The President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, announced on Wednesday 6 December at the ‘EU Agri-Food Days’ in Brussels that the strategic dialogue on the future of EU agriculture will be launched in January 2024.
The European Commissioner for Agriculture, Janusz Wojciechowski, said in a speech on the same day (https://aeur.eu/f/9zg ) that stakeholders from across the agricultural sector will be invited to come together to better understand current and future challenges, to better exploit the opportunities offered by knowledge and technical innovation, to define the best ways of working towards a more sustainable and resilient food system and to make rural areas more attractive.
In a video message (https://aeur.eu/f/9zf ), Ms von der Leyen said that the European agri-food sector had shown remarkable resilience, despite the crises. In fact, “our agri-food exports increased by 16% in 2022. We are almost or completely self-sufficient on a wide-range of essential foods – from wheat and tomatoes to meat and dairy, contributing to our strategic resilience”.
At the same time, “Europe’s agri-food industry is making a tremendous effort to contribute to our collective green and digital transitions”, emphasised the President.
The approval of new genomic processes could lead to more resistant plant varieties and less use of pesticides, Ms von der Leyen also stressed. She announced that in the spring of next year, the Commission will put forward “an initiative on EU biotech and biomanufacturing”.
According to the President, farmers apply methods that promote biodiversity and store carbon from the atmosphere. Farmers are already doing a great deal to preserve nature, she believes, and the Commission will continue to support them in every way possible. “Together, we are planting the seeds for even more sustainable, resilient food production in the EU”, concluded Ms von der Leyen.
The EPP Group in the European Parliament presents its vision of tomorrow’s agriculture. On the same day, the EPP Group in the European Parliament presented its vision of tomorrow’s agriculture (https://aeur.eu/f/9zh ), calling in particular for an increase in the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) budget after 2027, a demand also supported before the press by Commissioner Janusz Wojciechowski.
The EPP is closely monitoring the implementation of the 2023-2027 CAP. “We stand ready to hold the Commission and Member States to account if we see that the new system results in more – not less – complexity and bureaucracy, if there is less fairness in the distribution of support, and if the new conditionality regime and other environmental measures endanger farmers’ ability to deliver food security”, warns the EPP Group. (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)