 Ladies and gentlemen, we will start this debate with our guests coming from different political parties about the European elections, as we have committed to organize a series of debates about these important issues. So first I would like to give the floor to Mr. Markey for five minutes. Thank you very much, President. I'm delighted to be here today as somebody who is a former member of a local authority and indeed a regional authority. It's very close to my heart. I spent 13 years on a local authority and five years on a regional assembly. So I really do appreciate being here and as somebody who was formerly a chair of a leader company and worked long I think eight years in a leader company and on rural development in general I think this is such an important issue. For me there's about five things that ultimately matter if we're going to talk about developing rural areas in Europe into the future. The first from my perspective is agriculture is the cornerstone of our rural economies and we have to ensure into the future that agriculture is, if you like, developed under the new cap that we ensure that agriculture, if you like, evolves and develops into the future. From a farming perspective generational renewal is key part of that and I believe that access to finance for young farmers to allow them to redevelop the farms and ensure that their innovative into the future is important. If you look at the difference between agriculture and other sectors you find that with agriculture people give longer hours and are constantly, if you like, working harder than the counterpart. We have to give young people in agriculture an opportunity that ensures that their future is as good as their peers in other areas. Beside that we need to ensure that the new opportunities that rural economies have are developed particularly the area of renewable energies. Where I come from in Ireland the western half of our country is perhaps underdeveloped relative to the urban areas close to Dublin and I'm a big believer that there's the potential to balance up the economies of rural areas by investing in the like of renewable energies, be it offshore wind, be it onshore wind. These types of scenarios are key towards the future of generating economic development of rural areas. Next to that I think is it's critical that we focus on our town centres. Our rural regional town centres are in decline in a lot of parts of Europe particularly in the country I come from in Ireland and how we invest in our town centres to create a new, if you like, a new experience be it a retail experience a social experience and develop the night time economy in our rural towns and villages. That is critical. One part of developing that is the idea of remote working. In Ireland we put a big focus on remote working in more recent years and in conjunction with that in the development of broadband and to give people the opportunities to remain in their own communities and if you like play for the local sports team, if you like buy their coffee in the local shop and the multiplier that that has in the local economy is critical. So I think it's critical that we ensure that those town centres develop and that the potential to work remotely be it from the home or in a hub in the local town or village is critical to sustaining rural communities. Beyond that I think we have to look at the broader infrastructure piece. If you like in many of our rural areas, rail connections, transport infrastructure is limited and we need to ensure that broader infrastructure improves as we go forward. If you consider in many rural areas that the connectivity when you're trying to bring inward investment, the connectivity to those rural areas is often less than what it should be. Many times we look, where I live close to Dublin, it can be difficult to attract inward investment to places more remote locations because of transport connectivity because of a shortage of skills and we have to ensure that those skills that Braindrain is stopped by ensuring those opportunities are available through if you like remote working in particular, the delivery of broadband as well to ensure that those opportunities are there. Ultimately we have to see that our rural areas offer people the same opportunities as urban areas do and that's what we fail to do if you like over the last number of years. I think we need to invest in the agricultural end to ensure that the cap, the future cap, embraces new opportunities. We have to look at the other opportunities that are out there in terms of renewable energies, the green transition, sustainability around protecting our nature and biodiversity. There's numerous opportunities in those areas and how we develop them into the future is critical. But the most important thing is that we ensure that we invest in infrastructure that allows people access and live in those areas in a similar way to what we can in urban areas. So from my perspective going forward, cap and regional investment in terms of infrastructure are critical towards the future of, if you like, the development of original areas and happy to take questions later on. Thank you. Thank you so much for your intervention. I now have the pleasure and the pleasure of giving the floor to my counterpart, Isabel Carvalhais, from Portugal. I have the floor for five minutes. Thank you very much. I begin by greeting Mr. President of the Regional Committee, Estimado Vasco Cordeiro, and all the dear members of the Regional Committee, naturally all those who also follow me here in this part. And I would like to thank you very much to the Regional Committee and, in particular, to the PES, for the kind invitation that allows me to be here today. It is always a honor and it is always a great pleasure to be able to debate the opportunities and challenges of the rural world. And this is a debate that could not be more opportune, because this is the time to reflect on the lines we want to, in the end, draw the next community framework of support, whose proposals will begin to arise in the face of 2025, that is, tomorrow, because time runs. And we talked about a framework that cannot, in some way, go beyond the rural areas as one of its great priorities. Because the implementation of the European Pillar of Social Rights for a more fair European society, more equitable, cannot be concluded without the guarantee that rural citizens will benefit from equitable conditions from any other European Union citizen to achieve their professional, personal and social goals. The European Commission's communication, the long-term supervision, was a very useful tool in its time. In particular, in order to contribute to society, what is urgent is the action in the present and in the future in rural areas, but, we agree, it was launched late, in a phase already advanced of the programming of the new financial framework and of its main instruments, namely related to the policy of cohesion and agricultural and rural development. An error that has to be avoided in the future. Looking back now, how can we ensure that we do not leave anyone behind? How do we avoid the feeling of