Key takeaways from the new crop of agriculture MEPs

The official lineup for the new European Parliament’s Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development (AGRI) was confirmed on Friday (19 July), with a make-up promising more political action in this term.

The committee will now include 49 members of the European Parliament (MEPs) — up from 48 in the last mandate — and will be chaired by a member of the hard-right European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) group, the fourth-largest in the hemicycle.

The first meeting will take place on Tuesday (23 July), when the chair and vice-chairs will be appointed.

Parliament sources told Euractiv that the ECR’s choice for the chair is the Czech MEP Veronika Vrecionová, who served as the group’s coordinator in AGRI during the 2019-2024 term. 

Vrecionová is among the most experienced ECR members in agricultural issues and was the rapporteur of AGRI’s opinion on the EU’s new rules for gene-edited crops.

After providing details on some of AGRI’s key members, Euractiv brings you the main takeaways from the committee’s final composition for the 2024-2029 mandate.

Who runs AGRI? (Italians)

Italy will have the largest presence in AGRI, with nine full members and six substitutes.

Moreover, the two largest groups in Parliament—the centre-right European People’s Party (EPP) and the Socialists and Democrats (S&D)—have appointed Italian members as AGRI coordinators: Herbert Dorfmann and Dario Nardella, respectively.

Nardella, a former mayor of Florence and new MEP, contested the socialist leadership in AGRI against Germany’s Maria Noichl, a previous AGRI member, sources told Euractiv.

The Italian socialists have also added Stefano Bonaccini – a prominent politician in the Democratic Party – to their ranks, and Camilla Laureti, who returns for a second term.

For the EPP, Dorfmann, a member of the Italian South Tyrolean People’s Party, continues as a leading figure in agriculture. Dorfman is a 55-year-old agronomist who has been a member of the European Parliament since 2009 and the coordinator of the centre-right in AGRI’s last term.

His EPP colleague Salvatore de Meo will also be a full member, same as the last term.

Moreover, sources told Euractiv that Carlo Fidanza is likely to be ECR’s coordinator.

Notable additions

The heightened political significance of AGRI, following widespread farmers’ protests in 2024, has attracted top-tier MEPs and lawmakers with little ties to the agricultural world.

As we reported earlier this week, Valérie Hayer, president of the liberal Renew Europe group in the European Parliament, is to become a full member of the AGRI committee in the next mandate.

During the first weeks of farmers’ unrest in January, the French MEP pledged to make agriculture a top priority during her tenure in Brussels.

The S&D has appointed their leader, Spanish MEP Iratxe Garcia Perez, as a substitute member.

Unexpected faces include Hungary’s Péter Magyar (EPP), Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s main rival and the leader of the newly created Tisza Party.

Spanish far-right youtuber Luis “Alvise” Pérez will also sit in AGRI. According to the national press, during the farmer’s protests in Spain Alvise called for violent action against the police on his Telegram channel with over 350,000 followers.

The farmers’ committee 

AGRI will feature several MEPs with an agricultural background, with at least 12 full members and two substitutes who are or have been farmers. 

Among them are the EPP’s French MEP Céline Imart, a cereal grower and trade unionist; Dutch MEP Jessica van Leeuwen, a member of the Farmer–Citizen Movement – abbreviated as BBB – specialising in pig and dairy farming; and German MEP and farmer Stefan Köhler.

The new far-right group Patriots for Europe (PfE) brings French sheep breeder Valérie Deloge and Hungarian farmer Balázs Győrffy.

Renew leader Valérie Hayer is not a farmer but describes herself as the “daughter, sister-in-law and sister of farmers”.

Her party colleague Elsi Katainen, a trained agronomist who owns a dairy farm in her native Finland, will be appointed as the liberal group’s coordinator for AGRI, according to sources familiar with the procedure.

Other farmers in Renew are Danish MEP Asger Christensen and German MEP Christine Singer. 

The Greens have placed a strong bet on agriculture profiles, putting forward three full members with farming backgrounds.

These include the Austrian MEP Thomas Waitz, who will act as the group’s AGRI coordinator, German MEP Martin Häusling, and newly elected Cristina Guarda. All of them are organic farmers.

The Europe of Sovereign Nations (ESN) group includes German farmer and local politician Arno Bausemer.

[Edited by Angelo Di Mambro and Zoran Radosavljevic]

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