Letter from Brussels - March 2025

He has appointed his 27-person European Board on Agriculture and Food (EBAF), which includes a representative each from COPA and COGECA, the European umbrella body of which ICOS and the Irish Farmers’ Association (IFA) are members. And, he has published a 28-page Vision for the Future of Agriculture document which ‘aims to create a fair and competitive food system that provides affordable and sustainable food for everyone’.

It is a follow on from the Strategic Dialogue set up 12 months ago by EU president, Ursula von der Leyen, to mend fences with farmers who protested across Europe – angry with the unworkable legislative proposals that the Commission was pushing on farmers, but which were totally unworkable. It was a concession by the EU Commission that the authoritarian approach spearheaded by former EU Commissioner, Franz Timmermans (since returned to the Netherlands to head the Green Party) was over the top. 

The EBAF will be chaired by Commissioner Hansen and among its aims includes providing high-level advice to the Commission on strategic policy developments for the Vision for the Future of Agriculture, published recently. This much anticipated document does what it says on the tin; it sets out the Commission’s vision for the agri-food sector during the course of this mandate and beyond. Cynics might say it’s just window dressing by the Commission to keep farmers off the streets of Brussels. But the more pragmatic reaction is that at least the Commission recognises the important societal role that farmers and co-operatives play in the EU. Farmers are recognised as entrepreneurs and innovators who play a crucial role in addressing climate challenges, protecting the environment, supporting the bioeconomy, and contributing to society as a whole. The vision document also identifies the sector’s demographic and economic fragilities, bringing the issues of farm income, competitiveness, innovation, cooperation and generational renewal back to the fore. In fact, the Commission seems serious about finding ways to make farming more attractive to young farmers. The age profile of farmers is not just an Irish problem, it is EU-wide with 12 per cent of farmers under 40 years’ old. 

One hundred days into his new job, Hansen is saying all the right things and the fact that he will be the chair of the EBAF is a positive sign of walking the walk. But his biggest challenge will be protecting and improving the Common Agricultural Policy and its financing as part of the much-anticipated multiannual financial framework.