abandonment, the exclusion of the spaces of political decision and the subsequent defection of democracy itself in rural spaces? The answers are complex, they are necessarily to be multidisciplinary and to have some creativity. But sometimes it is not necessary to invent the wheel, but to fully explore the potential of the already existing instruments and policies, and that can only be innovative. For example, guaranteeing a better articulation between all European policies and funds, including direct management, as well as national ones, through a simplified administrative culture. This would only be innovative, because the truth is that although we all know how important this articulation is, in practice it is not concrete and has many difficulties. That is why we propose, in the European Parliament, the need to remove obstacles that are persistent to multi-funding. How can we remove these obstacles? For example, through the abandonment of the main funding, the interventions financed by more than one shared management fund, through the possibility of transferring financial resources between all shared management funds, as long as the objective is to sustain rural territorial strategies, for example, also through a new administrative culture of simplification. It is not facilitation, but simplification to start, of course, in Brussels. A second dimension that I would like to highlight very quickly, about the need to recognize the rural dimension as a political, demanding and integrated vision. The development of rural spaces implies an interdisciplinary vision, as I said, and in fact it is not possible to concrete it without an integrated vision of all aspects that affect this development. Be it transport, mobility, renewable energies, health, education, social services, culture and leisure, agriculture, justice, equality of gender, the protection of biodiversity, etc. Therefore, it is essential to look, yes, at rural development in addition to the so-called traditional policies of rural and regional development, that is, peace and cohesion policy, and to start to think of rural in a more integrated and horizontal way. The European Commission recently published a report on the progress of the long-term vision, I am not going to talk about this, but there is a phrase that I repeat in the background all that we have been saying for a long time, which is necessary, continuous action, policies that go through the programming periods and all programming levels. Now, it is just necessary to concretize this, just as the Commission tells us. Anyway, to finish, I have already said this in my time, this is the moment. It is a moment of sending a very clear and inequitable message to rural areas all over Europe, that we worry with your communities, with your men and your women, with your young people, with your elderly people, with all your inhabitants, with all those who work there and recognize that the best way to demonstrate it is to do it. Thank you very much. Thank you very much, Isabel. Now it is my pleasure to give the floor to Mrs. Sciollos, Member of the European Parliament. You have the floor, sir, for five minutes. Thank you, thank you, Chair. So I am here on behalf of my political group, which is Renew Europe, but I cannot avoid also my past as former European Commissioner for Agriculture and Rural Development. And I would start with some, let's say, provocative statements. We talk about rural areas in Europe. We have to recognize that we don't have a real EU rural development policy. We have European instruments, financial instruments, use it in as much as possible coherent way for a local and regional development. And we used to see rural development more connected to agriculture, which is normally in a certain way, or which was normal, let's say, because the main activity, economic activity in rural area was or is still in some regions agriculture, farming, but I think this is also a trap for rural areas. And I remember when I was Commissioner, the institutional fight between agriculture, rural development department and regional department, and I think this is in a disadvantage of some rural areas, who face, of course, economic problem and the problem mentioned by my colleague from EPP on generational renewable farming in some rural areas remain. But for me, rural areas in Europe are now more complex than simply agriculture. We cannot disconnect rural areas from farming, from environment, from management of natural resources. But we have to recognize that if we want to have a coherent approach on our European rural areas, we should recognize, first of all, diversity of these regions, but the need of a common vision on what we intend to do with these areas. Do we want to isolate these areas from the urban development, fast and accelerated urban development? Do we want to think our interconnectivity in Europe only among big metropolis, which is normal and we need this? But how we will integrate rural areas in this development approach? So for this, and I would like to thank to my colleague Isabel for the report she presented in the parliament, which is, I think, a good starting point to have this kind of discussions, because we need to see in a pragmatic way which are the financial resources for our European rural areas and how we share responsibility between European level and European financial instruments, national level and regional level, taking into account the fact that some regions are more financial power than others. Some regions are more interested on rural development, others more on urban development and how to put this into coherence. So I think at EU level, trying to avoid this game between Digi Agri and Digi Regio and other directorate generals, we have to find a way for more coherence and easiest common instrument for me, leader approach. It's a very efficient one and he proved efficiency in several areas and we use to enlarge this for all areas, not only rural, so for this connection rural urban. More integrated territorial investments, I think, should be also better used in the future and using not only European financing and public financing but integrating more also private financing because in a lot of areas when we talk about economic development this means also to be able to attract private finance and for this we have to see talking about this integrated territorial investment and development, connectivity and infrastructure, transport infrastructure, mobility but also digital infrastructure because without digitalisation doesn't matter whether we have or not transport connectivity so we have to go together with all of this and also how to ensure the public services health, education, social services recognising that we have poor regions in rural area in Europe and poverty is not only for the others but it's also for some regions in Europe and we have to recognise this and sometimes this poverty is exactly because this lack of connection so I will stop here saying also that we have to manage the migration within rural areas and urban areas and I can see in my country in Romania this migration from the both from the both sides which