Report of the Strategic Dialogue on the Future of EU Agriculture – recommends new approach on sustainability, improved coherence with trade
13 SEPTEMBER 2024On 4 September, the European Commission released the Report of the Strategic Dialogue on the Future of EU Agriculture. The report proposes a series of recommendations to help address the economic, social and environmental concerns of the European food and agricultural sectors.
Fourteen recommendations are outlined in the report, which is addressed to the European institutions, in particular to the European Commission in all its related portfolios, and to the Member States:
1.Strengthen farmers’ position in the food value chain
2.Deploying a new approach to deliver on sustainability
3.Prepare a Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) fit for purpose
4.Finance the transition
5.Promote sustainability and competitiveness in trade policy
6.Make the healthy and sustainable choice the easy one
7.Enhance sustainable farming practices
8.Reduce GHG emissions in agriculture
9.Create pathways for sustainable animal farming in the EU
10.Further action to better preserve and manage farmland, promote water-resilient agriculture, and develop innovative plant breeding approaches
11.Promote robust risk and crisis management
12.Build an attractive and diverse sector
13.Improve access to and use of knowledge and innovation
14.Governance change and new culture of cooperation
Sustainability and Green Deal measures
On sustainability (second recommendation), the Strategic Dialogue supports and commits to the maintenance and enforcement of existing EU legislation, but also calls for the launch of an EU-wide benchmarking system in agriculture and food systems aiming to harmonize methodologies of on-farm sustainability assessments.
Trade and Sustainability
In relation to trade (fifth recommendation), the Strategic Dialogue calls on the European Commission to ensure greater coherence between trade and sustainability policy and to review the current approach to the conduct of negotiations on agriculture and agri-food.
“This will require the EU to rethink how it approaches market access for exports and imports in its trade policies, considering all positive and negative externalities that agri-food trade may have on environmental sustainability, competitiveness of EU producers, animal welfare, and labour standards, as well as on price and choice for the consumer. The overall ambition should be to create a stronger alignment of imports with EU food and farming standards, taking into account as far as possible socio-cultural, economic, geographic, climatic and regulatory contexts of trading partners as well as the expectations of EU consumers with regard to standards.”
Non-EU Operators
Recognition is made of the fact that non-EU operators will need an enabling environment in order to apply current and incoming standards and regulation. The Strategic Dialogue highlights that these must be complemented by robust policies and support measures (technical assistance and capacity-building programs) to assist economic operators outside the EU in adapting their practices to meet EU standards.
Background
The Strategic Dialogue January 2024, on the Future of EU Agriculture brought together 29 major stakeholders from the European agri-food sectors, civil society, rural communities and academia to reach a common understanding on the further development of a core area of European life and economy in a new format of political discourse.
The European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen reacted to the Strategic Dialogue on 4 September during a joint press conference with the chair of the Dialogue, Professor Peter Strohschneider. Von der Leyen committed to present a roadmap based on the Strategic Dialogue within the first 100 days of the next mandate.
More information: https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/ip_24_4528
Strategic Dialogue on the future of EU agriculture
List of participants in the Strategic Dialogue
Contact: Lebo Mofolo, lmofolo@frucom.eu