Former EU commissioner Franz Fischler warns of challenges for rural areas

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The population of rural areas of the European Union may fall by 100 million people over the next 20 years, former EU agriculture commissioner Dr Franz Fischler has said.

Dr Fischler said some 300 million of the EU’s population currently live in urban centres with 200 million in rural zones but that balance was set to change over the next two decades. This would have serious implications for those living in rural areas, he said.

Impact

“It’s going to have a major impact on the provision of services in rural zones and to make it a bit more complicated, it will not apply the same way everywhere so not only will it be necessary to have a new identity for rural zones but also to differentiate between types of rural zones,” he said.

“For example we have what we call bacon belts - those areas around cities which are sometimes prospering more than the cities themselves -they have a different situation compared to the remote areas or the areas which are very much dominated by agricultural sector.”

Cork conference

Dr Fischler was speaking in Cork where he was attending the Cork 2.0 Conference on Rural Development which saw current EU Agriculture and Rural Development Commissioner, Phil Hogan accept a declaration outlining how rural Europe should develop over the next 20 years.

Mr Hogan paid tribute to the work done by a number of experts groups under the chairmanship of Heino von Meyer of the OECD to complete the Cork 2.0 Declaration, “A Better Life in Rural Areas” for the future development of rural communities living in the EU.