After the recent European elections, the CIA relaunches the nine-point Manifesto with the priorities necessary to guarantee the future and sustainability of the agricultural sector.
Value along the supply chain
Every agricultural product must be recognized as having the right value. For this reason, we need a Union Observatory on costs, prices and margins, in addition to the revision of the Directive on unfair practices and measures to encourage aggregation and supply chain relationships.
Development of rural areas
Making rural areas competitive means protecting territories that are indispensable for agriculture and against hydrogeological instability, as well as guaranteeing a future for the 30% of the EU population that lives there.
Soil protection
Quickly approve the proposal for a Directive on soil monitoring and resilience: a fundamental element for agricultural production and food security in the Union.
Water management
Define a common governance strategy for water resources, with a targeted plan for water storage, reduction, losses and reuse.
Common trading rules
The key word in trade agreements must be reciprocity, so as to protect Italian and European products and avoid unfair competition from third countries.
Adequate EU budget
The budget dedicated to the CAP cannot be revised downwards, but must be enhanced and made more efficient while also thinking about specific additional resources to address environmental issues.
Pac of the future
Design a more flexible Community Agricultural Policy to intervene immediately in crisis situations and more attentive to protecting production trends and agricultural income, including interventions for risk management and encouraging investments.
Innovation and training
Greater coordination at European Union level is needed between research bodies to facilitate the development of new technologies, while at the same time pushing for agricultural training to transfer knowledge and make solutions available to all.
Generational change
Support the entry and retention of young people in the sector, facilitating access to credit and land.
The manifesto was shared by Cia Cuneo. The provincial president, Claudio Conterno, says: “We need to put agriculture back at the centre, fully recognizing the sector as a strategic resource of the European Union. We ask for more attention for farmers, who produce healthy and safe food for all and are the first custodians of the territory. We need to decide the course for the sector, having common sense and vision for the future.”
Which Europe do you expect? “The one ready, immediately, to renew the timely and constructive discussion to give agricultural companies, even small mountain ones, adequate resources and policies to guarantee them a fair and dignified income. Without economic sustainability of the sector, there can be neither environmental nor social sustainability.”
In concrete terms? “We hope that the future European Commissioner for Agriculture will have an important political weight and will be able to build consensus on the hottest issues and encourage agreement between all member states”.
