Chamber of Regions

SPRING SESSION
CPR(14)8REP
13 February 2008

STANDING COMMITTEE

Committee on Sustainable Development

Services of general interest in rural areas, a key factor in territorial cohesion policies

Claudette Abela Baldacchino, Malta (R, SOC)
Michael Neureiter, Austria (R, EPP/CD)

Explanatory Memorandum
Committee on Sustainable Development

R: Chamber of Regions / L: Chamber of Local Authorities
ILDG: Independent and Liberal Democrat Group of the Congress
EPP/CD: Group European People’s Party – Christian Democrats of the Congress
SOC: Socialist Group of the Congress
NR: Member not belonging to a Political Group of the Congress

 

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Introduction................................................................................................................................... 3

1.         Definitions of services of general interest........................................................................... 4

Clusters of services of general interest............................................................................... 4

2.         Territorial dynamism and the capacity to provide services.................................................... 6

Equal opportunities for rural and urban areas...................................................................... 6

Mutual benefit & synergy.................................................................................................... 7

Well-being at the heart of policy-making.............................................................................. 7

The demographic context................................................................................................... 7

3.         Social services accessible for all........................................................................................ 8

Social exclusion................................................................................................................ 8

Employment opportunities................................................................................................. 9

Housing provision.............................................................................................................. 9

The feminisation of poverty.............................................................................................. 10

Young people.................................................................................................................. 10

4.         New methods of organisation and partnership................................................................... 11

Innovative methods of organisation and finance................................................................ 11

Building partnerships........................................................................................................ 11

Public-private partnerships............................................................................................... 12

Public–public Partnerships............................................................................................... 12

Cooperatives................................................................................................................... 13

5.         Innovative policies for sustainable rural development......................................................... 13

Ecosystem services......................................................................................................... 13

Transport......................................................................................................................... 13

Information and communication technology....................................................................... 14

Media and communications.............................................................................................. 14

Rural poles of multi-purpose services............................................................................... 15

Provision of local services............................................................................................... 15

New energy forms in rural areas........................................................................................ 15

Risk management in rural development............................................................................. 16

Conclusion.................................................................................................................................. 16

The Secretariat of the Congress would like to thank Mr Adrian Mifsud, President of the Union of Local Authority Chief Executives of Europe (UDITE), for the preparation of this report.

Introduction

Rural areas account for more than 80% of European territory and are home to over a quarter of the population. They are facing major challenges from changing demographic patterns, globalisation, pollution and rapid urbanisation which is leading to unclear and unbalanced ‘rurbain’ areas. It is important to emphasise the inter-connectedness between rural and urban areas in creating territories which promote well-being and economic and social health for all. Furthermore, rural areas are not homogenous and they face different problems according to, for example, their remoteness or proximity to towns and cities, their economic and material resources, their geography and climate, and differing levels of climate-change related threats.

Rural territories should become or remain competitive and make the most of their assets.  To overcome the challenges they may face, such as an ageing population, poor levels of service provision, or a lack of employment opportunities, there needs to be a new approach. Policies for territorial cohesion, i.e. a good quality of life in rural areas for the wider population, need a holistic approach to reflect today’s changing realities.

Europe today boasts a standard of living that is considered as a model for the rest of the world. However it is also true that not everywhere has economic well-being been translated into equality or greater well-being for the families.

Furthermore, there can be no doubt that in the immediate future one of the battlegrounds will be with the forces of socialisation which continue to fashion a culture which is conducive and sustains an environment where inequalities can flourish and be seen as legitimate norms of society. Issues that touch on other aspects of discrimination in order to ensure that the rights of minority groups are not excluded from the debate should also be part of the process of policy making for rural areas.  In each of these areas regional and local governments, because of their proximity to citizens have a leading role to play in the construction, implementation and assessment of policies that would lead to a better life to families living in rural territories.

Environmental problems such as climate change, the decline in biodiversity, the health risks from pollution, the over exploitation of natural resources and the endless production of waste need to be addressed through high environmental standards, and by promoting new ways of working and cleaner technologies. These should be considered within the context of ensuring a greater balance towards sustainable development in rural areas. Environmentally-friendly technologies developed in Europe can lead to greater economic competitiveness, thus creating jobs and funding social progress.

As early as 1987 the Council of Europe undertook work to highlight the distinctive challenges facing rural areas from continued depopulation, the decline of rural economies and the loss of rural services in many peripheral, remote and sparsely populated regions in Europe. Recent texts from the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities addressing the problems facing rural areas include texts on: the problems of Europe’s countryside (2002); Challenges and opportunities for peripheral and sparsely populated regions (2007); E-health and democracy in the regions (2007); Ensuring continuity of social services in rural regions (2007), and Balanced distribution of healthcare in rural regions (2007). Also in 2007, the Committee of Ministers prepared recommendations on local and regional public services (Rec(2007)4).

The Council of Europe European Landscape Convention (2002) promotes the protection, management and planning of all landscapes and emphasises the strong links between landscape, identities and well-being.

The 2007 International Symposium organized by the European Conference of Ministers responsible for Regional Planning (CEMAT) on “The accessibility and attractiveness of rural and landlocked areas: sustainable transport and services of general interest” focused on promoting an integrated approach to regional planning and good governance.

