Food security will again be on the agenda of the European Council on 23-24 June - an opportunity for EU leaders to say that Russia “is solely responsible for the global food security crisis it provoked”, and to call on the country to release the 20 million tonnes of Ukrainian grain blocked in the Black Sea (see EUROPE 12962/2).
According to a draft conclusion dated 15 June, the European Council should call for increased multilateral efforts to help those countries most vulnerable to food shortages due to their dependence on imports, particularly in Africa.
The European Council should call on the Commission and Member States to redouble their efforts to:
- “help developing countries to reorient their supply chains where necessary”;
- “accelerate the implementation of the relevant flagship initiatives”, agreed at the 6th EU/African Union Summit (see EUROPE 12894/1);
- launch an initiative to support the development of fertiliser manufacturing capacity and alternatives in developing countries.
These efforts, the text stresses, should be based on the FARM (Food and Agriculture Resilience Mission) initiative, UN initiatives and the Global Alliance for Food Security, which was launched at the G7 Development Summit and which will be officially decided at the G7 Summit (26-28 June, Elmau), in which Volodymyr Zelensky will participate.
On Wednesday in Cairo, alongside Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sissi, Commission President Ursula von der Leyen announced “€100 million in immediate aid” for the country, but above all advocated a medium- and long-term global response, based on increasing local production through new technologies - including precision agriculture and artificial intelligence.
“We need to completely renew and stimulate local food production”, she said. She added: “We will spend €3 billion on agriculture and nutrition, water and sanitation programmes over the next few years here in the region”.
The draft conclusions: https://aeur.eu/f/25f (Original version in French by Aminata Niang)