Monday June 8, an informal videoconference of the EU Council of Ministers for Agriculture and Fisheries will be held, where the Ministers from Member States will discuss agricultural aspects of the European Commission’s (COM) strategies “Farm to fork” and “Strategy of biological diversity”.
Kaspars Gerhards, the Minister for Agriculture: “The ambitious objectives, set up in strategic documents, planned by the European Commission, require the adequate funding, and in the area of agriculture, financial resources, available within the Common Agricultural Policy, will not be sufficient. Therefore, it is essential that all the Member States have access to adequate additional support instruments otherwise it will be very difficult to achieve the objectives set up by the European Commission.”
The strategy “Farm to fork” is targeted to a more wholesome and sustainable food system in the EU, providing EU inhabitants with healthy, reasonably priced and sustainable food, at the same time protecting the environment and conserving biological diversity, restricting climate changes and creating a fair economic return in the supply chain. The strategy of biological diversity offers a reform plan to solve the crisis of biological diversity, protecting and restoring nature. Each of the strategies has marked the objectives to be achieved by 2030.
The Ministry of Agriculture appreciates the COM intention to apply the EU environmental and quality standards to imported food and considers that this is an obligatory necessity otherwise third country agricultural and food producers will be in a more favorable position on the EU market than local EU producers.