The Rural Pact Coordination Group Declaration aims to enable rural stakeholders to better shape future EU rural development policy. Just like many other strategic documents, the RPCG Declaration highlights the critical role of rural areas and communities, and demands more effective EU policies and more funds to support rural development.
However, rural voices still seem to go unheard in EU policymaking. In an op-ed (08/07/25) written for ARC2020, Edina Ocsko unpacks why rural voices struggle to shape policy and identifies some concrete next steps and invites everyone to rethink rural power in EU policymaking.