Penkova, Caroline Roose, Marcos Ros Sempere, André Rougé, Susana Solís Pérez, Monika Vana

Substitutes present for the final vote

Álvaro Amaro, Asger Christensen, Laurence Farreng, Sandro Gozi, Jan Olbrycht, Dimitrios Papadimoulis, Rovana Plumb, Peter Pollák, Simone Schmiedtbauer

Substitutes under Rule 209(7) present for the final vote

Pietro Fiocchi, Eero Heinäluoma, Antonio Maria Rinaldi

 


FINAL VOTE BY ROLL CALL IN COMMITTEE ASKED FOR OPINION

38

+

 ECR

Pietro Fiocchi, Raffaele Fitto, Elżbieta Kruk, Andżelika Anna Możdżanowska

ID

Rosanna Conte, Alessandro Panza, Antonio Maria Rinaldi, André Rougé

NI

Chiara Gemma

PPE

Álvaro Amaro, Pascal Arimont, Christian Doleschal, Mircea-Gheorghe Hava, Krzysztof Hetman, Manolis Kefalogiannis, Dan‑Ştefan Motreanu, Andrey Novakov, Jan Olbrycht, Peter Pollák, Simone Schmiedtbauer

Renew

Asger Christensen, Laurence Farreng, Sandro Gozi, Susana Solís Pérez

S&D

Adrian-Dragoş Benea, Corina Crețu, Eero Heinäluoma, Constanze Krehl, Tsvetelina Penkova, Rovana Plumb, Marcos Ros Sempere

The Left

Younous Omarjee, Dimitrios Papadimoulis

Verts/ALE

François Alfonsi, Rosa D'Amato, Niklas Nienaß, Caroline Roose, Monika Vana

 

0

-

 

 

 

0

0

 

 

 

Key to symbols:

+ : in favour

- : against

0 : abstention

 

 


OPINION OF THE COMMITTEE ON WOMEN'S RIGHTS AND GENDER EQUALITY (17.6.2022)

for the Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development

on a long-term vision for the EU’s rural areas – towards stronger, connected, resilient and prosperous rural areas by 2040

(2021/2254(INI))

Rapporteur for the opinion : Christine Schneider 

 

 

SUGGESTIONS

The Committee on Women’s Rights and Gender Equality calls on the Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development, as the committee responsible, to incorporate the following suggestions into its motion for a resolution:

A. whereas gender equality is a core value of the European Union and its Member States, as enshrined in Article 2 of the Treaty on European Union, and whereas its promotion is one of the EU’s principal objectives; whereas gender equality is also recognised in the Treaties and the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union; whereas Article 8 TFEU lays down the principle of gender mainstreaming; whereas achieving gender equality is key to reducing local, regional, economic and social disparities, as well as to ensuring the long-term competitiveness and fair, inclusive and sustainable development of the EU’s rural areas;

B. whereas women play a multilevel role in rural development, namely as workers, farmers and business owners, but also by carrying the disproportionate burden of responsibility for the welfare of their family members, work that has historically been undervalued because of traditional gender stereotypes, such as the expectation that women act as primary caregivers for children and adult dependants; whereas women are therefore more likely than men to work in the informal economy and their vital role and importance in rural areas and its economy are overlooked;

C. whereas the gender employment gap is 3 % higher in rural areas than in urban areas and whereas many women have precarious contracts or play an ‘invisible role’ in rural societies, which can leave them in vulnerable situations, such as having no access to social protection or maternity benefits; whereas women in rural areas are more vulnerable to poverty and financial dependence on their partner, which represent strong barriers to their empowerment; whereas social protection for women working in agriculture is an essential element of modern and sustainable rural development; whereas women face many challenges in gaining full access to the labour market; whereas the gender employment gap in rural areas stands at 13 %, rising to 20 % in certain Member States[28]; whereas women farmers have a significant presence in family farming, which is a characteristic feature of European agriculture since around 90 % of the 22 million employees in agriculture are family members, and whereas women farms are therefore particularly in need of fair remuneration;

