The editorial introduces papers mostly presented at the 22nd session of the biennial Permanent European Conference for the Study of the Rural Landscape (PECSRL) in the sub-theme Interface between Marx and Brussels. The title of the Conference was European Rural Future: Landscape as an Interface and it was held from 4th-9th of September 2006 in Berlin and Hubertusstock, Brandenburg, Germany. The place and time were liminal as European Union (EU) accession included eight post-communist states on 1st of May 2004. The papers that make up this twin special issue address the interface between the East/West and the past/future each uniquely.