This report aims to promote European-wide policies to guarantee all citizens’ rights to quality public services which put sustainability at the heart of their preoccupations. The focus of is on the balance between the social, environmental and the economic needs of rural areas, recognising that rural service delivery entails a political challenge for European countries and institutions and requires innovative approaches which can be adapted to each region’s requirements and specificities.

1.         Definitions of services of general interest

Services of general interest (SGI) – are vital to everyone. They have a decisive influence on the quality of people’s lives, and are essential for social, economic and regional cohesion in Europe. They must be a universal and fundamental right.

The Council of Europe has defined a local or regional public service as one which, “pursuant to a broad social agreement expressed usually through a decision of a competent democratic public authority, overall continuity and individual access are ensured by a local or regional public authority through direct provision (through the local or regional public sector) and/or through the financing of its provision by third parties and/or by establishing specific regulations which go beyond those which apply to other services”^[1].

Throughout Europe the provision of the majority of public services is the responsibility of local and regional authorities. Indeed, their provision should be addressed in accordance with the principle of subsidiarity and as a means of serving public interest. They should respond to consumers’ needs, ensure economic, social and territorial cohesion and protect the environment in keeping with the principles of sustainable development of European regions.

Public services cover everything from transport, water, energy supply and waste disposal, to healthcare and social services, education, telecommunications and postal deliveries. These services cannot be governed merely by commercial, free-market rules, because this would mean the weakest and the most-needy would have less access. They must be of the highest possible standard, and therefore subject to democratic control involving all stakeholders including consumers, employees and service providers in these crucial sectors.

The common principles governing the provision of services of general interest include universality and equality of access, continuity, security, adaptability, quality, efficiency, affordability, transparency, protection of disadvantaged groups, protection of users, consumers and the environment, and participation of citizens. Services which are intended to maintain or increase pluralism of information and cultural diversity such as health, education, social housing should be excluded from the scope of competition rules. This is also the case for ecosystem services such as the provision of unpolluted water, air, and food which are systematically under-valued or even ignored.

The provision of proximity services is characterized by a plurality of providers and resources. These services are provided by public, private, cooperative and non profit organizations or through partnerships between these different stakeholders. In order to ensure an efficient and equitable organization of proximity services, it is important to promote a plural economy built on a balanced partnership between the different sectors that preserves each sector's advantages and compensates for its limits. Particular attention should be devoted to the specificity - and therefore the value added - of the non profit sector in this field of activities.

Clusters of services of general interest 

The chart[2] below highlights the clusters in the development of common policies leading to a territorial cohesion in rural areas. It shows various infrastructure needs according to a functional differentiation in a vertically segmented society following a structural approach found in Parsons and Max-Neff. The main bubbles can be considered as functional spheres encountered in most industrial and post industrial societies, which is the kind of societies prevalent throughout Council of Europe member states. The smaller bubbles represent various infrastructure services either provided by or for the respective main sphere. Together they form clusters or fields that can be the focus of political and/or administrative action and governance.

The main spheres in the chart are heterogeneous concerning their political and economic meaning. Three of them, namely "energy", "transport" and "communication", are types of services essential in modern societies. Another three, "private households", "government and administration" and "economy" are main powers in market economies. The remaining two spheres "health and social services" and "recreation and culture" refer to human services which are typically provided for within publicly accessible infrastructures.

Thus the chart can be used as a strategic map for building and maintaining an infrastructure network on a local or inter-local level. The construction of such networks can be guided by three principles in three dimensions, indicated in the table below, which build a cross-matrix that shows relevant fields of action in providing infrastructure in rural areas.

	Subsidiarity	Equality & social justice	Sustainability
Well-Being (Quality of Life)	Local self-governance, feeling of deciding one's own affairs	Partnership-principle in providing reliable social services	local energy/material cycles
Equal opportunities	No centre-prevalence in the national legal framework	Tackling geographic discrimination on the individual level	True-cost principle for use of natural resources
Mutual benefit (synergy)	Refunding/redistribution structures for added value created in the centre	individual permeability between rural and urban environments	True-cost principle for landscape-conservation and maintenance of natural resources

2.         Territorial dynamism and the capacity to provide services

Territorial cohesion is necessary as an essential prerequisite for sustainable economical development and implementing the European Social Model (ESM). It is also essential to develop preconditions in all regions that offer equal opportunities for citizens. Regional identities and characteristics should be embedded in a European policy of territorial cohesion offering a permanent process of political, administrative and technical co-operation of all stakeholders in order to mobilize these potentials. Territorial authorities need to have the necessary statutory powers to enable them to respond to the needs of the people they serve.

Territorial authorities are faced with the challenge of reviewing and modernising the ways in which they organise, finance and provide services in the general interest. Rural areas in Europe are changing rapidly in the face of globalisation, economic restructuring, migration, and other social and policy changes. These forces have different implications for different areas and different social groups. Some rural areas are now growing faster than urban districts, while many still experience decline: the economic and social processes underlying these diverse trends are not fully understood, but one key element is the increasing penetration of local markets by global forces.

Rural policies are changing in response to these forces, but wider policies (especially macro-economic and social policies) also have pervasive impacts upon rural areas, even though these effects may not be at the forefront of policy-makers' minds. Policy making needs to further diversification of rural economies, social inclusion and the building of social capital. However it must be encapsulated in the main social, economic and environmental areas for the development of European wide policies.

