Brought together in Genk from 7 to 9 April by the Belgian Presidency of the EU Council, European agriculture ministers will be assessing possible measures to make the EU less dependent on plant protein imports.
At this informal meeting on Tuesday 9 April, discussions will focus on the issue of the EU’s strategic autonomy in plant proteins. On the sidelines, ministers are expected to discuss other topical issues, such as the EU’s response to the agricultural crisis, even though the Council has already given the green light to the measures proposed by the European Commission (see EUROPE 13379/2).
Following farm visits on Monday 8 April in the Hasselt region, in which only a few selected journalists will be able to participate, ministers will be invited to answer two questions at Tuesday’s meeting, based on a document from the Belgian Presidency of the Council of the EU entitled ‘Towards more open strategic autonomy on proteins’:
- Within the framework of open strategic autonomy, is it essential to review the European protein supply, as part of a broader protein transition, and what targets should be set at European level for this?
- What policy instruments can European policy (within the different policy areas such as agriculture, trade, environment, climate, health, research and innovation...) further use to accelerate this protein diversification [...]?
“Merely focusing on production-enhancing policies is often insufficient to create long-term value chains”, stresses the Belgian document.
In a communication on food security and the resilience of food systems in 2022, the European Commission announced a forthcoming review of the EU’s plant protein policy. But this initiative is still awaited (see EUROPE 13275/21). The Commission will only publish a report on the subject of plant proteins during the summer. (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)