D. whereas the EU economy and society face multiple challenges regarding demographic change, the digitalisation of the economy and society, increasing European and global integration and the transition to a CO2-neutral economy, lifestyles and work patterns by 2050; whereas rural areas are often particularly affected by these challenges and by a reduction in their populations owing to displacement to urban areas; whereas young women are more likely to leave rural regions than young men; whereas this demographic trend, when coupled with a lack of connectivity and infrastructure, productivity challenges and a lack of public services, including education and care, or limited access to them, which deprive women of numerous opportunities, can contribute to the lower attractiveness of rural areas as places to live and work; whereas rural areas can be an attractive environment for individuals, partnerships, families in all their diversity and children, where relevant;

E. whereas the right to work is an essential precondition if women are to enjoy effective equal rights, economic independence and professional fulfilment; whereas precarious employment should therefore be eradicated through the mandatory application of the principle that for every existing job, another permanent post should be created, and by recognising and enhancing the right to jobs with rights;

F. whereas migrant women are at major risk of labour exploitation, discrimination, a lack of access to social services and legal protection and physical, psychological, economic and sexual abuse;

G. whereas rural areas are a place of residence and work for many people and are also the location of enterprises from all sectors of the economy, in particular small and medium-sized enterprises; whereas they are the place of production of agriculture and forestry but also perform important ecological functions and provide space for leisure and recreation;

H. whereas the right to housing should be safeguarded in practice by guaranteeing that individuals and families have housing which meets their needs and ensures their well-being, privacy and quality of life, thereby helping to achieve social justice and cohesion and tackle social exclusion and poverty;

I. whereas undocumented workers or those living somewhere illegally are often employed under less favourable working conditions than other workers and whereas some employers therefore recruit from the abovementioned categories in order to gain an unfair competitive advantage; whereas EU migration policies are adding to the vulnerability of and failing to protect undocumented migrant women who are victims of violence, and, for the most part, do not seek help;

J. whereas owing to existing gender norms and stereotypes, women undertake more than one responsibility in the context of their private and professional lives; whereas in taking on the abovementioned multitude of roles, women also make a significant contribution to progress and innovation at all levels of society and to an increase in quality of life, especially in rural areas; whereas opportunities emerging from the green and digital transitions, together with the consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic and the increase in remote working, have brought renewed attention to rural areas and opened up new possibilities for a more gender-balanced working environment that empowers women; whereas the consequences of the pandemic will further widen gender inequalities, underlining the need for the economic recovery response and the Europe’s green and digital transformations to be gender-sensitive; whereas women in rural areas are drivers and powerful agents of change in this transition to a greener society and economy;

K. whereas young people are one of the social groups most affected by the current deterioration in the labour market, being more exposed to unemployment, precarious employment and low wages, even though they have higher levels of education than previous generations;

L. whereas the number of women in farming has been slowly increasing in recent years; whereas only 30 % of farms across the EU are managed by women and whereas these farms tend to be smaller than those managed by men, with lower incomes and less access to financial support; whereas this number hides significant differences in the representation of women in farming among Member States; whereas women, at least at the level of farm leadership or management, receive proportionately less support from either pillar of the CAP than men (pillar 1 provides direct income support and pillar 2 focuses on rural development support); whereas this is due to women tending to manage smaller farm businesses, owning less land and having less access to formal and specialised education[29]; whereas there is regretfully a lack of women in farming, in turn affording them fewer opportunities to engage in the rural economy, such as through SMEs, which are predominant in rural areas;

M. whereas women living in rural areas experience barriers in accessing adequate and affordable healthcare, including at clinics and hospitals and from sexual reproductive health, family planning and counselling services, and in receiving support when they are victims of gender-based violence; whereas these difficulties include affordability, limited options for movement and a lack of access to transport or means of contacting transport[30] and care services in rural areas; whereas they also include financial deficits in local health services and long waiting times to see certain specialists; whereas cross-border healthcare services can offer a better option to patients in situations where the most appropriate treatment or the nearest hospital is in another Member State; whereas the COVID-19 pandemic has had a disproportionate impact on women and girls, resulting in an increase in gender-based violence and the discontinuation of services related to sexual and reproductive health;