is I think a good thing. Thank you. Thank you so much. Now the floor goes to our member Lorenzo Galligani on behalf of ECR you have the floor for five minutes. Thank you President, thank you colleagues who preceded me. I thank you for giving me the opportunity to come here today. I am very happy to take the floor again on the issue of the future of rural areas which as Italian and as Tuscan is very important to me. We have heard and repeated more times from the regional committee. The other rural areas are in decline. Bruxelles' politicians have to develop a more rural intelligence and more awareness on the territory. The rural areas' citizens feel completely disconnected from the political process and the decision-making process of Bruxelles. Many do not understand or understand what they are doing, especially when it comes to some of the most ideological policies of this mandate, such as the development of cars with combustion engines starting in 2035, to get into the specifics. It is a very radical decision that will have a serious and devastating impact on many of our citizens, especially those of the rural areas which depend largely on cars to move and to work. We are not only talking about understanding thousands of jobs in the company sector, thousands of jobs in the automotive sector, but it will also be a political decision that will have repercussions on the power of our citizens. Many will not be able to afford electric vehicles. Many experts already talk about the electric motorization of mass such as an electric ball. Many will not be able to afford electric vehicles such as an electric ball. And yet, how do we expect that the health authorities have the economic and technical capacity to install enough charging systems? It is a deplorable mistake. It is only necessary to make our Chinese competitors happy that, among other things, they also govern the supply lines of raw materials. And yet, we are talking about the sense of isolation and the distance of local jobs. Why does the European Union and its political machine constantly use diviets instead of incentives to build our economies and our industrial capacity and our strategic autonomy? According to a recent survey, the diviets of the UED in 2035 are in fact the less popular protectionist measure in countries such as Germany, France and Poland, even among the left-wing parties. We continue on this path. For this, we always remember that technological neutrality must be the driving principle for the foundation of valid policies. Let the member states decide which is the most convenient path to reach zero net. When it comes to green transition, for too long, the politicians believed that the end would justify six means, which actually represents an approach from the top to the bottom. In the future, they will have to admit as much as the destination. The addition of green transition should give power to the regions, creating jobs bringing investments and thus bringing strength to work in the campaigns to mitigate the escape of the brain and slow aging of the population. But it has never been like this. Let's see young disillusioned, often forced to leave their city due to lack of work opportunities while cities continue to suffer from overfilling, pollution and inaccessibility. Let's see the signs of a growing but unhappy part of the farmers that we have seen in the days to come exactly here in front of our buildings where the continental government works. Let's be honest. Green transition has brought suffocating regulations for our farmers and threatening to kill the industry causing abandoned factories such as stones, domes, splashes in the European landscape. These are the real concerns of rural areas that often feel that their voices are not heard when these issues arise. Let's not forget that agriculture is the stone of thousands of Europe and that European farmers are part of the solution. They are the first ecologists, they are not a problem. 2024 will be the occasion to turn the page and adopt a new approach. Politicians and politicians must submit the policies and programs of the European Union that will always be effective to face the specific territorial needs and will not have the necessary authority and authority to make investments in every region, in rural areas, in mountain and mountain areas that we have often talked about in this seat. In conclusion, the evaluation of territorial impact must become a key of the European decision making process. They must be increasingly pragmatic starting from ourselves. We ourselves must be increasingly pragmatic and offer solutions based on results that give priority to the economic and social prosperity of the continent. Transition must also be a socially and economically sustainable transition. Because citizens must come first. Starting 2024, politicians must be more focused on citizens, abandoning an ideological approach. This is the only way to make decisions for rural and private populations that they become a subject perceived as ideological and hostile by local populations. Thank you so much. Thank you so much, member Caligani. Now, I would like to give the floor to MEP Lidi Massa. Thank you for being with us. You have the floor for five minutes on behalf of the European Free Alliance. You have the floor, ma'am. Thank you, Mr. President. I was going to speak in French. Very good. Hello everyone. I would like to thank you for your invitation. First, I would like to tell you that behind the generic term of rurality, there are men, women and hundreds of local societies in the European Union characterized by their varied landscapes, their local culture and sometimes by minority languages The European Union invested the question of rurality recognizing that the regions are the heart of Europe. However, the inhabitants of rural areas feel marginalized most of the time, public services that are rare, unadapted transports, real farmers of rurality that are always less numerous. The vitality of rural areas rests first on its agriculture, on its farmers and on its farmers. However, we have faced a major challenge the transmission of farms because to ensure our sovereignty and our food security we will need farms, we will need a lot and we will need it everywhere. The result today is that three farms on five opt for the increase rather than for the replacement of new farms. We need to change our pack the first pillar started by the first pillar where the money has to return to policies that come back active on farms and above all the second pillar of the pack needs to regionalize our pack. The regions must have more power to adapt agricultural policies to the specific needs of their territory thus recognizing the diversity of agricultural practices and natural environments within Europe. We need to recognize the crucial role of agriculture and food security by introducing the notion of food exception in the rules of the European Union We need to allow local communities to include a local clause in their food purchases to ensure a better reduction of European and European food. The development of rural areas is a growing problem and the