8. Depopulation and aging in rural areas in the European Union: practices starting from the LEADER approach Marilena Labianca and Francisco Navarro Valverde 1. Introduction In the early 1990 studies began to speak of the rural renaissance or the rural revival, and many authors extended this phenomenon to EU rural territories, without taking into account the huge differences that separate them (Molinero, 2017). Currently, rural experts and authors are aware of this and are focusing on the disparities and diversities of rural territories that we can find throughout the European Union, demanding specific actions for deep rural areas. Rural areas represent one of the major challenges in the development policies in the 2014-2020 programming cycle. Although there are important differences between member States, according to Eurostat (2017) it is possible to trace similar trends, in particular the communities living in rural areas are more exposed to poverty and social exclusion, moreover this risk is higher in the rural areas of eastern and southern Europe. This situation is aggravated by other conditions that cause material and immaterial isolation of these areas. These range from the absence or difficulty of access to basic services (such as health care), to the lack of infrastructure, of education and training, especially for young people through to economic weakness (EUROSTAT, 2017). As argued, in Europe there is a recognition of the profound diversity of the territories, especially rural ones, and at the same time specific areas of intervention are envisaged in favor of the depressed ones as confirmed by the European Union (2013) under the general Regulation:   