Due consideration must also be given to Europe's islands and island states which are home to over 78 million people. Sustainable island development is a challenge. Islands, whatever their size, have two main features in common: an economy with fewer sectors of activity when compared to the mainland; and a confined and conscribing geographical size. It is necessary to promote specific measures for more balanced island development through improved transport links, measures to foster investment, diversified tourist activities and protected landscapes. There is a need for improved policy co-ordination between international institutions, national authorities and regional governments – in favour of such a balanced island development.

In rural and sparsely populated regions, the absence of a critical mass generally leads to qualitative or quantitative public service shortcomings in these areas. The additional costs of basic services impact upon the economic development of rural areas. Therefore the connections provided by public services are vital for territorial dynamism of the areas in question. Authorities at all levels should consider public services systems within a framework of socio-geographical solidarity.

The existence of adjacent urban centres impacts on the economic interactions between remote rural areas and the urban centres. While peripheral areas may retain the traditional clear distinction between urban centres and their rural hinterlands, expanding core areas increasingly show more diffuse patterns of interaction with people combining different income sources and environments for their livelihood. As a result, increasing integration and interaction blurs the tradition rural-urban divide, giving way to diffuse “network” regions.

Equal opportunities for rural and urban areas

In a democratic society equal opportunity is a central element not only on the individual level but also in spatial planning and regional development. Mere geography is nonetheless more likely to be publicly accepted as a source of inequality rather than other non-objective reasons for discriminatory treatment.

Equal opportunities for rural and urban areas therefore means that urban and rural areas have a right to development according to their specific needs which in turn means different answers to different problems. The equal-opportunities principle not only addresses the inequality in spatial planning and public infrastructure it also refers to inequalities in the roles rural areas often play in respect to neighbouring urban centres where goods, services and functions often go one way. For example, suburban and neighbouring rural areas often serve as dormitories, food and raw materials supplier or day-trip-recreation-resort for the urban centre. Equal opportunities therefore also means preventing exploitation and unbalanced exchange patterns.

Mutual benefit & synergy

The next step from an equal-opportunities approach would be to consider urban and rural areas as partners for mutual benefit. Key-values in such a partnership are equally divided powers to create the content of the partnership and mechanisms to ensure a fair deal. According to Leopold Kohr[3] the periphery always serves the centre which results in growth of the centre and poverty of the periphery. Given a sufficient infrastructure in the periphery this would be not be their fate. Rural areas can and do profit from their urban neighbours without reducing the opportunities for the centre to grow.

Well-being at the heart of policy-making

Well-being and quality of life in this context is understood as an individual feeling which nonetheless can be described by objective criteria such as standard of living, health, social contact, access to culture and healthy environment and other basic-needs. Policies should address multi-causal processes and there will always be the need for public authorities to intervene directly by providing services of public interest and social services to secure well-being to certain disadvantaged groups.

Territorial authorities need to have the necessary statutory powers to enable them to be more responsive to the needs of the people they serve. A key mechanism for promoting well-being is a new long-term planning process that involves communities identifying their desired development. The contemporary interest in the concept of 'governance' acknowledges that 'government' is one of many actors in the pursuit of desired political outcomes and community wellbeing.

There is a growing awareness that the services provided by our ecosystems are under enormous strain and are not adequately recognised under current funding mechanisms. The UN Millennium Ecosystem Assessment, begun in 2001, highlighted the importance of evaluating the world’s ecosystems and the services they provide such as clean water, food, forest products, flood control, natural resources and leisure activities. Following this some attempts have been made to integrate the value and cost of maintaining ecosystem services into rural decision-making issues, notably through Payment for Environmental Services (PES) programmes[4].

The demographic context

Europe has an ageing population - under current trends the population will shrink - and there will be fewer workers per pensioner. More and more women are having no children or just one child, due to the difficulties of combining work and family life, economic insecurity and low support for child-rearing and childcare.

Demographic changes, in particular an increasingly ageing society and out-migration of youth, coupled by low fertility rates, require regions to adapt their services in order to address the needs of their users, and also question the financial sustainability of our current social models. Youth exodus needs to be understood within the context of global economic restructuring and increasing economic liberalism.

The demographic challenge is to retain the rural youth in their rural areas, where they play a vital role in the sustainable development notion of any policy for territorial cohesion. Hence, public services, should be strategically focused on 1) rights and duties for all, 2) investing in people, 3) inclusive societies, 4) building diversity and integration, 5) an active Europe for people, 6) enhancing employment opportunities, 7) facilitating access to education and training, 8) civic engagement, 8) tax and fiscal policies, 9) work orientation and rural “exposure” programmes, and 10) recreation/social activities and infrastructure.

These challenges need to be addressed without endangering the fundamental human and societal goals and achievements of European democracies, including, inter alia, further improving the quality of life, increasing inclusion rates in higher levels of education, improving the labour participation of women, young adults and younger elderly, increasing longevity and providing a broad and just social protection system. The aim must be to retain the rural youth in rural areas, where they play a vital role in the sustainable development of any policy for territorial cohesion.

3.         Social services accessible for all

Social services are the bedrock of a cohesive society, meeting the needs of citizens with regard to employment, housing, education, social security. Care and access to these services should not be conditional upon living in highly urbanized areas. Nevertheless, Europe’s rural areas may be faced with higher levels of social exclusion and deprivation than their urban counterparts due to a number of social factors which are often compounded by lower levels and higher costs of social and medical services and of security provisions such as fire services.

