L'Europa può rendere competitiva l'agricoltura biologica?

euronews (in Italiano)

03/06/2025

L'Europa può rendere competitiva l'agricoltura biologica?

L'anno scorso gli agricoltori hanno protestato contro la burocrazia legata ai finanziamenti dell'UE e le loro manifestazioni hanno dato i loro frutti.

ALTRE INFORMAZIONI : http://it.euronews.com/2025/06/03/leuropa-puo-rendere-competitiva-lagricoltura-biologica

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00:00Musica

00:00Farmer's protests a year ago against bureaucracy attached to EU funding have yielded results.

00:20The European Commission has been simplifying farmer's environmental obligations,

00:25which in turn led to criticism by supporters of the European Green Deal.

00:30Meanwhile, farmers are preparing a new battlefront to avoid cuts in the Common Agricultural Policy

00:36in the next EU budget.

00:38The reform of European agriculture is at the heart of this EU decoded.

00:43The legislative simplification aims to save farmers 1.58 billion euros and member states

00:50210 million euros per year.

00:52To achieve that, the European Commission proposes easier payments for small farmers, including

00:57a raise of the annual lump sum to 2.500 euros, more flexible environmental controls, including

01:04for conservation of peatlands, wetlands and watercourses, easier mechanism to be reimbursed

01:10in case of natural disaster or animal disease, a single digital system to reduce paperwork.

01:16Farmers are pleased, but environmentalists say that measures will backfire.

01:22The latter argue that less environmental protection could lead to more climate change that could

01:27harm agriculture.

01:29Here's what some Europeans think about this challenge.

01:31I think the normative, if it's the question, has to be much more strict, and to encourage

01:38them, but on the other hand, to control the way they have to act and legal.

01:44But they have to have certain norms that allow the environment and the health of everyone.

01:51I think there's a lot of bureaucracy in Europe, so that's why the farmers have so many

01:59norms.

02:00If the farmers lose their ability to have income, they're going to stop producing, and then

02:05what's going to happen to us, the consumers?

02:07I think there's a lot of possibilities being put on them, rather than the actual culprits,

02:11which are massive corporations.

02:12On peut pas renoncer à l'agriculture en Europe.

02:15Il faut pas être dépendant des importations.

02:20With me is Gerardo Fortuna, one of Euronews' agriculture policy experts.

02:25What is the expected outcome of simplifying EU agriculture rulebook?

02:31The goal is to make farmers' life easier, basically.

02:35insist on their livelihoods and their well-being.

02:38And it's, of course, clearly in response to the major farmers' protests that we've

02:43seen last year in Brussels and across the rest of EU countries.

02:47So how does agriculture have to evolve in the European Union in order to meet its goals

02:53for climate and environmental protection within the Green Deal?

02:57I'm a bit pessimistic about it, because the agriculture and food part of the Green Deal,

03:03and the farm-to-fork strategy, has been put aside in this mandate.

03:07It's been replaced by this EU agriculture and food vision that is not meeting the same environmental concerns, let's say.

03:16There will be an attempt from EU lawmakers to try to meet the environmental targets

03:21through innovation and technology rather than just stricter regulation.

03:27The next battle for farmers will be the common agriculture policy revision within the new EU budget for 2028-2034.

03:37What are the farmers' demands regarding this fund?

03:40This time is a bit different, because they might lose the rural development.

03:44So it's the second pillar of the commercial policy, which includes environmental investments, but also support rural communities.

03:53And at the same time, they want these payments to be indexed to inflation, and they also want a stronger protection when it comes to trade deals.

04:03Thank you, Gerardo. Let's see now some more data on this agriculture reform.

04:08In the EU budget for 2021-2027, the cap received 386.6 billion euros, about one-third of the total budget.

04:18For the 2028-2034 budget, the Commission advocates merging the cap with the cohesion fund,

04:25the latter used for regional development.

04:28The new financial instrument, called National and Regional Investment Partnerships, may be presented in July.

04:34The EU Parliament opposes this idea and, in a recent resolution, demanded that the fund remain autonomous

04:42and receive even more funds in the next budget.

04:45Let's hear the positions of two entities with opposing views on this subject,

04:50the Environmental Organization Client Earth, and the Farmers' Association Copacorceca.

04:59So in these proposals, clearly the environmental objectives are there.

05:05The Commission intervenes on some elements in which the first two years of implementation of the CAP,

05:11which proved to be unworkable for our farmers.

05:15What we absolutely need to understand is that farming relies on nature.

05:21So when the EU, since actually several years, is postponing or stripping off environmental rules,

05:32it also jeopardizes the future of farming, of farmers' jobs, of farmers' health,

05:40because they are impacted by some practices as well.

05:47If you think that the average farm size is 17 hectares,

05:53so you have the small, the medium, the bigger.

05:56But the key element is the diversity.

05:58So we are able to maintain this diversity, which allows to contribute to food security in Europe,

06:05but also reduce food insecurity outside Europe.

06:10From my point of view, the competitivity of the EU or its food sovereignty is not guaranteed in the long term,

06:17because we do not have a resilience in front of natural harm that is being caused,

06:24notably by farming practices, intensive practices, but that farmers are also victims of.

06:31It is not addressing the causes that put farmers in these situations,

06:36which is climate change and the degradation of the environment,

06:41the loss of pollinators, and so on and so forth.

06:44Europe needs to invest in agriculture, and with a strong budget increase to inflation.

06:54We call to maintain a common policy, able to ensure single market,

07:00invest to do the transition that society wants, and actually support a strategic sector as agriculture.

07:09I think that we need to invest in agriculture, so we need money for the agriculture sector,

07:17but we need this money to not constitute harmful subsidies.

07:21Currently, only 20% of the beneficiaries of the cap receive 80% of the subsidies.

07:29This is enormous.

07:31The long and sometimes violent wave of protests by farmers ahead of the 2024 European elections

07:37has changed the discourse on the Green Deal.

07:40The majority in the European Parliament is now calling for more support for agriculture

07:45and less ambitions for the ecological transition.

07:48The negotiations on the next EU budget will test how deep the bloc's agricultural reform will be.

07:54More the comeback of the Chinese refugee reform will be.

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