The European Parliament is alarmed that the war in Ukraine is making food insecurity in developing countries, already affected by the impact of the Covid-19 crisis, much worse. Hence, it recommends bold action on the part of the EU to combat hunger and malnutrition in these countries—a priority—and improve their resilience, notably through solutions targeted at local needs.
Not surprisingly, the own-initiative report by Beata Kempa (ECR, Poland) was adopted without amendment (see EUROPE 12984/14 and 12877/14) by a large majority (602 votes in favour, 15 against, and 22 abstentions) in Strasbourg on Wednesday, 6 July.
MEPs fear the UN Sustainable Development Goal ‘Zero Hunger’ by 2030 (SDG2) will not be achieved, given hunger, malnutrition, and food insecurity are once again on the rise worldwide and the likelihood that, by that time, some 660 million people will still suffer from hunger.
Before the vote, Mrs Kempa affirmed, “1.7 billion people in 107 countries are affected by the famine that has resulted from the war in Ukraine”; she expressed hope that this report would help the EU take the lead in providing financial support in the fight against hunger.
MEPs are calling on the EU and the EU27 to recognise the eradication of hunger and malnutrition as a priority in all policy areas. In their view, the EU should orient its policies to better link urgent relief and longer-term solutions.
The European Commission and Member States are encouraged to increase their contributions to the World Food Programme (WFP).
The European Parliament wants the EU and its Member States to immediately cover the funding gap in the 2022 UN humanitarian appeals for East Africa and the Middle East.
According to MEPs, the EU’s nutrition and food security policies must recognise that access to food is a human right, not a market commodity.
The European Parliament believes that the EU should prioritise food and sustainable agriculture in its development policy, support sustainable agriculture, and strengthen small-scale farming and family farming while focusing on decent work.
It also considers promoting better access to markets, securing land tenure for small-scale farmers and women, and improving their access to technology and innovation to be essential.
The EU should also support agroecology, agroforestry, and crop diversification and prioritise food production over biofuel production.
“[Ensuring] more flexible and better coordinated biofuel policies at [the] international level is crucial”, stress MEPs.
What about food speculation? On the same day, the European Parliament rejected the objection submitted by the Greens/EFA group to the European Commission’s delegated act on financial derivatives and food speculation. This delegated act, presented in April, aims to clarify the terms of the 'MiFID’ directive by setting the methodology for calculating position limits, the main tool for regulating speculation. The Greens/EFA felt that it did not set sufficiently effective limits.
After the vote on the Kempa report, the rejection of this objection is a missed opportunity, according to Benoît Bîteau (Greens/EFA, France), who believes that “the war in Ukraine was a sad opportunity to put an end to speculation”.
Her colleague and compatriot Karima Delli also added, “It is wrong to think that the current price increase is just the result of the armed conflict in Ukraine. Several studies point to the responsibility of financial markets in this context”.
See the ‘Kempa’ resolution: https://aeur.eu/f/2ia (Original version in French by Aminata Niang)