New concepts for territorial rural development in Europe: the case of Inner Areas in Italy

A new reflection on the effectiveness of policy for rural areas has been recently developed in Italy. This reflection brought about the design of a new territorial policy for the most remote areas ("inner" areas), including both Cohesion and Rural development policies. Main novelties are in several aspects: a) the scale; b) the thematic focus; c) the governance. This paper discusses these innovations, which are constituent elements of a new paradigm of rural policy.