Empowering Rural Communities: ECOLISE Brings the Voice of Community-Led Change to the European Rural Parliament

The 6th European Rural Parliament (ERP), held in Inverurie, Scotland, from 20–23 October 2025, gathered more than 400 delegates from over 40 countries to co-create emerging rural practice and policy across Europe. Organised by the European LEADER Association for Rural Development (ELARD), the European Rural Community Alliance (ERCA), the Partnership for Rural Europe (PREPARE), and Rural Youth Europe, the Parliament embodied its theme “Rural Community Solutions to Global Challenges” through 30 participatory workshops, 11 study visits, and a series of thematic summits addressing issues ranging from demographic change and climate resilience to democratic innovation and food systems transformation, alongside regional sessions dedicated to the Balkans, Eastern Neighbourhood, and Northern Peripheries of Europe.

As a participative democratic assembly, the European Rural Parliament aims to strengthen the diverse voices of rural and island communities across Europe, ensuring their interests and well-being are reflected in national and European policies; and to promote self-help, solidarity, exchange of good practices, and cooperation among rural and island communities throughout Europe.

ECOLISE was represented by Òscar Gussinyer (Resilience Earth SCCL), Marta Miranda García (Ecorredes), and Katerina Boucoyannis (Policy Lead, ECOLISE).

Òscar Gussinyer co-facilitated the workshop “Living Together – Rural Land: Who for, What for, Who Decides and Who Benefits?” together with Natasha Hutchison (Wester Ross Biosphere), using experiential and participatory methods to engage participants in dialogue and decision-making on land use, access, and justice. Drawing from his wider facilitation practice, the session explored how bioregional perspectives and community-led action can regenerate rural territories, inviting participants to imagine “from landscape to lifescape” transitions rooted in local ecological and cultural identity.

Marta Miranda García participated in the European Rural Youth Parliament, bringing forward youth perspectives on cooperation, equity, and regeneration, and her experience from Almocita en transición emphasising how intergenerational solidarity and grassroots innovation can drive the just transition in rural areas.

ECOLISE Policy Lead Katerina Boucoyannis, alongside Hannes Lorenzen (ARC2020) and Brian Cameron (Scottish Rural Action), co-organised two linked workshops on Resilient Food Systems, building on ECOLISE’s policy positioning for community-led, just, and regenerative food systems.

The outcomes of the Resilient Food Systems workshops at the 6th ERP strongly echoed ECOLISE’s policy positioning as articulated in “Reclaiming the Future of Food: Community Pathways to Resilience, Justice and Regeneration.” 

Meanwhile, the workshops’ key recommendations resonate with ECOLISE’s core priorities for community-led, regenerative and just food systems:

• Relocalising food economies through regional food resilience hubs, public procurement commitments, and circular, zero-waste models that integrate production, education, and resource recovery (recommendations #1 & #2).
• Reorienting policy and regulation through a Just Food Transition package that includes outcome-based payments, transition support, and proportionate rules for proportionate farms, recognising the distinct needs of small-scale and community producers (recommendations #3 & #5).
• Recognising food as a public good, linking nutrition, health, and fair pricing, while strengthening democratic participation and trust between producers and citizens through education, transparency, and participatory governance (recommendations #13).

These outcomes reaffirm ECOLISE’s call to empower communities as key drivers of Europe’s food transition, redirecting public support towards cooperative and community-led initiatives, enabling agroecological and regenerative practices, and embedding food democracy and sovereignty at the heart of EU and national policy frameworks. Food systems are the backbone of resilient rural movements, and transformation must be rooted in community agency, local infrastructure, and ecological regeneration. 

The 6th European Rural Parliament in Inverurie, Scotland, was a truly collective effort  and the action it has inspired will also be collective, and stronger for that reason.

Our deepest thanks go to the ERP Steering Group and special appreciation to the organising partners, the European Rural Community Alliance (ERCA), the Partnership for Rural Europe (PREPARE), the European LEADER Association for Rural Development (ELARD), and to the hosts, Scottish Rural Action, Aberdeenshire Council, and the Scottish Government for their warm welcome and inspiring collaboration.

The Declaration of Inverurie, signed by ERCA, ELARD, PREPARE, Rural Youth Europe and the Scottish Government on behalf of the host nation will be presented to European decision-makers in the coming months, marking a new chapter for rural community action and policy across Europe.