A ‘farmer-centred’ strategy for the brand new European Commission on Agriculture and Food Christophe Hansen has drawn criticism from stakeholders sitting on the finish of the meals worth chain.
There are excessive hopes that Commissioner-designate Cristophe Hansen can deal with the more and more polarized debate on meals coverage, however his written responses to questions posed by MEPs have left a foul style in many individuals’s mouths, citing an overemphasis on agriculture and inadequate consideration to points associated to meals.
Responding to European lawmakers earlier this week, Hansen reiterated his dedication to presenting a world imaginative and prescient for agriculture and meals throughout the first 100 days of his mandate. This roadmap will ideally substitute the Farm to Fork technique, the failed EU meals coverage proposed within the earlier mandate.
However, regardless of European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen including “meals” to Hansen’s job title, her preliminary responses disenchanted some stakeholders who thought broader points of the meals chain had been sidelined.
“The written solutions of the candidate commissioner for agriculture and meals made us need extra on the meals facet of his portfolio,” Camille Perrin, head of meals coverage on the European shopper group BEUC, informed Euronews.
He identified that Hansen’s preliminary imaginative and prescient lacks consideration to meals consumption, a key aspect of meals coverage.
“With meals costs nonetheless considerably greater than a couple of years in the past, we hoped that meals affordability could be on the coronary heart of its work plans,” he added, arguing {that a} honest meals provide chain should help each farmers and shoppers.
Food producers are additionally struggling
In the comment on social media, Dirk Jacobs, director basic of the European meals producers’ group FoodDrinkEurope, famous that Hansen’s responses supply little indication of help for the competitiveness and resilience of the EU foods and drinks business.
Contacted by Euronews, he defined that this emphasis on agriculture could possibly be induced by the questions requested by the European Parliament’s agriculture committee, which normally offers precedence to agricultural points.
“However, given his twin title as Commissioner for Agriculture and Food, we’d have anticipated extra deal with the meals sector whereas his solutions seem like farmer-centric, which is a missed alternative,” he mentioned, hoping that a little bit extra on this subject will come out in Hansen’s approval listening to scheduled for subsequent month.
This sturdy deal with agriculture may mirror current political tendencies. During European election campaigns, farmers’ protests have highlighted agricultural points, and von der Leyen’s European People’s Party (EPP), to which Hansen belongs, has positioned itself as a champion of farmers.
In Hansen’s 12-page response to MEPs, the meals business was talked about solely as soon as, and solely to underline its obligation to help farmers’ incomes.
“But it’s honest to say that many challenges dealing with farmers at this time are additionally actual for the foods and drinks business, which is basically made up of SMEs and micro-businesses,” Jacobs mentioned, calling for help measures for these companies, notably for concerning investments, financing and regulatory simplification to scale back power and working prices.
Finding a steadiness between farmers and retailers
A key difficulty for Hansen is farmers’ livelihoods, which he says is affected by “weaker bargaining energy and a scarcity of market transparency.”
In this regard, Hansen pledged to strengthen farmers’ bargaining energy to reduce the chance of them being pressured to promote under manufacturing prices.
This contains the potential revision of the Unfair Commercial Practices (UTP) Directive, adopted 5 years in the past however nonetheless largely unimplemented, to handle energy imbalances within the meals provide chain.
ANNOUNCEMENTIn response to Hansen’s feedback, the Eurocommerce retailer foyer warned in opposition to repolarising the meals coverage debate, calling as an alternative for a balanced illustration of your entire worth chain and a fact-based understanding of the way it works.
“We want a broader perspective on the elements that decide farmers’ earnings, because it can’t be restricted to laws on unfair buying and selling practices alone,” Eurocommerce director basic Christel Delberghe informed Euronews.
The legislative course of that led to the adoption of the primary Unfair Trading Practices (UTP) Directive was lengthy and controversial, and its upcoming assessment guarantees to be equally difficult, with Hansen already showing to be firmly on the facet of farmers.
However, Eurocommerce’s Delberghe highlighted the essential position that the retail and wholesale sectors play in sustaining a aggressive and resilient Europe and in driving ahead the transition in the direction of sustainability.
ANNOUNCEMENTA regulation on meals sustainability remains to be lacking
Stakeholders additionally expressed disappointment on the lack of dedication to a sustainable meals methods framework, a key aim of the earlier Farm to Fork technique, which stays unfinished.
“Abandoning the Sustainable Food Systems Act could be misguided, particularly for the reason that strategic dialogue has referred to as for coherence, uniformity and predictability within the agri-food sector,” mentioned BEUC’s Perrin.
Eurocommerce equally highlighted the significance of this framework, highlighting that it could present authorized readability, steadiness obligations throughout the availability chain and set up scientific requirements to help sustainability.
