Agricultural ministers on strengthening rural-urban dialogue

EU i agriculture ministers will meet on 6 and 7 September 2021 in Slovenia. The main topic of the informal meeting will be strengthening rural-urban dialogue.

Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Food Dr Jože Podgoršek

In this regard, Minister Jože Podgoršek stressed: "With the long-term vision for rural areas up to 2040 and supporting tools such as the Rural Pact and the Rural Action Plan, we hope to reverse the negative trends affecting rural areas. These include depopulation, population ageing, and the decline in the attractiveness of rural areas as places to live and work in due to deteriorating infrastructure and poor connectivity."

On the first day of the meeting, the ministers will see examples of good practice in connecting urban and rural areas. They will visit the Grm educational institution. The Grm Agricultural School and Biotechnical Gymnasium is one of the five units of the Grm Novo mesto - Centre of Biotechnics and Tourism. The centre features a school estate and laboratories where students receive practical training, carry out research and various exercises in the fields of fruit growing, viticulture, animal husbandry and more. The visit will be followed by a tour of Evrosad. Evrosad, Slovenia's leading fruit producing company, works with nature to produce apples, pears, peaches and strawberries of the highest quality. The company was established in 1995 and now produces fruit on nearly 600 hectares of farmland.

The second day of the meeting, which will be attended by European Commissioner for Agriculture Janusz Wojciechowski i, will be devoted to the discussion on strengthening the rural-urban dialogue. At Brdo pri Kranju, the ministers will discuss the role of rural areas in society and the challenges agriculture is facing in this process. They will discuss the trends that will define agriculture in the future and exchange views on how individual EU member states view urban-rural coexistence and how they are addressing the key challenges of this coexistence. They will also touch on future policies to address the rural-urban divide and gap, with the new common agricultural policy (CAP) playing an important role in this regard, and explore possible synergies with other (particularly European) policies and mechanisms.

At the end of the meeting, a press conference will be held on 7 September at 13:00, attended by Minister Podgoršek and Commissioner Wojciechowski.