Brussels, 20/10/14 (Agence Europe) - A Euro-Mediterranean conference on agriculture will take place in Palermo (Sicily) on 28 November 2014 as part of the Italian presidency of the EU. It will focus on the role of young people and agricultural research. The importance of this was underlined by the International Centre for Advanced Mediterranean Agronomic Studies (ICAMAS), which coordinates consultations between Mediterranean basin countries on the future of agricultural production.
ICAMAS has just signed (at the beginning of October) a cooperation agreement with the Union for the Mediterranean (UfM) to carry out joint initiatives on food safety in the Euro-Mediterranean area and education relating to this thematic. According to a press release, ICAMAS made a commitment in February this year (EUROPE 11019 and 11025) to help set up a network focusing on Mediterranean agriculture for which it will be responsible for coordinating with the Agricultural Markets Information System (AMIS) secretariat based in Rome, the FAO and the European Commission.
ICAMAS also works within EURAGRI, which held its annual session on 29 September. EURAGRI is an informal platform whose members include European agricultural research institutions and is based at the University of Aarhus in Denmark. Its new president, Pascal Bergeret, is the director of ICAMAS-Montpellier and was nominated on this occasion. (FB)