The Congress report on “ensuring territorial continuity of social services in rural regions” CPR(14)5REP points out that providers of social services support are diversifying throughout Council of Europe member states with  the development of a ‘mixed economy’ approach to social services provision which may include agencies of the welfare state and, on an increasing scale, the delivery of social services by independent sector organisations (for-profit and not-for profit). The report goes on to note that technology is increasingly being used to support people with disabilities to lead independent lives or to provide support closer to home.

Although developed differently in member states these services are the essential elements of the European Social Model (ESM). Social services of general interest (SSGI) and services of general economic interest (SGEIs) - are vital to everyone and an essential element to the ESM. SSGI’s and SGEI’s should be of the highest standard, accessible to everyone at an affordable price, and subject to democratic control and accountability involving both consumers and workers in these crucial sectors and there must be continuity of supply and fair access for everyone.

Social exclusion

A slightly lower proportion of people have low incomes in rural areas than in urban areas. The main axes of inequality in rural areas are social, economic,  gender and age. The principal groups affected by exclusion are older people, young people, families with many children, low-paid people in work, self-employed people, people detached from labour markets, and women, especially single mothers. Ethnicity is less apparent as an axis of exclusion in rural areas, largely due to the small number of rural residents from minority ethnic communities. As in urban areas, loss of job, marital breakdown, and changes in the composition of the family or household can trigger poverty and exclusion. Other factors which are more important in rural than urban areas include low pay, inadequate pensions, poverty in self-employment, lower levels of benefit uptake, and fear of stigma in small communities.

Poverty and social exclusion are not confined to the most visibly poor regions, but bear on the lives of a substantial part of people living in rural areas across Europe. It is important that their needs and their life-chances are not overlooked by territorial authorities. Policy measures which could address social exclusion in rural areas include:

·         'Rural exclusion-proofing': There would be merit in subjecting all existing and proposed policies and practices to audit in respect of their likely impact on people on low incomes in rural areas ('rural exclusion-proofing'). This has parallels with the application of equal opportunities audits and social impact statements.

·         Tackling low pay: People in rural areas are more likely to suffer persistent low pay. The introduction of the National Minimum Wage will help many, but policies must also address the difficulty many employees in small rural workplaces face in escaping low pay to better paid jobs. As well as training, policies must therefore address the demand side of labour markets.

·         Support for return to work: Most of those on low incomes are not in employment, even when one considers only those of working age. Addressing these people's low incomes will require their integration into paid employment; this confirms the importance of extending Welfare to Work to older workers, and combining this with related policy initiatives directed at transport, childcare provision and eldercare services.

·         Increasing benefit take-up: The majority of those with low incomes in rural areas experience poverty for relatively short spells, during which the levels of benefit and other welfare payments are critical in assisting them to cope.

·         Raising pensions: Poverty in rural areas is most prevalent among older people. The single most effective measure to address poverty in rural areas would be an increase in the level of the state pension. Governments across Europe should ensure that citizens are aware of their entitlement of state pensions and other social measures.

·         Joined-up policies: There is a need for policies to offer a multi-faceted, integrated response to these complex problems and for appropriate mechanisms to be established at all levels of governance.

Employment opportunities

The barriers to labour market participation in rural areas are different to those in urban areas. These include informal methods of recruitment and job search; the fundamental importance of transport; and a mismatch between skills and the available jobs. Possible ways of addressing these obstacles to labour market integration include:

·         Economic development: Problems of low wages, low skills and detachment from paid employment arise from an insufficient demand for labour in many rural areas. More energetic and imaginative approaches to rural economic development are required such as developing organic farming. 

·         Jobs outreach: More personal advisers could be engaged in outreach work in rural areas, taking a proactive role in matching available jobs to the people registered with them. 

·         Training through local firms: Local firms, perhaps linked to colleges elsewhere, could be used as the focus for training provision. Training packages could be tailored to local firms, where training in more generic skills could also occur rather than in a 'classroom'.

·         Childcare: Innovative ways of offering universal, quality, affordable childcare facilities in dispersed communities are essential to women's integration into paid work. One option might be to extend the use of primary school facilities as one-stop family support centres.

·         Linking incomers into networks: For example, work experience and training based in local firms would provide contact with employers and people who are in work. For their children, school-based work experience or employment 'compacts' might be effective.

·         Strong public transport networks:  to improve rural mobility and reducing dependence on individual car ownership. This would overcome real obstacles to integration into paid work, and would result in benefit savings and taxes. 

·         Distribution of fuel duty revenues from rural areas: Fuel duties levied in rural areas might be allocated to rural transport measures such a subsidised taxis for targeted groups, dial-a-ride schemes, means-tested help with tax and insurance, and community transport or to general rural sustainability measures, such as the provision of mobile services and the retention of small shops and schools.

·         Grants for transport or childcare: authorities could offer grants to help buy a car, or help with tax and insurance, upon the offer of a work contract. Grants for childcare might be made in similar circumstances.

Housing provision

Although the provision of affordable housing opportunities is crucial to the sustainability of a living, working and inclusive countryside - levels of investment in social housing in rural areas continue to be low, and few opportunities exist in the private rented sector.