N. whereas the COVID-19 pandemic and the associated lockdown measures have had a significant impact on rural areas and whereas there is evidence of rising inequalities[31]; whereas preliminary studies suggest that the COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated existing inequalities between men and women, especially in terms of an increase in unpaid care work and work-life imbalance;

O. whereas it is essential that the CAP guarantees more sustainable and democratic models of production and consumption, enhancing the role of small and medium-sized holdings and family farms;

P. whereas women represent a significant driving force for prosperity and social inclusion in rural areas, notably through entrepreneurship; whereas in rural areas, the share of women in self-employment is 38 % and whereas women are over-represented in precarious types of self-employment[32]; whereas the role of women entrepreneurs and self-employed women in the economy should be recognised as a catalyst for economic growth, job creation and innovation potential; whereas women do not have sufficient access to public and private funds to develop their businesses;

Q. whereas cuts in public budgets resulting from the European Union’s macro-structural economic policies, in particular the implementation of the measures contained in ‘economic governance’ and financial adjustment programmes, are causing and will continue to cause increasing gender inequalities and female unemployment since women are in the majority in the public sector and are the principal beneficiaries of social policies, and will consequently increase the feminisation of poverty; whereas a change in policy is therefore required;

R. whereas public services of general interest play an important role in rural areas and in achieving the objective of territorial cohesion; whereas it is important to promote mobility and public transport in rural areas that is widely available, efficient and affordable, taking into account the UN Sustainable Development Goals; whereas connectivity within rural areas is not developed enough, making movement of people and especially women in these areas difficult; whereas women in rural areas are less likely to have a driving licence or access to a car than men, but also travel more than men to carry out the care tasks that they often perform[33]; whereas women are more likely to use public transportation than men; whereas women more often fall victim to sexual harassment on public transport and whereas such cases are often underreported;

S. whereas the standard of living is generally lower in rural than in urban areas, affecting in a disproportional way the most vulnerable groups such as migrant women, women from minority groups and women with disabilities, who continue to face intersectional discrimination in key areas such as education, employment and health; whereas the number of migrant women moving into rural areas will greatly increase in the next few months owing to the invasion of Ukraine by Russia;

T. whereas it is necessary to advance the digital agenda in rural areas and develop comprehensive broadband infrastructure and sustainable jobs in order to maintain and strengthen competitiveness and digital participation and ensure people have equal living conditions and a better work-life balance; whereas crèches, care homes, healthcare, care for people with disabilities and other needs, a social security system and flexible work patterns, at the request of women, are essential to achieving this;

U. whereas in the EU, the proportion of rural inhabitants with at least basic digital skills in 2019 is 14 % lower than that of urban residents (48 % vs 62 %); whereas rural women face more obstacles in accessing education than men[34]; whereas it is crucial to promote and advocate for more rural women to have full access to all levels of education, including but not limited to STEM subjects;

V. whereas women in rural areas are often under-represented in decision-making bodies such as agricultural cooperatives, trade unions and municipal governments; whereas increasing women’s representation in such bodies is highly important;

W. whereas small and medium-sized farms and family farms suffer discrimination in the distribution of CAP aid, which particularly affects women farmers;

X. whereas in recent months, women farmers have also been the target of speculation in the prices of factors of production (e.g. seeds, pesticides, fertilisers, fuel, energy and machinery);

1. Stresses the importance of ensuring gender mainstreaming in rural development policy, as well as a holistic approach that goes beyond agriculture development and puts people’s support at its centre; underlines the diversity of rural actors and their importance for the sustainability of rural areas; calls for best practices to be exchanged between Member States; calls for the farm work done by women, especially work done to assist spouses and partners, to be taken into account to ensure greater legal recognition of their work and rights;