development of rural areas is a growing problem that threatens the vitality of the regions. It is crucial to maintain and strengthen public services such as health, education and transportation. What doctor, what engineer, what company will come to settle in a territory without efficient transportation in schools to help children. European investments need to focus on these services to ensure a adequate access to health care, quality education to common transportation and efficient daily transportation in all regions. The role of public services is important in attracting talents to bring innovative companies. By guaranteeing a high level of public services in a proper environment to the company's installation to innovation and to the creation of employment. To do this, a real couple of the European Union must exist. A couple that facilitates the emergence of adapted projects a couple that facilitates the assembly of administrative documents. Rural areas are territories of innovation and economic diversification and to ensure their dynamism which encourages the creation of employment and economic growth in these regions. The European Union must invest in green transition in digitalization. By setting specific programs that favour the adoption of sustainable agricultural policy the development of renewable energies and access to digital technologies. By using the natural resources of the territories water, wind, floods, sea, we can stimulate innovation we can create new economic and strengthen the resilience of rural communities in the 21st century. I am sad to see a company that manufactures solar panels in my region closed today the fault of the European Union that does not protect it against the Chinese competition. I am sad that the choices of the European Union stop the development of marine hydraulics while my region and its coast are so close to each other. I conclude by saying that we, the European Union, recognize and salute the work of the Committee of Regions but we call on an evolution of these instances to a decisive role within the European Union. We hope to have regions equipped with real and autonomous powers to define their regional policies because they are the best placed to understand the realities and needs of their territories. Our vision for the future of European rurality is that of strong, autonomous, decision-making regions led by decision-makers experts able to adapt, train, cooperate to guarantee sustainable and inclusive development of the European Union. Thank you. Now the floor goes to member Ratilainen. You have five minutes. Thank you, President and dear friends. When we talk about the future of rural areas, we must first of all stand firmly behind a policy agenda that focuses on living and working in these areas. During the pandemic few years ago, we could observe people moving out of urban areas and cities. We could see them more teleworking and housing is more affordable outside big cities. Eventually solutions sometimes are quite concrete, but to see the daylight does often require European policies behind them. The question I think really is should we keep on the road of improving the quality of life in small towns and villages, finding ways to provide services and infrastructure that people really need. Perhaps we should not always believe that these regions and villages need more people. Perhaps we should turn the attention on how the people would need these regions and villages more. We want to propose a holistic approach to sustainable rural development that really indicates environmental, social and economic considerations while promoting resilience and inclusivity. What we need to is to invest in social services, healthcare and education to ensure equitable access for rural residents. Through holistic investments we address disparities in rural urban services and opportunities. What I want to give a special attention to today is the situation of young people and older people in rural areas. There are quite encouraging examples of smaller towns that attract especially young families by offering them housing opportunities, childcare services, schools and of course the necessary infrastructure allowing teleworking. There are also quite many towns with special focus on the elder population, also with special needs like Dementia. It is worth to explore these pilot projects and to really see to what extent they are replicable throughout Europe. Ways to turn the limelight from the needs of rural areas to the needs of the people in rural areas and who would like to decide in rural areas in future. But it is also not sustainable to only focus on attracting people, we want to need to keep them in rural areas as well. I have had the opportunity to get to know many young people who have moved to big cities from rural areas. Opportunities for education and employment has already been mentioned many times and I fully agree with them. But these young people often have the same story, another story. What many young people say is that they were forced to leave because they suffered for narrow and illiberal views that would not allow them to be themselves and express themselves. It is an especially pressing issue for the youth who belong in minorities. They stand out in their home villages and not in the way that they live in. And this is something that is harmful both for the youth and for the rural areas. I think we should be quite worried of the fact that far right is quite attractive in many European countries among population in rural areas. To address European solutions but local European decision makers also. We should cherish liberal values and diversity in our communities is a good place to live in all youth. Competitiveness and strong economic performance of communities as well as investments and innovations define of course the fate and vigor of any community. All good practices and development need to be funded. Connections to urban areas will remain relevant in future. We need to find innovative ways to organize and finance transport and also contribute to achieve climate neutrality. Rural areas can also really play an active role in energy transition and attract green investments. Farmers are becoming more and more producers of renewable energy by your energy, solar energy and new innovations. Also small and medium sized towns are establishing renewable energy communities which allows the local population to share ownership and to reduce CO2 emissions. European funding for rural areas is mainly provided through the second pillar of the common agriculture policy but it is particularly the leader program that supports such local initiatives. Therefore a crucial question remains to what extent development of rural areas can really benefit from EU structural funds. We need to prioritize green infrastructure projects and foster diverse economic activities in rural areas. Thank you. Thank you so much. Now we have interventions from the floor and I would like to give the floor to member Piotr Kalbetki. You have the floor for one minute. I would like to point out that our political identity comes from the source of our