Depopulation, weak digital infrastructure, and low levels of entrepreneurship present significant challenges to the vitality of rural areas. The More Than a Village project has developed a set of comprehensive Policy Recommendations, now published in its newly released document: “A Tool for Policy and Decision Makers for Advancing Smart Village Models in Central Europe.”
Based on pilot initiatives in Poland, Hungary, Italy, Slovenia, and Croatia, the document highlights how Smart Villages can transform rural communities into places of innovation and resilience. The pilots tested solutions such as Smart Village hubs for SMEs, digital platforms for sustainable tourism, and innovative agri-food ecosystems combining data-driven agriculture with circular economy principles.
The recommendations call for decisive action at local, national, and EU levels to ensure that Smart Villages are not isolated experiments but integrated into mainstream rural development strategies.
Key proposals include:
- Investments in digital infrastructure and lifelong learning
- Support for youth entrepreneurship and the silver economy
- Development of smart tourism hubs and digital tools for remote work
- Platforms and technologies that modernize agri-food value chains.
The full document is available here.
