A collective voice is needed to highlight the challenges and opportunities for change, urging European and national responses to address the urgent need for rural mobility.

Objectives of the Community Group

• Establish pan-European networking, dialogue, information exchange through the formation and animation of a Rural Pact Community Group on rural mobility;
• Create linkages with the European Rural Mobility Network (ERMN), so its mechanisms can endure beyond the SMARTA-NET project;
• Develop outreach to organisations, communities, and practitioners with interest in rural mobility, who currently have no forum to engage;
• Increase the capacity of rural municipalities, communities, associations, regions and practitioners through knowledge sharing;
• Identify needs of the stakeholders within the sector, including capacity building and methods;
• Identify and propose solutions to barriers to what rural municipalities, communities and other local actors could do themselves;
• Identify enablers that would allow them to do more, aligned with broader rural development, societal and mobility policies, and which layer needs to act;
• Provide a collective voice for the stakeholders in the rural mobility sector;
• Provide a channel for EU and national levels to discuss with and gain better understanding of the sector.