European village but it is not just the source of our food safety but also our cultural identity. That is why we need to take this into consideration. I would like to call all members of the Committee of the Region to join all residents to vote because this is a big problem and to choose people who understand rural areas and the establishment of such a law and the change of such a common rural policy in the future so that there are no strikes and conflicts in which we are today with the witnesses and in order to preserve the food safety in Europe. Thank you so much. The floor goes to colleague Radim Sen for one minute. On behalf of EPP and as a chair of Rural Pact Coordination Group and a proud Rural Citizen I would like to thank very much for the huge support of all members of the European Parliament and the groups for rural development. We are very closely cooperating with Isabel and also with Frank Bogovic in our group. Unfortunately the actions are not reflecting our discussions so far even for example the proposal for e-marking in cohesion policy for rural areas have not passed in the European Parliament so I hope that in the future those proposals will pass because as we see in the geography of this content we are not reaching the people in the rural areas in a good way and we need to do much more to bring the long-term vision for rural areas from the sky of Brussels Ivory Tower to the people. We need for that to really make a holistic and multi-fund approach. We need to invest in the quality of life in the rural areas and we need to build up a rural pride and we need to communicate it much better to people. We need to sit with them to explain by simple words what the Europe is bringing to have a beer in the Czech Republic or Austria or Ireland or to have a wine in France or Italy and we have to communicate it. Please do that before the European elections because then we can switch off the lights in the rural areas. Thank you. Now the floor goes to Isabel Isildagomes for 2 minutes. I would like to add that the increase of GDP per capita is significantly higher than the urban regions. 1,5% against 0,8% according to the report about the cohesion. For this reason, we think that the strategy in the long term for rural areas cannot continue to be a declaration of intentions. It has to be a plan of European action clear, with the budget attributed to goals with and an effective application in all policies of the European Union. In fact, many rural regions and less developed have a high potential, for example to produce renewable energy or to capture and carbon storage in natural ecosystems. We have to develop policies and financing that free this rural potential. This means that we need a cohesion policy that concentrates more on its attention in the challenges of rural areas but also on a renewed agricultural policy. As a result, I consider that the rural and agricultural crisis cannot be resolved in a sustainable way if we do not drastically reduce social inequalities and the unlawful injustices in the economic and agricultural model. We propose to balance the direct payments of the PAK by imposing redistributive payments favourable to the small and medium expires and limiting the payments to expires of greater dimension. We also want more funds for the regions in order to improve rural development in the second pillar of the PAK, the regionalization of the PAK. We have to put an end to the current status with the agricultural system. Emiliano Sanchez, two minutes. Thank you very much, Mr. President. A day like today, in the year 1955, Albert Resting passed away, which among other things left a phrase for history. More important and stronger than steam, than electricity and atomic energy is the will, the human will. I would like to express what I would like to say in the next stage of the elections, the European Union, to sit with a lot of will, three premises. One, farmers, the field sector are not guilty of climate change. They are more victims and in power the biggest victims of climate change. In second place no one can deny climate change. We support the concept of transition, but in its fair literality. Transition evokes application with progressive rhythm of decisions. And many today in Europe see that the rhythms are more proper of a revolution and in third place that to complete and understand the concept of environmental sustainability it has to be marked in the concept of economic sustainability social sustainability and cultural sustainability. That is the authentic concept that would lead us to practice coherent policies. And on that basis we think above all that the pillar one to accept in it the inclusion of the objective of 25% of the surface dedicated to ecological policies to ecological production. And that together with the mirror closures in front of indebted importations allow the field sector to compete in better conditions. Thank you very much. Thank you. Member Cecile Gallien you have the floor for three minutes. European Union Strategic for food sovereignty and agriculture, we have already talked about it. Strategic also because we must not leave the walls outside the equality of rights since all Europeans must have an equality to have a quality education quality training the digital has progressed to the heart of our rural territories with the mobile phone with the ODB but we have not yet it is essential. Mobility is also a right for all Europeans including rural. We do not have a lot of collective transport in our rural territories. Sometimes we have lines of trains that must absolutely be kept that can be connected with the school bus, with the co-car whose young people are absolutely cold and noisy. The rural territories is to be able to live choose to live in our territories people from the cities want to leave the cities and live in our territories. We do not have the possibility sometimes not the financial means to renovate, to create housing and also to go to thermal insulation to control the cold and the heat that we suffer in the heart of our rural territories. Who knows that in France 27% of industrial employment is in rural territories. What is this figure of industrial employment in the heart of our European rural territories? The rural territories are resources. They are investments. They are know-how. It is also innovation. Living in rural territories is also to have the right to age that is to say to have health services retreat homes sometimes associated with problems of financial balance because sometimes retreats rural inhabitants are weak. We also need a solid Europe in relation to this and who says space also says we all wish hydroelectricity photovoltaic, the forest we have already talked about it coal wells, forests prairies and all that is on the whole rural territories. So seas, local actors rural community, rural sector are fighting every day to maintain the dynamics of these rural territories. If we want a strong and fraternal Europe and we all wish that we put a little more money financial and a political reality of European cohesion in favour of these 80% of spaces that are European rural territories. Thank