At a conference organised by WitHub on Tuesday 5 March in Brussels, with Agence Europe as a partner, several representatives of the main Italian food industry trade associations - Cia, Coldiretti, Confagricoltura, Eat Europe and Filiera Italia - discussed the Commission’s recent announcements on agricultural policy.
Unconvinced, they, like many of their colleagues in other European countries, are calling for more concrete measures “directly linked to the reality of farming”. If Ukraine were to join the EU, they argue, the CAP budget would need an extra €100 billion in order to survive.
In the panellists’ sights was the reworking of the CAP in 2021, “designed when neither the war nor Covid had arrived”, and the Commission’s lack of vision, which does not provide “the right instruments to farmers” to enable them to properly implement its objectives. “We absolutely need an economic agricultural policy that puts production back at the centre”, insisted Cristina Tinelli, Chair of Copa-Cogeca’s Rural Development Working Party.
“The EU needs to resolutely change course in order to build a future that allows European production to survive, with decent incomes and economic, environmental and social sustainability”, said Cristiano Fini, National President of the Cia-Agricoltori Italiani. “This means that we need to think about a new CAP, with less bureaucracy and simpler rules”.
Invited to close the discussions, the European Commissioner for Agriculture, Janusz Wojciechowski, said that he was aware of the specific difficulties faced by Italian farmers and that he was committed to providing the most precise solutions possible, in the short, medium and long term. (Original version in French by Isalia Stieffatre)