We need to stop the gaps between rural and urban areas from growing further and better coordinate policies so as to bridge them. The new CAP alone will not be sufficient to rebalance these interrelated areas. For Europe to truly tackle inequalities, we need to mobilise a wider set of policies and funding instruments.

In an Information Report adopted at its April plenary, the EESC provided a complementary evaluation at the request of the Commission on the extent to which the instruments and measures under the current EU Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) 2014-2020 have contributed to balanced territorial development in rural areas.

Based on consultations in five selected EU countries (France, Hungary, Ireland, Italy and Spain), the EESC has analysed how the CAP can better help to reduce the social and economic imbalances within rural areas.

While the CAP is the key policy for funding and maintaining employment in agriculture, other existing funding programmes, complementary to the CAP, have a critical role to play. However, coherence with other EU/national/local policies was assessed as not being optimal in terms of social policy, food policy, environmental policy, research and innovation, and trade. Environmental, economic and social sustainability must go hand in hand.

LEADER and Community-led local development (CLLD) were found to be potentially the most effective of all CAP measures. However, it needs to be resourced to a much greater extent and optimised. "Involving civil society organisations is key to ensuring the proper functioning of the programmes and to making sure that local needs are duly considered", pointed out EESC rapporteur Piroska Kállay.

The CAP measures did not have as positive an impact on employment in rural areas as most countries needed. In the countries visited, several stakeholders strongly highlighted the importance of  social conditionality."Labour rights and decent working conditions must therefore be guaranteed by social conditionality in CAP financing", concluded MS Kállay.

A Rural Development Observatory should also be established. (mr)