COPA-COGECA

⚫️Bad streak continues for European agriculture: Conclusion of the 🇪🇺🇦🇺 Free Trade Agreement in Canberra raises multiple and strong concerns for European agriculture, which is clearly and once again the bargaining chip of the EU strategy to secure broader trade and political objectives. A vision that responds to the emergencies of the moment, but whose medium-term consequences will be unsustainable for many sensitive farming sectors. 🔴The significant concessions on highly sensitive agricultural sectors-particularly beef (30,600 t TRQ), sheep meat (25, 000 t TRQ – with only 27% frozen,) sugar (35,000 t TRQ) and rice (8,500 t TRQ) have long drawn strong opposition and concern from the farming community. ❌In a post-#Mercosur context, the cumulative impact of successive trade agreements makes these concessions unacceptable. Even for a traditionally more offensive sector like wine, the potential benefits of this agreement remain elusive, with Australian exporters likely to see more benefits due to the elimination of duties. ❗️The absence of a comprehensive approach to managing the cumulative impact of these agreements continues to raise fundamental questions about the coherence and sustainability of 🇪🇺 trade policy. In addition safeguards mechanisms proposed by the @EU_Commission remain more like communication tools to promote hardly acceptable agreements than truly effective mechanisms that can be activated in the event of a crisis. We now await the full details of the agreement, especially on the outcome of GI protection and TRQ management, to assess its precise implications and impact. 🔗Read full press release: copa-cogeca.eu/press-releases

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COPA-COGECA Communications Director, Jean-Baptiste Boucher took part in the @ENAJ_tweets Symposium at the European Committee of the Regions, addressing leaks, misinformation, and trust in agricultural communication 📰📲 Our message in the panel: the gap between the EU bubble and on-the-ground farm realities is widening. It is high time for journalists, policymakers, and stakeholders in Brussels to spend more time on farms, reconnect with the field, and help avoid urban bias.

Against the backdrop of the situation in the Middle East, the @EU_Commission convened the food chain actors for an extraordinary meeting of the Food Security Crisis Preparedness (EFSCM). Cogeca's 1st Vice-President @PolskaIzbaMleka highlighted the substantial consequences already felt on the ground by the farming community after nearly 4 weeks of conflict. This comes on top of an already difficult situation with substantial fertilisers price increases. While the situation is in constant evolution the consequences for the farming community are alarming looking particularly to: Fertilisers, Diesel and Energy 🇪🇺leaders last week called on the @EU_Commission to develop targeted temporary measures to address Energy price spikes📈 ⚠️Fertiliser availability and affordability must be treated with the same level of urgency, with immediate, medium and long term actions. With 2⃣ major conflicts affecting Europe’s neighborhood, there is a clear need for a strong, coordinated European response that safeguards food production, ensures food and energy security. Timely actions are essential to protect farmers, agri-cooperatives and ultimately consumers, especially the most vulnerable households⏱️

Representatives of @COPACOGECA have participated to the #ImplementationDialogue on Agricultural Farm Statistics with @Eurostat. 📊Simplifying data collection and reducing the administrative burden on farmers is crucial, especially in a time of rising costs and regulatory pressures. Providing sufficient safeguards for individual data protection is key🔐 The focus on practical solutions was appreciated and @COPACOGECA stand ready to contribute, ensuring that statistics serve both policy needs and farmers’ realities without adding unnecessary complexity. Let’s turn dialogue into action for a smarter approach to data.

🚨 EU–Australia deal adds pressure on EU beet sugar +35,000t duty-free quota for Australia adds to growing concessions. 📉 1.13m tonnes duty-free imports/year 📉 -40% prices in 2 years 📉 21 factories closed Read more 👉 bit.ly/4c3Il5K

👥Members of Copa and Cogeca met today to discuss the challenges surrounding EU enlargement and its implications for European farmers and agri-cooperatives, in the presence of Tassos Haniotis, @PetrusMarcus Ambassador of Montenegro to the EU, @MEPDanielBuda, @TAlisaEU, Peter Polajnar @eu_enlargement_, Jean-Christophe Debar from Pluriagri, Oleh Nivievskyi from Kyiv School of Economics, Vincent Cordonnier @EUAgri and EU representatives. One thing is certain: agriculture lies at the heart of these reflections, as it directly impacts food security and safety, economic resilience, the integrity of the single market, and the vitality of rural areas. It is also an area where integration needs to be carefully prepared and managed given the direct impact on farmers' livelihoods and the longer time that is necessary for the sector to adjust to structural change, comparing to other sectors of the economy.

👩‍🌾Copa and Cogeca took part in this morning Youth Dialogue on financing the next generation of farmers at the invitation of @EIB, @ficompass and @EUAgri. Discussions highlighted a clear priority: unlocking access to finance is key to generational renewal in EU agriculture 🌱 🪙From investment needs to bankability, stakeholders exchanged on concrete barriers and solutions, from land access to credit risk and tailored financial tools. 🗣️ Jan Dolezal, Copa Vice President, 🇨🇿 arable farmer: “For young people to enter farming, economic prospects must be credible. No one will choose to stay in this profession if there is no clear perspective of earning a decent living and remaining competitive.” 🗣️ @ViktoriaStlund, Vice Chair @COPACOGECA Women’s Committee, 🇸🇪 arable farmer & horse breeder: “Women and young farmers are ready to invest, lead and innovate, but financial systems must adapt to their realities.” 🗣️ Matei Titianu, Lapar President, 🇷🇴 arable farmer: “We don’t ask for advantages, we ask for equal chances to access finance.” 🟰Without economic viability of farmers and effective financing frameworks, young farmers’ ambitions cannot translate into reality.

