On 25 March, the European Council called on the European Commission to prioritise work on global food security and supply, including support for food security and agriculture in Ukraine and in the most vulnerable and exposed third countries.
This will be the objective of the Food and Agriculture Resilience Mission (FARM) initiative presented the previous day by France at the special G7 summit (see EUROPE 12918/5).
“This multilateral work should ensure the efficient functioning of the markets and encourage local production to reduce the risk of food insecurity. The integrity of food supply chains should be preserved”, the European Council conclusions read.
President Charles Michel said that the EU would implement the FARM initiative, in particular in agreement with developing countries and notably with the African Union.
Emmanuel Macron presented this initiative based on three pillars: - trade policy, in particular with an “emergency plan to free up stock in the event of crisis situations” - solidarity via “coordinated action by producer countries to temporarily raise production thresholds” (mechanism for redistributing additional volumes produced); - a “significant” increase in investment in food production worldwide, particularly in Africa.
“We have presented measures to support food security and agriculture in Ukraine”, said Ursula von der Leyen. Ukraine and Russia together account for one third of global wheat exports. “We must therefore avoid a global food crisis. We are providing €2.5 billion until 2024 to help the most food insecure regions”, concluded the Commission President.
See the European Council conclusions: https://aeur.eu/f/z4
See the FARM initiative: https://aeur.eu/f/z5 (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur and the editors).