A vibrant tapestry of life and landscapes, Europe’s rural areas provide us with our food, homes, jobs, and essential ecosystems services.

To ensure that rural areas can continue to play these essential roles, a European Commission communication sets out a long-term vision for the EU’s rural areas up to 2040. It identifies areas of action towards stronger, connected, resilient and prosperous rural areas and communities. A Rural Pact and an EU Rural Action Plan with tangible flagships and new tools will help achieve the goals of this vision.

In December 2021, Vice-president Šuica, Commissioner Wojciechowski and Commissioner Ferreira extended an open invitation to join the Rural Pact community. They encouraged all interested authorities and organisations to express their support for the vision’s ten shared goals and take an active role in the Pact’s development. The proposal for the Pact was endorsed at the Rural Pact conference on 16 June 2022.

Stakeholders can get involved in the Pact by joining the Rural Pact community and commit to helping to deliver one or more of the objectives.

Lean more about the rural vision and how it was developed.