Rural Voices in Europe

forthcoming

Rural citizens represent 30% of the EU population and rural areas play a central role in major social, economic and environmental challenges. Despite that, there are several persisting barriers to their full participation and citizenship, aggravated by their geographical remoteness and the compromised access to basic services. These citizens feel their needs and perspectives are not being taken into account in democratic processes, and they are underrepresented in the EU project, leading to civic and political disengagement and skepticism, compromising their rights as EU citizens, and expanding the long-term persisting gap between rural communities and EU institutions. With RViE, we intend to break this tendency and bring the EU scope closer to the local rural setting, increase communities’ knowledge and awareness on their role as EU citizens, foster their sense of EU belonging and create a participatory culture and new alternative tools to make rural voices heard in the debate on the future of Europe, by promoting local, regional and transnational cooperation. Our final goal is to tackle this lack of representativeness of rural communities in the EU project and preserve a strong and inclusive democracy for all citizens, showing all the best rural communities have to offer, and how they significantly contribute to the sustainable development of our societies.