2. Stresses the need for women working on farms to have access to social security rights such as maternity leave and pension rights; stresses that women carry out important tasks to continually support family farms, even if proportionally the number of women working in agriculture in the EU is a lot lower than their percentage share of the total professionally active population (35.1 % compared with 45.9 %); also points out, in this context, that only one third of farm managers are women;

3. Regrets the unequal access of women to farmland ownership and calls on the Member States to ensure women have ownership rights;

4. Emphasises the need for a policy to regulate markets, particularly for the dairy and wine sectors, and to ensure preferential support for small and medium-sized farms, through the adaptation and capping of aid, to promote the production and consumption of food as locally as possible and to promote the most sustainable production systems;

5. Calls for positive discrimination measures to be introduced for women farmers, encouraging them to remain in rural areas; calls, in addition to support for women, for measures promoting associations that can provide technical advice and assistance to keep farms operating as tools to help the sector survive, and for young people to be encouraged to invest in agriculture and livestock for the future;

6. Underlines that the situation of women in rural areas needs to be addressed with an intersectional approach by focusing on the particular situation of specific groups such as migrant women, LGBTIQ women, women with disabilities and older women;

7. Recommends the creation of a public agricultural insurance scheme, financed from the EU budget, to be mobilised in the event of (increasingly frequent) extreme weather events or disaster situations, providing an adequate level of protection for all farmers, in order to prevent people from having to leave rural areas; urges the Commission to protect small and medium-sized farming and family farming, as they are normally associated with high-quality, sustainable production models that are capable of ensuring social and territorial cohesion;

8. Calls on the Commission to regulate the prices paid to producers and, in particular, to prohibit contracts being concluded at prices that do not cover production costs and to combat speculation in the costs of factors of production;

9. Calls for a position that enables fairer distribution of EU aid under the CAP among countries, producers and products;

10. Calls for policies to be designed in a way that takes into account the needs of women in rural areas, such as through the provision of adequate public services, and where appropriate, mobile healthcare, including itinerant medical solutions, such as equipped buses offering women living in rural areas the possibility to undergo a preventive screening test or have a consultation with a gynaecologist; stresses the need to guarantee access to sexual and reproductive health and rights for all by deploying telemedicine, developing local perinatal centres and ensuring access to information; calls for the needs of women in rural areas to be addressed through appropriate childcare, such as day nurseries, crèches and recreational activities for children, and the development of support networks for older people, thereby increasing employment rates among women and promoting their social security rights, including maternity leave or pension rights; stresses the importance of ensuring women have access to available EU funds;

11. Calls on the Commission and the Member States to collect gender-disaggregated data in order to ensure the comprehensive overview of the socioeconomic position of rural women and take the gender dimension into account when designing, implementing and evaluating policies and programmes in the field of rural development; highlights the importance of impact assessments of the design of such proposals in helping to achieve gender mainstreaming goals in rural areas; stresses that special attention should be paid to women in rural areas when designing structural social support and regional development programmes; calls on the Commission and the Member States to use digital technologies to make public social services more accessible to women in rural areas; calls on the Commission and the Member States to share good practices and take inspiring action in depopulated areas;

12. Stresses the need to develop targeted measures which will contribute to overcoming specific challenges rural women face in the labour market, such as the employment gap and participation in the informal economy; calls on the Commission and the Member States to take proper advantage of the current transition to a more digital and greener EU in order to create new job opportunities; stresses the need for the Member States to explore and promote new skills development for women, as well as their digital inclusion, by encouraging remote working possibilities in order to make it easier for those living in rural areas to find high-quality jobs;

13. Highlights the potential of rural areas to become spaces that foster the inclusion and integration of the most vulnerable groups of women with specific needs, such as women with disabilities, migrant women, including seasonal migrants, refugees and minorities, victims of gender-based violence, women with little or no training and single mothers; encourages the Member States to design and implement specific measures to promote training and employment for these groups of women and safeguard their fundamental rights; stresses the important role of local and national authorities in ensuring these women are included and integrated into society; insists, in particular, that there is a need to prepare an immediate response to the arrival of Ukrainian women with children in order to ensure they can integrate into society quickly and easily;

