Blog: Weekly Blog - Hoofdinhoud

I attended the opening ceremony of International Green Week on Friday, where I spoke about innovation and knowledge sharing, about the importance of agriculture to growth and jobs, and opening up new markets around the world.

This past week the European Parliament met for its plenary session in Strasbourg. While there I was glad to catch up with the Socialists and Democrats members of the Committee on Agriculture led by Paulo de Castro MEP and I also met MEP Marc Tarabella MEP on the margins. I had a constructive meeting with Younous Omarjee MEP, who hails from Reunion to discuss the agricultural situation on that island.

The week was filled to the brim with preparation for my trip to Berlin for International Green Week, arguably the largest global conference on agriculture and food, also known as the “Davos of agriculture”. I also took advantage of this trip to visit the Agricultural Committee of the Bundestag, the German Federal Parliament. I was welcomed by the Chair Gitta Connemann MdB. I had the valuable opportunity to hear from Members and take note of their input on EU agriculture policy. Active engagement with National Parliaments is a priority for me, not just as a former parliamentarian, but as a Member of the Juncker Commission.

Following this I attended the Green Week opening press conference, where I made an important announcement on the joint selling of olive oil, beef and veal livestock and arable crops - the draft Guidelines were published on Thursday for a public consultation of three months. The 2013 reform of the EU's Common Agricultural Policy brought in rules to strengthen producers' bargaining power vis-à-vis a concentrated downstream sector such as processors or retailers. Strong cooperation is essential, especially for smaller producers. So I invite all stakeholders, in particular the producers in the sectors concerned, to make use of this opportunity to see, and tell us, whether or not their needs are met. I also took the opportunity to announce an upcoming visit to the United States in February, in light of the ongoing TTIP negotiations, where I will meet with USTR Mike Froman as well as US Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack.

I attended the opening ceremony of International Green Week on Friday, where I spoke about innovation and knowledge sharing, about the importance of agriculture to growth and jobs, and opening up new markets around the world. I joined my colleague Commissioner Andriukaitis, Federal Minister Schmidt, Governing Mayor of Berlin Muller, as well as many other dignitaries on a tour of the enormous exhibition premises, sampling the best of EU high quality produce along the way. Towards the end of the tour we opened the excellent European Commission stand, entitled “from farm to fork”, which highlights the importance of safe and high quality food for Europeans in cities, towns and villages across the Union.

On Friday I met with the Moroccan Minister for Agriculture Aziz Akhanouch as the EU and Morocco jointly announced the finalising of the negotiations on the agreement of mutual protection of Geographical Indications. I see this agreement as being of great benefit to farmers and industries in both the EU and Morocco. It reinforces our partnership, aiming at promoting and protecting quality products. Cooperation in the field of geographical indications is part of our mutual commitment for a quality agriculture that preserves local products.

On Saturday I spoke at the Global Forum for Food and Agriculture - with more than 70 Ministers from all over the world in attendance. Of course, such a gathering provides ample opportunity for a number of Ministerial bilaterals, which I fitted in on the margins of the Forum. This is a great chance to meet so many agricultural decision makers all in one place.

Another busy week, where the focus once again has been on the high quality of EU agricultural produce, whether it’s Luebecker Marzipan or Nurnberger Bratwurst and all the other 3,200 high quality EU geographical indications in between!