Governments should recognise the central role of housing markets as the motor of social change and of social and spatial exclusion in rural areas. This recognition should lead to a more integrated approach, involving both greater investment in affordable rural housing and modifications to planning policies, which places the provision of affordable housing at the heart of policies which pursue sustainable development and social inclusion.

The feminisation of poverty

The feminisation of poverty means that women have a higher incidence of poverty than men, that their poverty is more severe than that of men and that female poverty among is on the increase. Preventing and reducing women's poverty, if not eradicating it, is an important part of the fundamental principle of social solidarity to which the world is committed. Linked to this issue is the substantial numbers of lone parents living in rural areas. A co-ordinator to support rural lone parents, make home visits and provide advice and advocacy work by telephone could offer a response to this growing phenomena.

Territorial programmes and activities for rural women's empowerment should be effective at several levels: a) increase women's self-confidence, skills and understanding of disempowering structures and institutions; b) break gender stereotypes; c) focus on rural labour and labour market issues; d) improve the quality of services including education and re-training; e) support women's political participation and influence; f) stop violence against women; g) remove legal barriers and insist on implementation and enforcement of equal opportunity legislation; h) promote rural women's collective organisation and participation in progressive networks and alliances.

Young people

The Revised European Charter on the Participation of Young People in Local and Regional Life (2003) suggests that polices for rural regions should ensure that educational, employment, housing, transport and other sectoral policies reflect and address the special needs of young people living in rural areas. These policies should help young people who want to live in rural areas to do so and enable them to have access to the same level of social services and provision than those living in urban areas.

Young people from rural areas become integrated into one of two quite separate labour markets - the national (distant, well-paid, with career opportunities) and the local (poorly paid, insecure, unrewarding and with fewer prospects). Education and socio-economic status are the elements which allow some young people to access national job opportunities, in the same way as those from urban areas. But for those whose lack of educational credentials traps them within local labour markets, further education and training are much less available than for those living in towns, and their life-chances are reduced. 

Young people in rural areas may imagine that life is easier for their urban counterparts. Indeed, some of the polarisation between rural and urban dwellers is because each group imagines that life is easier for the others.  To help youth in rural areas it may be useful to consider specific support to help them live independently.

Policy suggestions relating to young people include the following:

·         A Youth Unit: There is no systematic approach to working with young people in rural areas, or elsewhere. A Youth Unit should be given responsibility for developing a clearer strategy for young people in rural areas and for co-ordination of services at national and local levels.

·         Improved access to further education and training: A possibility would be a new option in which work experience with small employers unable to provide training is combined with more general education or training in alternative settings. 

·         Increasing mobility: Driving licences are vital, and driving lessons could be provided either at school. Schemes that offer some formalised system of arranging lifts may constitute another response. 

·         A voice for young people: Young people are often viewed as a threat by other members of rural communities, and tend to be viewed as 'apart'. Efforts should be made to include young people in activities and in decisions, so giving them a voice and a space. 

4.         New methods of organisation and partnership

Local and regional authorities should consider policies to pursue activities that contribute to achieving community planning objectives, other cross-cutting issues and shared priorities, national priorities, and overarching policies, which promote and improve equity and well-being. These might be policies and programmes that wholly or in part, will close gaps in opportunity or outcomes for disadvantaged groups of people or geographical areas. Uses might include activities relating to 1)enhancing local service delivery; 2) promoting sustainable development; 3) tackling climate change; 4) improving mental, social and physical health; 5) tackling poverty and deprivation; 6) promoting financial inclusion in disadvantaged communities; 7) reducing inequalities and promoting equalities; 8) encouraging participation and community capacity building; 9) improving and conserving the quality of the local environment; 10) Promoting local culture and heritage; 11) protecting, enhancing and promoting biodiversity; 12) promoting economic development; or 13) improving community safety.

Innovative methods of organisation and finance

Following the principle of subsidiarity, territorial authorities should be given the organisational power to care for the specific needs of their citizens. In terms of public services and infrastructure the decision-making power for public investment and budget allocation should be broken down to local and regional level. National constitutional provisions and framework should be screened to that effect. Government and administration as forms of public services can be provided more easily if institutionally located and constitutionally based away from the centre and towards the "periphery". Every "periphery" is a neighbour to another and together they build a cluster for relationship and exchange. Consequently territorial government should be empowered to make borders permeable and to promote cross-border cooperation.

Depending on the structure of the fiscal redistribution of the national budget, tax provisions should be aware of the relatively higher costs of public infrastructure in sparsely inhabited areas and peripheral regions. For example, if the national fiscal system implies some adjustments for financial equalisation, the comparatively higher costs in these areas should be taken into account by using a more complex system of calculation than simply a per-capita-rate. If there is a system of regional or local taxes, methods of equalisation on the national level should specifically address the competitive disadvantage of peripheral regions. In certain cases, exempting regions from the application of national standards should be considered.

Redistributive systems of finances between regional, land and national level should not contribute to consolidating expenditure structures which no longer respond to local needs and realities. Regional cooperation should be possible, irrespective of tax boundaries or funding boundaries. It should be possible for a region to distribute the added-value based on the contribution of each sub-region, irrespective of where the commercial centres are situated.

Building partnerships

Following the principle of subsidiarity in rural development policy, SGIs need to be decentralized as much as possible and based on partnership and cooperation between all levels concerned.  The emphasis should be on participation and a bottom up approach, which harnesses the creativity and solidarity of rural communities.