14. Maintains that states and employers have to assume greater responsibility for generational replacement and maternity and paternity rights, implying that women must have the right to be both mothers and workers without forfeiting their labour rights;

15. Calls on the Member States to take on responsibility for guaranteeing the right to housing for everyone, in particular by launching housing programmes for less well-off residents, providing incentives to promote subsidised housing, construct social housing, promote and finance self-build programmes, support the cooperative sector, launch effective and non-speculative credit policies and regulate a non-speculative rental market;

16. Calls on the Commission and the Member States to promote digital and hybrid education and reskilling and upskilling for women in rural areas and to further develop access to specific education programmes and quality jobs to enable these women to enhance their potential and to counteract the departure of women, mostly highly qualified women, from rural areas; calls on the Commission to continue supporting Member States’ work to improve the provision of high-quality education that is accessible to all through investments from the European Social Fund Plus, the European Regional Development Fund, the InvestEU programme and the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development, focusing on people in vulnerable situations; stresses the need to overcome the infrastructural and practical challenges rural women face in accessing education, such as limited options for movement or inadequate digital infrastructure;

17. Points out that the situation of women in rural areas is heavily influenced by the local agricultural situation and that unfair measures under the CAP have resulted in the increasing abandonment of small and medium-sized holdings and family farms; stresses the need to increase support in order to maintain family agriculture and ensure rural development, with particular emphasis on the work of women, including women migrants who work in agriculture;

18. Calls for the multitude of opportunities in rural areas to be exploited and for the development of comprehensive broadband infrastructure to make it possible to work from home and to create quality jobs that improve work-life balance and thus ensure women have equal opportunities to participate in the rural economy and work; calls on the Member States to intensify their efforts to support lifelong learning, professional education, training, qualifications and guidance systems, better infrastructure and better quality services in rural areas, with the close involvement of regions, municipalities and other promoters of such measures, such as the private sector, including business organisations and chambers and in consultation with social partners who also continuously contribute to rural development, as this can contribute significantly to promoting gender-balanced employment in rural areas;

19. Calls on the Commission and the Member States to further promote cross-border health and care services, especially in rural areas, and to pay particular attention to this aspect in the revision of Directive 2011/24/EU[35], thereby reducing bureaucratic and other barriers to the provision and use of cross-border health and care services and to establish better interaction between different healthcare systems; stresses that older people have a right to have access to quality public health services, which ensures they have a healthy ageing process and combats social exclusion, social isolation and loneliness;

20. Calls on the Member States to develop prevention and awareness-raising actions to combat gender-based violence, including in schools, to ensure access to information on facilities for helping victims, to develop shelters for victims, including for migrant and seasonal working women, and to set up preventive intervention and treatment programmes for perpetrators; stresses the need to reinforce vocational training for agents working in law enforcement and public administration and those taking care of victims of gender-based violence; calls for the economic and financial empowerment of women victims of violence to be improved through their integration into the labour market and social assistance; calls, therefore, on the Member States and regional and local governments to ensure that victims living in rural and remote areas are not deprived of equal access to support services; reiterates its call for the EU and its Member States to ratify the Istanbul Convention[36];

21. Calls on the Commission and the Member States to design policies for rural areas to ensure that women of all generations do not have to move away and can undertake entrepreneurial initiatives and thus contribute to their area’s economic revitalisation and development; calls on the Member States and the Commission to boost awareness and make it easier for women entrepreneurs and self-employed women in rural areas to access finance, including alternative forms of financing, making sure it is available and allocated to them; encourages the Member States and regional and local authorities to make use of the existing European structural and investment funds to target and promote women entrepreneurs and self-employed women; stresses the need for awareness-raising and information campaigns regarding existing and future EU funding possibilities for women entrepreneurs;