you all. One of the biggest challenges for the future European Union Parliament will be defending our rural areas frustration taking our farmers to the streets. There is a clear message to European Union law markers let the farmers breath a bit. There is a spiral of standards, bonds and constraints that is impossible for cultural producers to grip up with. The European Green Deal has slowed down the European Union's industrial output and put us at a huge disadvantage compared to other continents. We have more red tape more regulations but higher targets and no coherent industrial policy to back it up. Some European leaders are calling for a break from new green legislation. There has been such an increase in legislative activity on climate standards during this mandate that did not seem to take into account the impact on the culture and on industrial competitiveness. On top of the regulations the European farming sector is facing an increasing demographic challenge. The shortage of young farmers we need to empower our rural areas. They are key for food security and natural resources. Our farmers represent and provide a large share of rural jobs and are an important economic contribution to the national fabric. But our rural areas are in decline. A lack of public services brain drain, economic opportunities demographic decline are just some of the major challenges our rural citizens are dealing with. Those living in rural areas feel completely disconnected from the rural areas in Brussels. We should protect our countryside and make them places that offer people the opportunity and choice to be able to live in the communities in which they grew up. Thank you very much. Thank you so much. Now the floor goes to member Christoph Ivaniuk. You have the floor for two minutes. Let's remember that every fourth person in the EU lives in the countryside. This is 80% of the area. In my country there is even more, because 40% of the population of Poles lives in rural areas and 93% of the country lives in rural areas. And now the social and social policy focused on rural areas. However, these workers left the streets of European cities. Even in the most rural regions of France, the EU, and in the most rural regions there are only 10% of the population living in rural areas. So not only rural areas, but all of them focus on social problems, health, education and so on. Disproportions deepen. If we don't reverse these trends, in the next 20 years there will be even more problems, because almost 30 million people from European countries will disappear. This is as much as common Romania, Bulgaria and Lithuania. And now, if we look that there is no need to reverse the disproportions there will be no need to reverse it. There will be a need for programs for the population of some regions, especially in the areas far away from the big metropolis. This will be a much more expensive program. That is why my recommendation is a special program for the areas far away from the city which would start to grow. If we don't want the development of anti-union frustrations, which is extremely important for our values, the local and regional authorities won't be able to do it. Thank you so much. And now, on behalf of the Greens we have Erika von Kalpen. You have the floor for two minutes. Yes, Mr. President, colleagues, first I would like to emphasize that the Green Deal doesn't risk the local space and also doesn't risk the future of agriculture. On the contrary, the Green Deal can be the chance to protect the local spaces from even more droughts, from fires, from floods. The fact that we take the local space in this final debate is existential, and also for our democracy. We see that more and more people don't feel seen in Europe. It has already been mentioned, the protests of the country, also in my country, are on the streets. And that's why it needs good structural support that really helps people in the local spaces. I thank Ms. Gomez for her advice and for the nature. And, ladies and gentlemen, I don't think it's just a question of money, but what we observe is a question of expertise, especially in the area of health and care. It can't be solved only by money, but by wanting people to live and work in the regions. The same applies to tourism, because, of course, many rural regions are also tourism regions and then economy, when people can live and live there. Finally, I would like to emphasize that we had really good debates on the cohesion policy and I am very grateful for the fact that here in the outskirts of the region there is at least a very big majority of the opinion that we have to carry on. Thank you. Now interventions from the floor. Marco Vesligas, please go for one minute. Thank you, Mr. President. I'll speak on Croatian. Hello to all of you. In the rural areas of Croatia, the lack of effective public transport is significantly affecting education, health care and market work and then directly affected by the life chances of the inhabitants of these areas. The second situation is the lack of the ability to solve the problem of young people to let go of the region. We have to invest in the local infrastructure in order for us to maintain and overcome the situation. The policy has to make a solution through the financing of the project that can directly improve the situation. We also need support from local initiatives that improve education, health care, but it will also affect young people to enjoy our rural areas. I conclude that the work of all the different authorities in the rural areas of Croatia can significantly change the reality of rural areas, which will make them a place to live. Thank you. Member Erans Garcia, you have the floor for one minute. Member Yuri Gottmans, you have the floor for one minute. Thank you, Mr President. I will continue in Estonian language. I would like to say that the local communities are very important to have a place to live and that there is a place for our rural structures to live. But the people have been to the local communities for hundreds of years and other years. I think that the local communities are very important to have a place to live and that the local communities should live. Thank you. I don't have any other requests for the floor. No, I don't have any other requests for the floor. We will have final remarks from our guest speakers and we will start with Kolmarki. Three minutes. Thank you very much. From all the perspectives, I think if we look at it, the most important asset we have in our rural areas is people. And how we invest in people living and working in rural areas is critical. I think one of the problems we've had particularly for the opportunities for people in rural areas is if you like, there isn't enough economic generation and therefore people move elsewhere. I think we have to look at what are the key multipliers that we can have to create more opportunities. Obviously we mentioned agriculture traditionally and I think the speaker that spoke after me made the point that if you like there are others and that's why I think we equally need to look at rural development in the context of access to