Partnership working has become established as a significant vehicle for the implementation of rural development policy in Europe. Partnerships involving the public, private and voluntary sectors are expected to allow the voices of local communities to be heard and to foster a sense of shared objectives.

Policies must be formulated, implemented and managed to facilitate local people to use their own creativity and talents. The key players in rural development include professional organizations and unions representing farmers, non-farming professionals, micro-enterprises, trade associations, citizens, residents and their local organizations, local political representatives, environmental associations, cultural and community service providers including the media, women’s associations, and young people. As such they offer an endless wealth of ideas, information and resources for sustainable development in rural areas.

Partnerships for rural policies should take into account following key issues:

·         Top-down agendas: Requirements placed on partnerships by programmes and funding bodies should be modified to allow flexibility to address a location's specific needs, and to ease the development of effective partnership working. Local initiatives should be allowed the room to grow and find their own paths.

·         Partnership-poor areas: Many partnerships are formed in response to competitions for limited funding, and this is leading to a very uneven spread of regeneration initiatives.

·         Sustainability: Partnerships need longer lead-times, start-up funding and a sufficient lifetime to allow for the development of effective working practices and capacity-building, if there is to be a chance of continued regeneration beyond the funding period.

·         Training: More training is needed to allow all partners to contribute effectively, especially voluntary and community sector partners.

·         Promote social inclusion: The greatest challenge emerging from these experiences of rural development derives from the inequalities within each community of place, and especially from the unequal capacity of individuals to participate and benefit from area-based initiatives.

·         Legitimacy and accountability: Direct representation of the full spectrum of interests is rare and there is often little local accountability. Novel ways of ensuring participation should be tested to see if these could overcome the barriers of distance, compliance and deference which exist in many small communities.

·         Long-term commitment: Ensure a long-term commitment to sustainable regeneration at all levels of government. Provide a strong ministerial lead, regional co-ordination and visionary local leadership to create: co-operation between departments and agencies; effective partnerships; policy integration at the local level; links between funding streams; and consistency in community involvement and consultation.

Public-private partnerships

The international community came to see public-private partnerships as the solution to the problems of various public sector services in light of dissatisfaction with the performance of public utilities, particularly in transition countries. They refer to any form of agreement between public and private parties, they should not be confused with privatization.

The benefits of public-private partnerships are usually argued as being the private sector’s greater efficiency and flexible, proactive management leading to enhanced service levels and improved operational capacity; its financial capacity, leading to increased access to investment finance and the fiscal benefits for local governments as their budgets are relieved from the burden of investment finance.

The reality of public-private partnerships has often fallen short of the high expectations surrounding them.  However, examples of successful public-private partnerships exist throughout Europe, both for large-scale service delivery projects such as water and transport and small scale innovative solutions such as poles of multi-purpose services where commercial and services of general interest are housed under one roof.

Public-public partnerships

Particularly within the context of rural areas, public–public partnerships have emerged as a new organisational method to respond to the challenge of providing services of general interest.  It refers to any collaboration between two or more public authorities in the same country. This collaboration may occur between public authorities of the same type and level (usually inter-municipal consortia) or it may occur between different types or levels of public authorities, for example between provincial and local authorities. However, this narrow use of the concept of public-public partnerships has been broadened to include partnerships between public authorities (government) and any part or member of the general public.

Public-public partnerships in northern Europe have proved successful in building local capacity at various levels, from municipal decision makers to the local partner’s management and staff, as well as facilitating institutional and organisational change. Firm reliance on public sector resources on both sides of the partnership, with its not-for-profit basis functioning as a catalyst for effective interaction, have proved successful in terms of public interest. They have facilitated the concentration of resources on knowledge transfer aimed at capacity building and local governance without deviations from the intended reform path. Public-public partnerships offer rural areas an important method of a sustainable organisation, as well as integration with the major stakeholder of public services on a national level.

Cooperatives

The International Co-operative Alliance (ICA) defines a co-operative as "an autonomous association of persons united voluntarily to meet their common economic, social, and cultural needs and aspirations through a jointly-owned and democratically-controlled enterprise". This form of economic action is almost tailor-made for providing public services for and by small communities in rural areas. The element of voluntariness in combination with public – if not common – ownership and democratic decision making is highly compatible to the above-mentioned principles and elements such as subsidiarity, social inclusion, sustainability and local and citizen self-government. Cooperatives work best when certain prerequisites are already met and common ownership always raises issues of equality, cost-effectiveness, hidden competition mechanisms and "easy-rider" problems. Despite all these shortcomings their strong general conception makes cooperatives a recommendable basis for further organisational creativity.

5.         Innovative policies for sustainable rural development

Ecosystem services

Many efforts to inform decision-makers of current versus future costs and benefits of ecosystem services now involve organizing and translating scientific knowledge to economics, which articulate the consequences of our choices in comparable units of impact on human well-being. Such services can be subdivided into five categories: provisioning such as the production of food and water; regulating, such as the control of climate and disease; supporting, such as nutrient cycles and crop pollination; cultural, such as spiritual and recreational benefits; and preserving, which includes guarding against uncertainty through the maintenance of diversity.