22. Notes that women are more dependent on public transport; calls, therefore, on the Commission and the Member States, in coordination with local and regional authorities, to better implement gender mainstreaming in their transport policies and to ensure that rural areas are not deprived of access to essential transport infrastructure; underlines the importance of quality, affordable and safe public means of transport; stresses the need for EU cohesion funds to support the improvement of connectivity and transport solutions in rural areas; calls on the Member States to facilitate multimodality and to provide easy and comfortable transitions from one mode of transport to another; emphasises that in order to ensure transport chains are as seamless and accessible as possible, higher-quality infrastructure must be created across the EU; reiterates that this includes infrastructure standardisation, in particular to make cross-border projects and transport possible, thereby making sure women can be more active in the labour market and helping them to search for work by enabling them to travel further;

23. Stresses the importance of making it genuinely possible to combine work, private and professional lives, which will have the positive effect of increasing the participation of all women in social and political life by encouraging an optimal environment in rural areas that will attract individuals, partnerships and families, in all their diversity, and notably women, to move to rural areas to enjoy healthy lifestyles;

24. Strongly supports an increase in institutional support to ensure political participation and power or representation for rural women; insists on the need to design training activities to encourage rural women to move into areas and sectors in which they are under-represented, as well as awareness-raising campaigns on the importance of having women in management positions; calls on the Member States to promote gender equality in their various management and representation bodies to foster equal participation in all types of agricultural organisations, associations and public institutions;

25. Urges the Member States to close the gender pay gap and the pension gap; points out that pensions should be upgraded to provide a fair income that allows people to live in dignity and should never be below the poverty line; stresses the need to defend public, solidarity-based and universal social security systems that guarantee decent pensions for all;

26. Calls for better access to high-quality public services and infrastructure, in particular digital infrastructure, and for the deployment of widely available, efficient and affordable transport options that meet the SDGs;

27. Urges the Member States to implement specific measures to tackle the risk of social exclusion and poverty, focusing on access to affordable housing, transport and energy;

28. Calls on the Commission and the Member States to design funding programmes or support measures in such a way that the bureaucratic burden is easily manageable for smaller businesses and stakeholders; calls on the Commission and the Member States to ensure that individuals or smaller organisations are also able to obtain an overview and apply for funding opportunities and are given assistance in doing so;

29. Urges the Member States to guarantee that women can exercise their rights in all areas of society, thereby prohibiting and penalising all forms of discrimination;

30. Highlights the valuable contribution to the promotion of gender equality in rural areas delivered by actions under the LEADER programme, co-financed by the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development, which aims to engage local stakeholders in the design and delivery of strategies, decision-making and resource allocation for the development of their rural areas; calls on the Commission and the Member States to reinforce the LEADER programme by reducing the administrative burden on local authorities and simplifying access, promoting the local ownership of community-led development projects and encouraging women’s participation in local action groups.


INFORMATION ON ADOPTION IN COMMITTEE ASKED FOR OPINION

Date adopted

16.6.2022

 

 

 

Result of final vote

+:

–:

0:

24

0

1

Members present for the final vote

Isabella Adinolfi, Annika Bruna, Maria da Graça Carvalho, Margarita de la Pisa Carrión, Lina Gálvez Muñoz, Alice Kuhnke, Karen Melchior, Andżelika Anna Możdżanowska, Maria Noichl, Sandra Pereira, Pina Picierno, Evelyn Regner, Diana Riba i Giner, María Soraya Rodríguez Ramos, Christine Schneider, Sylwia Spurek

Substitutes present for the final vote

Michiel Hoogeveen, Ewa Kopacz, Aušra Maldeikienė, Predrag Fred Matić, Silvia Modig, Monika Vana

Substitutes under Rule 209(7) present for the final vote

Marek Paweł Balt, Milan Brglez, Maria Walsh

 

 


 

 