🐖🐄 This morning, @COPACOGECA’s Pigmeat & Dairy Chairmanship met with Commissioner @CHansenEU to address urgent sector priorities: 🚢Market access: Support the opening up of key third-country markets to EU pork producers. 🧾Cost relief: Restore previous IED thresholds to simplify and ease production costs for farmers. 📈Dairy stability: Monitor closely the downward price trend and increasing production costs in the dairy sector➡️be ready to act if the situation deteriorates. 🔓Manure valorisation: Unlock new income opportunities through better manure use, including biogas, biomethane and organic fertilisers production, while removing regulatory barriers linked to the Nitrates Directive and permitting rules➡️ turning vulnerable hotspots into hotspots of opportunity.

EU Heads of State and Government gathered in Brussels to reaffirm the need to accelerate 🇪🇺competitiveness and simplification agenda, as well as to strengthen Europe’s energy strategic autonomy, in the context of ongoing geopolitical tensions. The military escalation in the Middle East is clearly contributing to growing global instability and it is having impacts on EU farming community looking to fertilisers, energy. With 2⃣ wars on Europe’s doorstep, wars that now affect the lives of all European citizens, there is a need for strong measures. For the EU farming sector, @COPACOGECA welcome the call from EU leaders for the Commission to present a toolbox of targeted temporary measures to address energy price spikes without delay📈 The availability and prices of fertiliser for our farmers and agri-cooperatives, which are also heavily dependent on energy costs, must be treated with the same urgency. 📌On 6 March, @COPACOGECA have presented an Action plan proposing a comprehensive set of immediate, medium- and long-term measures to provide relief and stabilise the market. These need to be immediately put in place. While agriculture is strongly impacted by energy prices, the @EU_Commission should also recognise it as part of the solution and a strategic pillar of Europe’s energy transition, given agriculture significant potential to produce local and renewable energy. Like other EU industries, agriculture has significant untapped potential, that is currently constrained by red tape and administrative burdens. This is why @COPACOGECA welcome the call from EU leaders for the Commission to advance omnibus packages and simplification initiatives further, starting with the streamlining of permitting procedures. ⌛️The time of bold action is now! We call on the Commission to propose concrete measures to support the sector.

🗳️Working Party on Hops chairmanship was elected last week. 👏Congratulations to Lehmair Erich (🇩🇪 Verband Deutscher Hopfenpflanzer e.V., Hopfenpflanzerverband Hallertau e.V.) for being elected as Chair and to Michal Kovarik ( 🇨🇿 Hops Growers Union of the Czech Republic) who was elected as Vice Chair! ➡️They both are continuing their long standing commitment for the sector inside this working party.

🌱 This week at the @Europarl_EN, we celebrated the opening of “The Future of Farming is Cooperative” exhibition, organised by @Raiffeisen_DRV, with traditional music and insightful discussions. Cogeca’s President @LennartN_LRF explored the installation, highlighting how cooperatives are the backbone of European agriculture: ensuring food security, driving innovation and empowering farmers through democracy, participation, and shared responsibility. This exhibition, hosted by MEP Christine Singer is showcasing to MEPs, all EP's workers and visitors how much 🇪🇺 cooperatives belonging to farmers play a role in the food they find on shelves and eat everyday💪

🔔Committee @EP_Agriculture and Rural Development just voted to adopt its draft INI Report on #Livestock: “How to secure a sustainable future for the EU livestock sector in light of the need to ensure food security, farmers’ resilience and the challenges posed by animal diseases?” The report highlights the strategic role of the livestock sector for 🇪🇺 food security, rural economies, and nutrition. @COPACOGECA welcome its adoption that comes at a crucial time, ahead of the highly anticipated EU Livestock Strategy, expected by the end of the second quarter of 2026. Rapporteur and shadow rapporteurs have worked together on a paper that reflects a balanced and evidence-based approach that recognises livestock farmers’ efforts in improving sustainability, animal welfare, and disease prevention, while preserving the sector’s competitiveness and economic viability.

As talks intensify on the possible conclusion of the EU–Australia trade agreement, serious concerns remain about the balance of the agriculture chapter. 📄 Reports indicate that expanded market access for sensitive agricultural products — including beef, sheep meat, and sugar — raises fundamental questions about the direction of the negotiations. ⚠️ Granting disproportionate concessions in these sectors risks undermining European farmers, distorting markets, and weakening the EU’s long-standing commitment to high production standards and rural sustainability. ✅ A truly balanced and credible agreement must protect the integrity and resilience of European agriculture, ensuring that farmers and agri-cooperatives do not bear a disproportionate share of the burden. Read our full reaction >>> copa-cogeca.eu/press-releases

🌾 "This platform gives us the space to be heard, share our experiences and strengthen the role of women farmers." Francesca Gironi, President of the Women's Committee @CopaCogeca Join the #WomenInFarming Platform💚 👉 link.europa.eu/fPkBGm