Citizens want investments in Europe’s rural areas[fr][de] 

Following an intensive three-day session of debates bringing together 87 citizens from nine different European regions, the panel presented its recommendations to EU policy-makers on 2 April 2007.

The European Citizens Panel was launched in May 2006 to give EU citizens the opportunity to have a greater say in the policies affecting rural areas. “The European Citizens Panel is an initiative by several European NGOs, “ explained Chairman Benoit Derenne, from the Foundation for Future Generation (FGG). He said the main aim was to help overcome the current EU crisis of trust and its incapacity to involve its people.

The recommendations reach from food labelling, including details on the number of kilometres on all products reaching consumers, to environmental and health concerns, but also entails proposals for youth and education measures to make rural areas as attractive to young people as cities.

All of the policy-makers invited showed an interest in the citizens’ panel’s results, but fell short of proposing any concrete measures that they could take within their institution in response to the recommendations.

Agriculture and Rural Development Commissioner Mariann Fischer Boel said the project highlighted the most important aspects of EU citizenship in her view: partnership, participation and social concern. Fischer Boel underlined that the Commission wanted to explore innovative initiatives to involve citizens. She said: “you can help us, you can influence the future.”

President of the Committee of the Regions, Michel Delebarre underlined that the EU should put more effort into citizens participation in order to avoid disgruntlement at a local level.

MEP Janusz Wojciechowski emphasised the importance of agriculture for society, especially food production. When asked by the moderator how he would use the report, he said that he had no concrete ideas in mind, but that it was a good thing to start a debate.