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“The next EU Agriculture Commissioner must develop agricultural policy without being influenced by the Environment Commissioner”. This was stated by Ettore Prandini, President of Coldiretti, in a speech to the National Congress of his Association yesterday in Rome. Prandini listed the demands that the agricultural community has made to the new EU legislature following the re-election of Ursula von der Leyen as President of the European Commission. They range from an increase in CAP funding to a simplification of the bureaucracy. From origin labelling of food ingredients to a revision of packaging regulations. Above all, a firm fight against unfair competition and the introduction of the principle of reciprocity for all goods imported into the EU, requiring them to comply with the same standards as those grown and produced in Europe.
The list that Coldiretti has drawn up for Brussels is a combination of general principles and very practical instructions. The first wish is economic: “The new European Commission must increase the agricultural budget to prevent the collapse of European food production in favor of imports from third countries”, says President Prandini. Compared to China and the United States, “they guarantee more funding for their respective sectors”. The total value of the CAP is 386 billion euros by 2027, of which 35 billion euros go to Italy: the US farm bill is worth 1.4 trillion dollars over ten years, while China, with public support, currently produces more than 70% of the entire agricultural production of the European Union”.
The theme of resources is combined with that of bureaucratic simplification. Prandini says that the old European Commission had taken the first steps to ease the obligations of agricultural companies after the Brussels demonstrations last winter, but that this path “must now be reinforced”. And not only that: from now on, EU economic support must go only to those who are professional farmers: “For example, out of 1.2 billion in direct aid, 600 million must be redistributed to those who live exclusively on agricultural products”, explains Vincenzo Gesmundo, secretary general of an association that, he recalls, has 1.2 million members.
But for the new EU elected in June, Coldiretti demands above all a change in the strategy of relations with other countries: applying the principle of reciprocity and preventing unfair competition from non-European products that do not comply with the same safety and quality standards that EU producers must follow.
In order to ensure greater transparency of food products on the EU market, Coldiretti is pushing for the introduction of an obligation to state the country of origin on all food labels. Unlike the Nutriscore traffic light label, this must be firmly stopped.
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