Payment for Environmental Services (PES) programmes are an effort to get the incentives right by sending accurate signals to both providers and users that reflect the real social, environmental and economic benefits that environmental services deliver. PES transactions refer to voluntary transactions where a service provider is paid by, or on behalf of, service beneficiaries for agricultural land, forest, coastal or marine management practices that are expected to result in continued or improved service provision beyond what would have been provided without the payment.

Transport

The rural transportation system in Europe is a system of disparate parts. In most countries, it is also very decentralized. Most roads are funded and maintained by different levels of government - cities, counties, regions, and national, which can be problematic. While national and regional governments provide much of the capital funding for rural public transit, actual operations remain primarily a local responsibility. Railways and their rights-of-way are usually privately owned and maintained. Regional airports are usually owned by public or quasi-public organizations, but they also contain facilities that are owned by individual carriers. Both public and private organizations own terminals, stations, and other loading and interchange facilities.

A transportation network functions properly when it helps form vital social and economic connections. This is especially true in rural Europe where distance and a scattered population make these connections even more important. Rural transportation is essential not only for connecting people to jobs, health care, and family in a way that enhances their quality of life, but also for contributing to regional economic growth and development by connecting business to customers, goods to markets, and tourists to destinations. Ultimately, transportation is a rural community's connection to the wider world and to essential services, particularly because rural populations are not large enough to support all the services it requires, for example hospitals.

Transport strategies must be clearly tied in with planning strategies in order to ensure that developments are sustainable. A well thought through planning system which limits isolated dwellings in favour of new-build development on the edge of existing settlements will reduce the need for travel to access services.

Essential provisions should be at the centre of management policies and transport policy and spatial planning should interlink. A policy mix of solutions leading to an integrated transport network should be considered offering appropriate rural transport services and highlighting how complementarities and diversity can improve mobility among communities. Care should be taken to ensure that inter-urban high-speed train networks do not lead to regional lines being cut back leaving rural areas even more isolated. Indeed there is always a danger that whilst a settlement is currently served by public transport, that the service provider may change its service withdrawing public transport from the settlement

Priority should be given to developing and maintaining affordable and accessible public transportation using innovative solutions such as transport-on-demand/dial-a ride. Car sharing schemes also offer efficient and relatively inexpensive solutions to the dependency on car use in rural areas.

Policies should take into account economical options to enhance affordability and use of transport among the poor (including credits, subsidies, taxes and duties). They should include participative planning and empowerment and explain the benefits of policy measures. Solutions should examine ways to improve the supply and distribution of vehicles and maintenance, the effective demand, safety and environmental conditions. Economical options to promote transport use (credits, subsidies, taxes, duties) and options for institutional arrangements and stakeholder involvement should be considered, alongside alternative ways to improve mobility (rural markets, relocation of facilities, provision of infrastructure).

Information and communication technology

Rural areas can benefit from the ways in information and communication technologies (ICT) can enhance provision of the social and economical services that a community requires. Although the rural community must remain at the heart of an ICT rural policy, it is also important to take account of the possibilities that the same technologies can be a vital tool for public managers serving both in rural areas or those in more central strategic positions.

Improving citizen participation through e-democracy and the use of new information technologies is particularly relevant for rural communities. Issues like e-governance, tele-medicine and training to develop specific locally-needed skills are to be amongst the issues that should be investigated further. Media and broadcasting, particularly television and radio, are also an essential part of the ICT dimension. They have a general interest dimension, despite the structural and technological changes affecting these markets, which basically concern the content of broadcasts, being linked to moral and democratic values, such as pluralism, information ethics and protection of the individual. All of this can be of advantage to rural communities. Territorial authorities should ensure that internet points are available for such uses as internet services, administration and tele-medicine.

Media and communications

 

Community media very often started as radio or television initiatives but following the convergent development of the whole media sector nearly all community media are running their web media and simultaneously have enlarged their training capacities from traditional broadcasting media to web-based activities. It is especially for that reason that community media are often taking the role of mediators or training centres for media literacy related to the use of internet in rural and remote areas. It happens that in areas which are usually not covered by broadband technology local community media also plays the role of a physical access point for internet communication.

There is not only the need for access to broadband for people in rural areas and for citizens in economic disadvantaged situations but also for local community media initiatives and other locally engaged social enterprises which can contribute a lot for bridging the digital divide in remote, rural or sparsely populated areas.  Due to a lack of competition, broadband provision is often much more expensive for rural users compared to cities where diverse providers and solutions are available. To combat this inequality, broadband access should be considered a part of universal services.

Rural poles of multi-purpose services

Developing innovative services according to community needs and providing a holistic approach are commonly referred to as multi-purpose services. The benefits are mainly related to the local ownership and management of services with coordinated administration, the pooling of resources which allows for local flexibility, reconfiguration and greater efficiency of service offer, and an overall structure for service planning and delivery.

The provision of rural community service hubs delivering a range of services offers an opportunity to maintain vital services in sparse rural areas. The development of such shared use facilities to meet local community needs requires both capital and revenue investment.  A concern in this matter is that funding may not be made available in the timeframe of this re-structuring process.   The introduction of a national development fund to meet this need would be essential.

Provision of local services

The provision of local services in rural areas has a major impact on the viability of local businesses.  Many rural areas have much higher proportions of self-employed and micro-businesses. Any loss of convenient access to local services, in the context of rising fuel prices, the lack of choice/ability to access alternatives, has a disproportionate impact on these rural businesses. In addition, in many rural communities local services are delivered through a variety of outlets, for example, the village shop, pub or community building.

