The agricultural sector has welcomed the proposal by Luxembourg’s Christophe Hansen, who is well-versed in agriculture and how Brussels works, to lead the EU’s agricultural policy, and with relief that the Minister for Ecological Transition, Teresa Ribera, is not going to have powers over agriculture in the future European Commission.
Asaja draws a positive assessment of Ursula von der Leyen’s proposal to appoint Christophe Hansen as the new Minister of Agriculture and Food. “It’s linked to agriculture because his family has been involved in this activity, he knows well how the Brussels bureaucratic machine works as a former European parliamentarian and has participated in important committees such as international trade and the environment”, explains José Maria Castilla, director of the Permanent Representative office of the agricultural organisation to the EU. Download the latest issue of elEconomistaAgro for free.
At the same time, Asaja does not hide his satisfaction that the Vice President and Minister of Ecological Transition, Teresa Ribera, will not have powers that affect agriculture. “Hansen will report directly to the future Vice-President and Commissioner for Cohesion, the Italian Raffaelle Fitto, as Ursula Von der Leyen clearly indicated in the letter she sent to Hansen,” explains Castilla.
For the representative of Asaja, “it is very important that the President of the European Commission has understood that “We cannot make the same mistake by appointing a Timmermans 2.0”.
In the same sense, the national president of Asaja, Pedro Barato, said that the new composition of the community executive is positive, in which up to 11 commissioners will have tasks related to the primary sector. Barato, who sent a letter to Von der Layen so that he does not have powers in Agriculture, assured that he was relieved by the fact that the new vice president is not part of it of the European Commission and responsible for competition, the Spaniard Teresa Ribera, who never received it.
Among the challenges facing the future Commissioner, who still needs to receive approval from the European Parliament, is “the implementation of strategic dialogue to make these good deeds a reality. Secondly, drought, because now is the time for the EU to give a boost to water storage and irrigation modernisation and the third is consistency so that whatever is approved in Europe is respected by third countries, and if it is not possible because of international regulations, that the accelerator is lifted and does not subject us to another regulatory tsunami.
The Union of Farmers’ Unions expects Hansen to work to support competitive European agriculture and livestock farming which measures the risk linked to its strategic role of imposing the most radical ecological discourse in agricultural policy. The agricultural organisation congratulates the so far European People’s Party MEP and asks him to promote European agriculture “with the change of direction and courageous measures” that European farmers and breeders have demanded on the roads with their tractors to strengthen the negotiating position of producers in the chain, eliminate bureaucratic obstacles and protect the European production model from unfair foreign competition.
Mirror clauses
The organisation hopes for significant reforms in the Community regulation of the sector to combat abusive practices and guarantee fair remuneration to farmers and breeders for their work and the public goods they provide; a “real” simplification of the CAP which, moreover, focuses on professionals in the sector and that the new Commissioner manoeuvres to implement the mirror clauses of the EU’s trade policy and that no progress is made on treaties or agreements without the necessary impact studies.
He asks Teresa Ribera, proposed as executive vice-president for a just transition, to “leaving aside the ideological burden” which he carried out during his mandate in the Ecological Transition by leading a “belligerent policy” against agriculture
