Brussels, 06/07/2009 (Agence Europe) - In the follow up to the recommendations of the High level Group, issued last March, stakeholders in the sector, the participating member states, the agro-food industry, civil society and professional associations, and the European Commission, represented by Commissioners Günter Verheugen (industry), Mariann Fischer Boel (agriculture) and Meglena Kuneva (consumer protection) adopted a roadmap on Monday 6 July to develop the European agro-food industry. This aims to provide a new boost to a sector that figures amongst one of the most important and dynamic sectors in Europe and consists of a network of almost 280,000 companies (90% of them SMEs) and provides jobs for 4 million people. The European food industry is our number one industry in terms of turnover (around €800 billion). The roadmap seeks to attain its objective through the implementation in the near future of coordinated actions, such as: - improving the transparency of the fixing of prices and contractual arrangements along the food supply chain; - establishing a market surveillance mechanism for counterfeiting; - a SWOT analysis (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats) to assess the position of the European agro-food industry in the global market; - simplifying the administrative procedures, particularly for SMEs, for participating in research funding programmes; - setting up a social dialogue in the agro-food industry; - developing educational programmes which raise awareness of the importance of the agro-food industry; - setting up a European Forum to discuss the improvement of commercial relations among the players of the food chain, with the aim of adopting an EU wide code of conduct; - launching a study on the effects of retailers' own brands on the competitiveness of the agro-food industry, in particular on small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs); - promoting the instruments available for SMEs, e.g. Enterprise Europe Network. (E.H./transl.rh)