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Rural Vision

Actions for connected rural areas

Circle with connections

Under this action area, rural areas benefit from actions to boost sustainable transport links and digitalisation through investments in infrastructure, technology development and skills enhancement activities.

No matter how much effort is spent on education, promotion of tourism, development of new economic initiatives, accessibility remains a key to success for any development initiative. The absence of good accessibility and connectivity affects any development strategy implemented in rural territories.

Consultation activities on the long-term vision
Couple reading a newspaper with digital icons around

 

Flagship: Develop sustainable multimodal mobility and digital mobility services 

Flagship: Rural Digital Futures 

Bridging urban and rural through the EU Urban Mobility Framework 

The new EU Urban Mobility Framework was adopted on 14 December 2021. 

The Framework includes specific actions to better integrate the urban, peri-urban and rural linkages in upgraded Sustainable Urban Mobility Plans (SUMPs), adopted in March 2023 as part of the Commission Recommendation on national SUMP support programme. 

Rolling out of broadband in rural areas  

A new and strengthened support facility has been launched on 26 September 2022 to support the network of broadband competency offices setup at national and regional level (BCO network).  

More about the Broadband competency office network.  

Further promoting the digitalisation of the agricultural sector  

The CAP, Horizon Europe and the Digital Europe Programme are key instruments supporting the digitalisation of agriculture through trainings, advice, innovation, investment among other actions.

Main lines of action are: 

The Commission will take into account R&I priorities concerning digitalisation for agriculture and rural areas identified in EU AgriResearch Conference 2023 when drafting the future calls for projects for 2025-2027.

Enhancing rural areas accessibility through the use of drones  

The Drone Strategy 2.0 adopted on 29 November 2022 involves all parties concerned at local, regional and national levels to make sure that safe and secure drone operations are deployed, both in urban and rural areas in a fair and sustainable manner. 

In addition to utility services (field inspections and measurements), drones can improve accessibility in remote rural areas, e.g. with the delivery of small goods.

More about the Drone Strategy: Creating a large-scale European drone market