digital services, access to broadband and to ensure that these services are available. Equally we have to have the social services available that give people the same opportunity both socially as much as economically and in rural areas. And that has been a problem in terms of the level of investment and I think most people have highlighted that here today. The other probably key point in relation to it is the idea of a bottoms up approach be it through well recognised through leader and through local authorities that ultimately if you give a little bit of local autonomy to take advantage of the opportunities that they're both socially and economically that local government in those local areas is the way in which we can most effectively if you like, invest to take advantage of the opportunities whether it be the renewable energies opportunities whether it's the concept of remote working and bringing outside investment in. Ultimately as I said at the start if we have the idea of being able to invest economically in the area then that will bring more energy, more young people, more involvement into our areas and that economic driver will drive the social economy too and if we the problem we're facing if we don't address that is the isolation issues older people were mentioned earlier if family if young people have to move away and then the older generation are left isolated with no holistic family care around them that leads to the decline of our rural areas as well so it has to be an integrated holistic approach multi-generational approach where young families are there with an older generation to protect or to support when people go off to work the grandparents are there to collect the children when if you like the older people are in need of care the next generation are there with them and that fabric of rural communities has been lost investment in new opportunities investment in social infrastructure to rebuilding that fabric in rural areas and I think that is critical in terms of the future of our rural areas that we get the economic opportunities but equally we invest in the infrastructure that allow people to have a quality of life equivalent to what they have in urban areas Thank you, Isabel Carvalhage three minutes Thank you so much I will just make three brief remarks first we have to insist that rural world does not have to justify its existence it doesn't have to justify its dignity and its value on the basis of all the benefits that it brings to the urban world we have to tell this to people because most of the time it seems that we are trying to justify the existence of the rural world because it brings food security because of biodiversity and all the other benefits the rural world has its own dignity and it has the right to exist and the second remark I would like to do is that we do need a European rural strategy and this implies resources all sorts of resources, financial resources so we have to fight also against the idea that the CAP has too much money what it needs and I fully agree and subscribe what Izil de Gombs said it needs to be better distributed and finally I was also a rapporteur for the dossier on the generational renewal in agriculture and please let's listen to what young farmers were saying to us they complain a lot about isolation mental health issues connectivity, mobility they complain about the lack of offers in terms of culture of leisure education etc but one of the biggest complaints has to do with the access to land so let's be very clear and ask what is happening to our rural landscapes who is buying our arable lands with what purposes we need an observatory of land usually we used to talk about land grabbing when we were talking about African countries for instance and it's unbelievable that we may have grabbing issues and obviously concentration of land issues in Europe and land is essential if we want young farmers to keep going on of course agriculture is not the sole activity of rural economy but it's the backbone of our rural areas and without young farmers without young generations it will be impossible to go on having a rural world full of life as we all wish for the future that's the remarks I would like to do thank you so much and now the floor goes to MEP Sioloz thank you first remark we didn't talk too much about peripheral regions to the border of European Union we are preparing a new enlargement process and you the representative of the regions you also play a key role to reinforce the cooperation between rural areas around the European Union I think we have to integrate this in our policies some of you you told about the need to have an integrated vision about rural areas and I think this can come from your side and this can help us in European Union but also in European commission because we need this integrated vision but unfortunately both in the parliament and in the commission we still are the how to say this approach of Sioloz approach each sector analyze it one by one in terms of policy but in terms of budget also we will we will discuss in the next two years about the cohesion policy agriculture and rural development policy and about the budget and I think it's a key moment to discuss about financial resources to finance the development of rural areas and how to combine different public financial sources and as I mentioned at the beginning to integrate also private sector we didn't talk too much about the role of the young in rural areas because I think if rural areas will be attractive we will attract more young and generational renewable it's a problem in agriculture and we have to ensure public services for the young generally speaking in rural area but also speaking about young farmers to ensure their dignity their professional dignity which means to discuss also about how we will ensure the income of farmers when we talk about food security when we talk about good management of natural resources we have the young people wanted to come in rural area and what is interesting people born in urban area interested to have a better quality of life and they are attracted by rural area and I think you we have to use the opportunity of this flow to rebalance development between rural and urban area but again this is about clarity in our legislation and financial resources thank you. Thank you so much the floor goes to member Gallaghani for three minutes. Thank you again president. In conclusion I think we have to stop throwing messages with translators to talk about the provisions we have dealt with in this in this class for example with the law on naturalization if we treat the rural areas, the cultivated areas as if they were areas to recover, to re-naturalize what message are we giving to our citizens, to our farmers we are giving the message that they are the problem to which we have to find a solution. If we continue to inflict farmers an endless sequence of standards and to conform and bureaucracy to exploit, what message are we giving, how can we guarantee, my colleague talked about the generational passage, the message will be perceived as little attractive and therefore we will not