Provision of local services is considered an appropriate economic assessment for dual use businesses/facilities. Mobile services should be considered for many functions including cultural (libraries, cinemas...); social (crèches, mobile medical units…) and commercial (shops, post office…)

The 'social hub' role of local services in rural communities can be critical a, offering a 'neutral', informal meeting place. If there is none, or if it is removed, the impact on community cohesion and people's independence will be significant, not only in terms of vulnerable individuals but also in terms of the contribution to the fabric and functionality of strong rural communities ('social capital').  The key overarching objective of policies therefore should be to create strong and prosperous communities and the guiding principle that no one should be disadvantaged because of where they live.

New energy forms in rural areas

The impacts of climate change on biodiversity, related ecosystem services and livelihoods of people are of great concern, and regions have an important role to play in counteracting negative climate impacts and in decreasing the ecological footprint. Regions and their inhabitants are proud of their landscapes and its biodiversity, and are inspired to maintain or enhance these qualities if they are enabled to feel ownership in view of decisions taken that have an effect on their daily lives and livelihood. Keeping in mind the concept of policy development and the engagement of new players, the focus regarding energy policies should strive for renewable energies including wind and solar power together with other sustainable energies like biogas, rather than biomass or biofuel.

A renewable energy policy can go beyond combating climate change. Promoting renewable energy means giving priority to economic growth, the creation of jobs as well as, due to their mainly decentralized nature, rural development. Renewable energy contributes to securing the future welfare and prosperity of Europe’s citizens.

The battle of “market versus the environment” needs to be overcome and should be transformed into “markets for the environment“. Renewable energy will play a greater role in our future energy consumption and this will be particularly driven by economic forces. Concerns about climate change and energy costs are making renewable energy and energy efficiency increasingly attractive to industry. However, business people and farmers often don’t know what technology is available in their region, where to find the right equipment or how to get it installed. Furthermore, many are unable to make the initial financial investment required and therefore incentives and support from regional authorities are important.

Solar and wind energy have considerable potential to serve both environmental concerns - through the reduction of CO2 emissions - and to improve the accessibility of energy of the inhabitants of rural areas. The potential impact on sustainable agriculture and rural development of capturing these energies shows that they can offer important applications for these areas. Furthermore, successful examples exist of solar photovoltaic energy being used to provide cheap power for agricultural applications.

Developing biogas, which produces energy from organic waste materials such as urban, agricultural and forestry waste offers a source of renewable energy which helps reduce carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions and can provide a key element of decentralised and renewable energy strategies. The development of biogas energy represents creates new opportunities for development in rural areas.

The possibility of developing biofuels from intensified cultivation of crops as renewable sources of energy poses important questions and challenges in the interface between energy, environmental, agricultural, research and economic policy. Increasingly, biofuels are competing with food crops thereby driving up prices of essential food items and leading to biodiversity loss and soil erosion. The diversity and viability of potential options and strategies, and the associated socio-economic and environmentally impacts, is reflected in the large number of studies being undertaken on this complex issue.

Risk management in rural development

Risk management is a formal and integrated methodology and process for setting organizational policy for managing risks, and then in assessing and addressing all risks in a consistent manner. There appears to be wide scope for enhanced social protection mechanisms to be more generally available in rural areas. An adequately developed system of commodity price risk management using market instruments, as well as yield and weather insurance and the promotion of warehouse receipts, should constitute important components of a comprehensive rural development strategy. There is the need to explore innovative matters that seek to make such instruments accessible to the rural poor while avoiding the pitfalls of past interventions.

The new challenge that globalization adds to a rural poverty strategy is akin to the challenge of reducing vulnerability in general. Thus, part of a strategy to reduce risk entails assisting the transition to a more efficient policy framework by providing compensation to groups negatively affected by reforms.

Conclusion

Globalization should not defeat the well-being of communities, be it in rural or urban areas. The human element and the social well-being of people should be at the heart of every policy process which should be about people, to the people, for the people. Derived from this need, the social dimension should be in balance with the economic dimension with people and their specific needs as focus of action. Taking new developments into account, a key challenge we face is to ensure that the increasing liberalization of services of general interest does not lead to social decline. Public services should facilitate the implementation of economic polices, whilst striking a balance with the social dimension, especially those related to better local jobs. Employment opportunities for small and medium sized enterprises can be developed not only in the agriculture sector but also in developing local markets, sustainable tourism, new jobs in the renewable energy sector and ICT.

The objective should remain constant - to have a well-functioning society, where all citizens have access to services of general interest, independent of their social status and/or gender. The ever increasing liberalization is a threat to some of the more costly services in sparsely populated areas as it may not be profitable to the private sector to provide these services. This means actively promoting public services within the principle of subsidiarity.

Promoting ecological management of territories offers opportunities for innovation and ways to improve the quality of life and sustainability of rural areas. Preserving and enhancing the environment reduces health risks and ecological damage and creates employment opportunities. 

That is why there is a need to reinvent rural policy. This new rural paradigm requires important changes in how policies are conceived and implemented. Designing rural development policy for different communities or territories involves pooling the knowledge held by a wide variety of public and private actors. Traditional hierarchical administrative structures are likely to be inadequate to administer these policies effectively and adjustments are thus needed at central, regional and local government level, and between the different levels of government.