Present and Future European Rural Policy

Abstract

The European Union, which had been gradually becoming less agriculture-oriented, it also became troublingly more rural. In this new, more rural Europe, the population living in rural areas is now the majority (over 57% in the EU-27). The development of the new Europe’s countryside has become a political objective aimed at achieving economic, social and territorial cohesion. However, the current EU rural policy 2007–2013 is inappropriate and insufficient, and should have been included in the new Cohesion Policy, which is multi-sectoral and territorial, and not in a basically sectoral agricultural policy like the CAP. In this context, the new proposal for rural development policies, presented by the European Commission in 2011, seems to have many wake points. In fact, ”promoting social inclusion, poverty reduction and economic development in rural areas” are the sixth priority for the future European rural policy. Consequently, if the European policies have not made sufficient headway in the required direction, supplementary national and regional policies will have to be established.