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4 months ago
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Striking a balance between the needs of farmers, consumer demands and sustainability will likely define the agrifood policies during the new European Commission mandate.
Since the end of 2023, farmers across Europe have been protesting against low food prices, proposed environmental regulations, and trade in agricultural products with non-European Union member states.
A common concern shared by farmers throughout the bloc is the level of bureaucracy within the EU’s Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), which has recently seen a significant push towards greener policies.
Priorities, future policies, concerns and what can be learned from the previous mandate were in focus at a Euractiv event on 4 June 2024, only a few days ahead of the European elections, as farmers were protesting in the heart of Brussels.
Lessons learned
“There is a strong debate in society around food and farming, which has become increasingly polarised. That is one of the lessons we have drawn from this mandate. We need to work and make agriculture and the protection of natural resources go together. We must strengthen dialogue,” remarked Gijs Schilthuis, Head of Unit, Policy Perspectives at the DG AGRI.
He also mentioned the Strategic Dialogue On The Future Of EU Agriculture, launched by Commission President Ursula von der Leyen at her State of the Union address last September, which she hopes will create a basis for policymaking in the new mandate that can overcome the polarisation.
Schilthuis argued that getting young farmers to farm sustainably and through resilient methods as the world faces weather extremes should also be high on the agenda when it comes to navigating the next mandate.
Protests instrumentalised
Representing not only the Section for Agriculture, Rural Development and the Environment in the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC), but also farmers in Bulgaria, Stoyan Tchoukanov called for farmers not to be generalised and seen as polluters, who are not willing to put in effort in combating climate change.
Building on this argument, Faustine Bas-Defossez, the Director of Nature, Health and Environment at the European Environmental Bureau (EEB), added, “There is no farming without a healthy environment. But we have seen the instrumentalisation of the farmers’ protest. That went a step further and led to the rollback of the CAP environmental safeguards.”
“Governance around agriculture policy is deeply concerning,” she explained, mentioning specific stakeholders who are vested in keeping the status quo, making use of disinformation in the public debate. “Farmers’ demands and anger have been instrumentalised to weaken the EU.”
Redesigning food systems
“Consumers want to eat more healthily and sustainably but they find it difficult. Many of the policies promised by the Farm to Fork Strategy and beyond remain unpublished, unfinished and unfulfilled. Without having a strategy to deal with how we produce and consume food in the EU, we will not have a complete Green Deal,” BEUC’s Senior Food Policy Officer Emma Calvert remarked during the discussion.
She added, “We hear a lot about the potential costs of transitioning towards a healthier and more sustainable food system. We will need to see investments made. The Farm to Fork Strategy rightly recognised the need to redesign our food systems because of the externalities with the current one: high levels of greenhouse gas emissions, large amounts of natural resources, biodiversity loss, negative health impacts, and lack of fair economic returns for primary producers.”
“We as consumers and citizens, and farmers need this just transition as much as ever for our environment, biodiversity and food security. We really need to make sure in the next mandate that we do not continue this status quo,” she concluded.
Changing the agricultural model
Harriet Bradley, Head of Programme for the CAP and Food at the Institute for European Environmental Policy, pointed out the uncertainties surrounding farming in Europe, driven by economic factors and the impacts of climate change.
“The old paradigm about maximising yields under stable climate conditions is not suited to the new market and climate reality. We need to put evidence back into the policymaking around agriculture. What we have seen in the last five years is an erosion of real evidence being brought into the debate.”
Bradley remarked that there are a lot of opportunities for the sector in terms of changing to a more climate-resilient, regenerative, agricultural model. “We need to be talking more about these opportunities and communicating them to farmers,” she said, calling for the private sector to contribute as well in supporting farmers on a journey of transition, which could possibly take 10 years.
New mandate, new budget, new variables
Euractiv’s EU Agriculture and Food Policies Editor Angelo Di Mambro reminded that, “The next mandate will be that of the new budget, and consequently of a new Common Agricultural Policy. On top of that is the sustainability issue. It is there; you cannot go ahead without being sustainable in your production.”
New variables have been added into the equation. “There will be considerations on a greater integration of Ukrainian agriculture,” Di Mambro said. “The next cycle will be an interesting converging period, in which the budget, the CAP, Ukraine and sustainability must be reconciled.”
A comprehensive review of the food labelling legislation, promised in the Farm to Fork Strategy in 2011 is yet to happen, and Di Mambro suggested that the next Commission will have to look at it.
This article follows the Euractiv-organised policy debate “EU agrifood policy – Navigating the next mandate” co-funded by the European Union.
[By Xhoi Zajmi I Edited by Dave Keating | Euractiv’s Advocacy Lab ]
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