The European Congress on Rural Renewal and Development will highlight key values for preserving the specificity and vitality of villages, valuing grassroots and the use of local resources and, above all, the empowerment of local communities to respond to increased uncertainty and risks.
The Congress will become an event that, through the presentation of ideas and the demonstration of effective solutions, will encourage a turn towards grassroots and the building of community resilience based on a self-help formula.
Thus, the Congress will contribute to building stronger, connected, resilient and prosperous rural areas as outlined in the Long Term Vision for Rural Areas to 2040 announced in 2021 by the European Commission.
The congress will be attended by some 1,500 people – representatives of ministries responsible for rural development in the EU27, institutions working for the development of villages and rural areas, representatives of local authorities, NGOs, academia, leaders of rural communities, with particular emphasis on key circles: women, youth and sport.
The programme will include: Wielkopolska Day (8 May), European Day (9 May) and Poland Day (10 May). The plenary hall will be the central place for presentations and proposals from the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development and his partners from EU countries, politicians, publicists, representatives of science and practitioners involved in the transformation of the countryside and rural areas. The subject of the planned panel discussion will be the position of the Congress emphasising the need to turn development policies towards bottom-up approaches and to build the resilience of local communities based on a self-help formula.
As part of the Polish Day, the following thematic blocks will deepen and broaden the spectrum of issues:
Presentations, examples and discussion with the participation of practitioners and meetings of the above-mentioned circles.
