The regions participating in Vital Rural Area share similar socio-economical problems, being:
- A lack of economic development and innovation
- Negative or insufficient promotion of the region
- Reduction in the level or the accessibility of services and amenities
These problems have resulted in three content-related work packages connected to rural and regional development:
- empowerment of SMEs, towards new economic prospects and innovations
- branding of the region, towards a professional promotion of regions
- optimising services, towards more and better accessible services and amenities.
Pilot projects started with a focus on one of the three work packages. Project outcomes and experiences were discussed and tested among the Vital partners, focusing on the applicability, transferability and integral added value for the region. Comparing and abstracting project results, showed that there was a lot of common ground between the project outcomes. This formed the basis of the Rural Power Pack by sorting all projects under one or more of the seven broad overarching themes and by the development of a general problem solving methodology.
By using the comprehensive knowledge built up from project results in associated partner regions the RPP can offer practical solutions and instruments for problems faced in other regions throughout the EU 27.