The European Rural Development Vision in Romanian Context

Abstract

Rural areas need our implication more than ever, in Romania, we identify a large percentage of people leaving behind their homes. Without a strategy to support and create opportunities, we will lose the heartbeat of our economy and an important part of our identity. This paper aims to study ways to develop self-sustained communities and achieve economic potential by investing in our rural areas’ future through good policies. Based on debate between 25 participants from various professional backgrounds for 5 days, the focus group investigated the study cases of their nations to better grasp the future steps. The focus group is a dynamic mix of youth from European countries such as Greece, Ireland, Croatia, Ireland, and Romania with different educational backgrounds who took the opportunity to study the High value and rural areas in their countries. They identify the needs of different village stockholders and bring all the knowledge together. A great lack of trust in collaboration between farmers and the need for more practical policies was found, in addition to the need for education and a better understanding of how they can round their income. The objectives of this vision will be accomplished with the aid of a Rural Pact and an EU Rural Action Plan with concrete flagship projects and innovative tools.

Keywords

• agritourism
• bottom-up method
• rural policies
• rural tourism
• stockholders keyword