European Rural Alliance (ERA) whose role is to be a platform providing opportunities for policy statements from civil initiatives such as of ERA members and others active in rural development - as an alternative to official network structures implemented project "European Rural Voice" financed by EU EACEA Citizenship programme Civil Society Projects (CSP-2008-080).

The general objective of the project was to give a voice for rural inhabitants at European level and to spread knowledge of EU values and possibilities for rural areas. This was done with a participative method (OPERA) and village meetings in 6 countries - SYTY from Finland; Latvian Rural Forum - Latvia, Lithuanian Rural Communities Union - Lithuania, Polish Rural Forum - Poland, VOKA - Slovakia and The National Network of Rural Community Schools - Czech Republic. In this pilot project the inhabitants could freely express themselves on their villages' development issues or problems with help of trained facilitators.

The results of the village meetings were analyzed and published. It is informative to the general public and administration as they "hear the village voice". This could lead in a longer term to new cooperation between villages and administration by creating a new channel and method of spreading and gathering information.

Related Documents:
final_report_documents_2008_2.doc