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Long Term Vision for Rural Areas - first ENRD Thematic Group meeting

Oct 5, 2020

The new ENRD Thematic Group (TG) on the Long Term Rural Vision, #rural2040, made up of a cross-section of individuals from different countries, sectors, and interest areas, and including PURPLE Secretary General, Vincent O'Connell, as a member, met for the first time (virtually) on September 22 and 23.

The TG sets out to: 

  1. Contribute to and enrich the foresight exercise to be carried out for the Long Term Rural Vision in cooperation with the JRC. This will take place as the centrepiece of the first two meetings of the Thematic Group in September and December 2020
  2. Act as a platform or exchange hub sharing, discussing and communicating the results of different activities carried out by Thematic Group members and other key actors involved in contributing to the Long Term Rural Vision
  3. Improve the coherence and structure of dialogue that will take place among stakeholders on the Long Term Rural Vision in different parts of Europe
  4. Communicate more widely with stakeholders and encourage their sustained involvement in the dialogue
  5. Contribute to the ENRD conference on the Long Term Rural Vision (expected in spring 2021)
The initial meeting highlighted the need to identify drivers for change and transition in rural areas and rural-urban relations and the degree of risk entailed in not responding apporpriately to such drivers as a key part of any visioning exercise. The meeting also underscored the importance of incorporating emerging lessons learned from within relevant current H2020 projects amongst which ROBUST is very much a cited example.

A portal to capture the work and porgress made by the group has been set up at:  https://enrd.ec.europa.eu/enrd-thematic-work/long-term-rural-vision/long-term-rural-vision-portal_en