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Climate action, particularly climate change mitigation, can provide opportunities for the primary sector, rural communities and businesses to become more sustainable, resilient and competitive. These rural development stakeholders can make a major contribution to the European Green Deal, the roadmap for a sustainable EU economy. 

This edition of the EU Rural Review looks at how rural areas are making significant contributions towards climate action, also thanks to EAFRD support.

This issue of the EU Rural Review explores some of the ways in which social and environmental sustainability can contribute to economic growth in Europe’s rural areas.

It highlights some of the particular opportunities for rural areas from the transition to the green economy, including through the move to the low-carbon economy and more sustainable farming and forestry. It also looks at practical aspects of green economy projects and how cooperation can help deliver improved outcomes.

Throughout, it considers how the Rural Development Programmes (RDPs) can best support efforts in these areas.

This issue highlights the relevance of EU Rural Development policy to wider societal challenges and the practical opportunities to deliver the greatest positive impact on the ground. It focuses on responses to the challenges of limited rural broadband internet access, global climate change and the current refugee crisis. It goes on to explore some of the new and developing EU policy tools: multi-funded CLLD; the European Fund for Strategic Investments; and the RDP Cooperation Measure.

This issue examines the importance of stakeholder involvement in rural development and the methods that can be used to support it. It provides information and guidance on the main types of stakeholder groups in rural development, the EU legal basis of stakeholder involvement and ways in which it can contribute to rural development policy. The issue provides examples of good stakeholder involvement.

This issue highlights the value of the organic approach to agriculture and the rural economy, as well as its wider societal and environmental benefits. It further provides insight into the evolving European policy landscape - including a detailed profile of the European Commission’s Action Plan on the Future of Organic Production in Europe - and the course it is setting for the future of the sector.

The United Nations has declared 2014 the International Year of Family Farming, the primary aim of which is to promote, develop and strengthen all types of family-oriented agriculture as a socially valuable, economically viable and environmentally sustainable model.

Innovation is at the heart of the Europe 2020 strategy, which aims to promote smart, sustainable and inclusive growth. Today, European farmers are faced with the dual challenges of having not only to produce more, but also to do so in a sustainable manner. The reform of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) sees innovation as a key driver of sustainable agriculture and rural development.

Rural Europe plays a central role in the provision of environmental services such as preserving biodiversity, contributing to climate regulation—by reducing emissions and sequestering carbon, protecting water quality and availability, preserving soil functionality and air quality, reinforcing resilience to flooding and/or fire and maintaining landscape values.

Forests and forest policy in the EU.