FINAL VOTE BY ROLL CALL IN COMMITTEE ASKED FOR OPINION

24

+

ECR

Michiel Hoogeveen, Andżelika Anna Możdżanowska

ID

Annika Bruna

PPE

Isabella Adinolfi, Maria da Graça Carvalho, Ewa Kopacz, Aušra Maldeikienė, Christine Schneider, Maria Walsh

RENEW

Karen Melchior, María Soraya Rodríguez Ramos

S&D

Marek Paweł Balt, Milan Brglez, Lina Gálvez Muñoz, Predrag Fred Matić, Maria Noichl, Pina Picierno, Evelyn Regner

THE LEFT

Silvia Modig, Sandra Pereira

VERTS/ALE

Alice Kuhnke, Diana Riba i Giner, Sylwia Spurek, Monika Vana

 

0

-

 

 

 

1

0

ECR

Margarita de la Pisa Carrión

 

Key to symbols:

+ : in favour

- : against

0 : abstention

 

 


 

INFORMATION ON ADOPTION IN COMMITTEE RESPONSIBLE

Date adopted

25.10.2022

 

 

 

Result of final vote

+:

–:

0:

36

1

10

Members present for the final vote

Mazaly Aguilar, Clara Aguilera, Atidzhe Alieva-Veli, Álvaro Amaro, Attila Ara-Kovács, Carmen Avram, Adrian-Dragoş Benea, Benoît Biteau, Daniel Buda, Isabel Carvalhais, Asger Christensen, Ivan David, Jérémy Decerle, Salvatore De Meo, Herbert Dorfmann, Luke Ming Flanagan, Dino Giarrusso, Martin Häusling, Martin Hlaváček, Krzysztof Jurgiel, Jarosław Kalinowski, Elsi Katainen, Camilla Laureti, Gilles Lebreton, Norbert Lins, Elena Lizzi, Chris MacManus, Colm Markey, Marlene Mortler, Ulrike Müller, Maria Noichl, Juozas Olekas, Eugenia Rodríguez Palop, Bronis Ropė, Bert-Jan Ruissen, Anne Sander, Simone Schmiedtbauer, Annie Schreijer-Pierik, Veronika Vrecionová, Sarah Wiener, Juan Ignacio Zoido Álvarez

Substitutes present for the final vote

Franc Bogovič, Rosanna Conte, Marie Dauchy, Anna Deparnay-Grunenberg, Alin Mituța

Substitutes under Rule 209(7) present for the final vote

Estrella Durá Ferrandis

 

FINAL VOTE BY ROLL CALL IN COMMITTEE RESPONSIBLE

36

+

ECR

Mazaly Aguilar, Bert‑Jan Ruissen, Veronika Vrecionová

NI

Dino Giarrusso

PPE

Álvaro Amaro, Franc Bogovič, Daniel Buda, Salvatore De Meo, Herbert Dorfmann, Jarosław Kalinowski, Norbert Lins, Colm Markey, Marlene Mortler, Anne Sander, Simone Schmiedtbauer, Annie Schreijer‑Pierik, Juan Ignacio Zoido Álvarez

RENEW

Atidzhe Alieva‑Veli, Asger Christensen, Jérémy Decerle, Martin Hlaváček, Elsi Katainen, Alin Mituța, Ulrike Müller

S&D

Clara Aguilera, Attila Ara‑Kovács, Carmen Avram, Adrian‑Dragoş Benea, Isabel Carvalhais, Estrella Durá Ferrandis, Camilla Laureti, Maria Noichl, Juozas Olekas

THE LEFT

Luke Ming Flanagan, Chris MacManus, Eugenia Rodríguez Palop

 

1

-

ECR

Krzysztof Jurgiel

 

10

0

ID

Rosanna Conte, Marie Dauchy, Ivan David, Gilles Lebreton, Elena Lizzi

VERTS?ALE

Benoît Biteau, Anna Deparnay‑Grunenberg, Martin Häusling, Bronis Ropė, Sarah Wiener

 

Key to symbols:

+ : in favour

- : against

0 : abstention

 

Last updated: 30 November 2022
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