realize the generational passage, two elements. Number one we have to consider rural areas as a problem, as areas exclusively depressed to fight rural areas are a wealth to enjoy, number one. Number two also seen the current geopolitical temper food sovereignty is no longer an opportunity, it is an imperative to conform to what we are talking about. To conclude we have the elements that have been discussed, number one that we have to support the services on the territory, because otherwise people will abandon rural areas. Number two connectivity and digitization. Number three, infrastructure number four, to fight bureaucracy, number five we have talked about an element that I would like to introduce. Reduce the delta that divides the price paid by the agriculture, from that paid by the consumer in business. An additional element that we have talked about, the external competition, which is something that is particularly odious for farmers, in the last instance if we want the European Union to recover credibility and visibility among farmers and popularity, we have to let them work and we have to make sure that European politicians have an opportunity and to do this we have to start to consider rural areas as an opportunity to enjoy and not as a problem to solve. Thank you. You have the floor for three minutes. Thank you. I heard during the debate that rural areas must prove creativity. I have been living in rural areas for 45 years. I have to tell you that creativity I live it every day and I believe that rural areas' inhabitants are even more creative than others. I believe that rural areas today need democracy. They need democracy because for example, in my country in Brittany when a Breton or a Breton receives 3 euros of subsidies for the culture a Parisian receives more than 35 euros. And this is the difference between rural areas and between the territories and between the big metropolises. It is time to balance things. I believe that the European Union was a bit this trade union and that today we feel less this help and we feel less this couple between regions and the European Union. And then I would also like to say that if we want things to improve in rural areas, we will have to take into account what local decision-makers think. I do not understand for example that the president of my region, what we think of the synthesis pesticides, but in any case he proposed to to go out and to be experimentation of the synthesis pesticides in Brittany. Today it is a voice that is absolutely not heard in the European Union while my region, Brittany is an agricultural region of the European Union. And I believe that today if we want to achieve things if we want rural areas to develop, we have to take into account local powers and local decision-makers and collectivities because they know their territory they know their assets they know the limits, they know the constraints they know the people, they know the culture they know the language and they know to take decisions that are much more appropriate than decisions that are sometimes taken far from individuals and far from territories. So I will end by saying that we have also heard a lot today live and work in the country, so indeed it is the dream of many people who live in rural areas and who today do not do it because they are forced to leave but I would say live, work decide in the country decide with local decision-makers. First you remember how you line in three minutes. Thank you. Thank you. In the middle of the conversation we also talked about safety and it is very good because in the end we added to our own experience that the level of living is all the level of safety. In this regard, the value of regional politics is raised from the mind. A few days ago in the situation we discussed regional politics in Finland and in the area of rural areas we wanted to keep a phone call which is particularly interesting it had affected that the areas and rural areas are often talked about by the negative environment and by the problems. It affects the well-being of the home there is no room for good care for the family and he tries very well to increase the opportunity to work in the company. In my opinion we also have to work in the area of rural areas and we also see the areas of rural areas because there is also a lot of them and all the areas must follow their own direction. In this conversation it has been clear that the areas are not the same all have their own skills challenges and weaknesses and there it is also clear that we come from every area and give the opportunity Thank you so much this concludes this point of our agenda I would like on behalf of the Committee of the Regents to thank you once more to all the guest speakers here today thank you for your time and for sharing with us our viewers Now we are going to move to point 24 it's election of bureau members we are requested to approve the nominations of new members of the bureau as mentioned in the document that was published in the members portal if there are no comments the nominations are approved point 25 for your information you have in the members portal the list of new COR members and alternates I welcome all of them to our assembly point 26 any other business I would like on behalf of the Committee of the Regents to thank Green's group co-president Una Power and everyone associated with her for she's this is her last plenary I think I speak for everybody wish her the best in the future also to thank member Kate Feeney for her participation and for her commitment in our in our assembly and is not thank you so much and I wish you all the best in the future is not here with us he had to leave but Torio Darius Strugala this was his last plenary so thank him and also wish him all the best in the future yes of course I'll now give the floor to our first vice president Apostolo Cicicostas well I would like to say a very big thanks to Miss Power of course and Miss Feeney and allow me one minute Mr President because I worked very closely during my presidency and after with Kate Feeney to say that it is a big loss for our house to see member Feeney leaving today the Committee of the Regents and I certainly hope that the time will soon come that she will be back with us we have a lot of great things to do together and we are looking forward in continuing this great collaboration with you Kate Feeney has worked endlessly all these years with dedication to our efforts and our goals and has succeeded in many tasks so I personally thank her a lot for this great collaboration and I wish her along with our other colleague who is leaving today all the best to Miss Power as well and her beautiful baby today thank you very much both of you dear colleagues the date 0.27 the date of our next meeting is on June 20 19 and 20 of June in Brussels I would like to thank you all for your presence here I would like to thank the staff the secretariat the technicians the interpreters also a big thank to them for their work and I would like to wish you all a good return to your regions and to your cities concluded one minute ahead of schedule thank you so much President