Brussels, 02/12/2014 (Agence Europe) - Italy, which currently holds the rotating Presidency of the EU Council of Ministers, organised a Euro-Mediterranean conference in Palermo (Sicily) on Friday 28 November. The director-general of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), José Graziano da Silva, also attended.
A statement was adopted which, according to a press release on 1 December, offers “many tracks to improve the establishment of young people in agriculture and to promote agricultural and rural entrepreneurship”. It states that “jobs in agriculture and rural territories could be supported by setting up political measures and sustainable finance”. “The importance of international cooperation for addressing the challenges of food security and the fight against social and economic exclusion in the rural world” is underlined.
The first Euro-Mediterranean conference on agriculture took place in Venice on 27 November 2003. Since then cooperation has been strengthened following the first ministerial conference on agriculture of the group of western Mediterranean countries (5+5 Dialogue), which took place in Algiers on 27 November 2013. One of the results of this has been the proposal to create an observatory on food safety and nutrition. (FB)