Agriculture can play a fundamental role in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals set by the 2030 Agenda. However, environmental sustainability must always be combined with the economic sustainability of production processes, without which agricultural companies would not be able to operate at better. These are the issues at the center of the debate of the informal Council of Agriculture Ministers meeting today in Helsinki under the Finnish Presidency.
In this context, the proposed reform of the post-2020 Common Agricultural Policy was also analyzed and the need to provide for the necessary subsidiarity and flexibility was highlighted, because European agriculture is very different from region to region. It is also necessary to always keep in mind the objective of simplification, avoiding the complex overlapping of actions and measures with the three levels of commitment envisaged by the reform proposal: reinforced conditionality, eco-scheme, agro-environmental measures of the second pillar.
These are some of the issues raised this morning by Minister Teresa Bellanova during the Helsinki meeting.
"Tackling the current climate crisis together is fundamental - said the Minister - and Italy wants to be at the forefront with a model of agriculture that is sustainable at an economic, social and environmental level. Our soils must be protected and cared for, because they can be one of the fundamental keys to reverse the course. Operationally, there is no good recipe for all European agriculture because the measures to increase the organic matter content in soils are profoundly different from region to region. This is why we believe that each Member State must have the possibility, as part of its own Strategic Plan, to define a list that represents the best possible solution to increase the percentage of carbon in soils. We propose flexible and adaptable commitments to different territorial realities. We think, for example, of the important role of permanent pastures, of extensive farms that use pastures linked to traditional practices, good practices in orchards, sustainable forest management and the use of derived wood products.".
"If the future Strategic Plans of the CAP allow for these adaptations - concluded Bellanova - we will have laid more solid foundations to make agriculture more modern. With useful answers for agricultural businesses that must be aware of the importance of the challenges they face and also of their primary role. Finally, we must not forget that the containment of greenhouse gas emissions in agriculture is a global issue, not just a European one. For this reason the commercial policies of the Union will necessarily have to consider these aspects in trade agreements with third countries and the European Union will have to demand, in compliance with the principle of reciprocity, equivalent guarantees for imported products, in terms of environmental, qualitative and food safety".
On the sidelines of the meeting, Minister Bellanova met French colleague Didier Guillaume to whom he reiterated Italy's strong opposition to possible budget cuts on the CAP, the need to simplify the rules in favor of farmers and rebalance the budget for Italy at the in light of the penalties suffered by the current programming, the need to reinforce sectoral interventions in the first pillar and to safeguard the role and competences of the Regions, now penalized by the Commission proposal.
There was also a discussion on the labeling of food products, a subject on which Minister Bellanova reiterated the importance of transparency on the indication of the origin of all agricultural products.