Newcastle University

The report calls for a 'Rural Cohesion Policy' more attuned to contemporary realities and issues which can help rural areas play their part in Europe’s emergence from the current economic downturn.

While echoing some of the ideas in this week's UK Treasury/DEFRA Growth Review (29 November 2011), the New Rural Europe: Towards Rural Cohesion Policy report suggests more could be done.

Professor Mark Shucksmith, of Newcastle University, is one of the authors of the report. “The changing reality of rural areas in the 21st century means that a fresh approach is required," he said. "This is especially important in the current economic context, when policies should be supporting growth originating in all sectors and all areas, rural as well as urban."

He is encouraged that this week's UK Growth Review recognises the potential of rural economies at last, but sees little sign of this in future EU policy, notably in proposals for the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) reform.

The report calls for tailored and locally managed approaches to stimulate more effective exploitation of rural potentials, which echoes the key message of the influential Barca report on regional policy a couple of years ago. However, the European Development Opportunities in Rural Areas (EDORA) researchers make a number of additional points which apply specifically to rural policy:

• Rural change varies systematically across Europe, reflecting structural forces which cannot be addressed simply through localised, place-based actions. Local action needs to be complemented by macro-scale diagnosis, strategic planning and intervention. A ‘two-tier’ approach is required.
  
• While agriculture is important to rural areas, (especially in the South and East of Europe), it is rarely associated with rural prosperity. Growth is characteristic of diversified rural economies with a much broader mix of industries.

The EDORA findings also challenge outdated stereotypes about the origins of rural economic growth. The assumption that growth is an urban phenomenon, and that rural areas benefit mainly through rural-urban links is clearly evident in recent EU policy documents.

However, the report shows that economic dynamism is just as likely in rural areas, even those which are remote or sparsely populated. Moreover, diversified and prosperous rural economies may be sustained by “translocal”, rather than rural-urban, links.

"The UK and the EU needs growth in the context of the economic downturn," said Professor Shucksmith. "But the potential of rural economies cannot be fully realised by sectoral rural policies, nor by promoting co-operation and links with adjacent urban areas. Instead policies should support rural businesses, across all sectors, as they seek to survive and grow in an increasingly interconnected and globalised world."

This report, which is edited by Andrew Copus and Lisa Hörnström, is based on findings from the EDORA project. The overarching aim was to examine the process of differentiation in rural areas, in order to better understand how EU, national and regional policy can enable these areas to build upon their specific potentials to achieve (in the words of the EU 2020 strategy) “smart, sustainable and inclusive growth".

It was funded under the ESPON 2013 programme, beginning in September 2008 and ending in March 2011. This project was coordinated by the University of the Highlands and Islands, supported by a large consortium representing twelve EU Member States.