European Rural Futures - New opportunities to secure the provision of public services in rural cities and municipalities
Most of the European rural areas are facing the problem of shrinking population and a significant increase in the proportion of elderly residents; associated with related challenges like; increasing costs for provision and maintenance of public services and infrastructure, changes within the economic situation of communities and unbalanced labour markets. The consequences of demographic change and shrinking population have been identified as a new global issue. The transnational cooperation projects can here help to find an appropriate framework to enable share of experiences and test new innovative solutions in order to fight with the problem.

This is also the intention of the EURUFU project that seeks to promote actions for the provision of innovative solutions to restructure services and infrastructure in shrinking regions and cities, bearing in mind the sustainable development of rural regions by developing and adapting integrated measures and strategies.