Dear EU, please make it roll again (but in the right direction)! 

Long-awaited, feared, or hoped for – the European elections have finally arrived! In the coming decisive weeks, we will know in what direction our European Union will move in the next five years.  

But before it will get heated here in Brussels (again), it is good to take a step back and reflect upon the last years and especially the last months that were, let’s say it this way, eventful.  

Because it must be said how it is: when it comes to making our food systems more sustainable and fairer, these last five years have been a big disappointment. Starting ambitious with the European “Farm to Fork” strategy in spring 2020 – the EU Commission’s vision for a “fair, healthy and environmentally-friendly food system” – the debate became increasingly polarized (not to say toxic) and led by absurd fake news.  

Translating the “Farm to Fork” strategy into binding law therefore turned out to be even more challenging than expected, as this overview sadly shows:  

Source: Euronews 

 In other words: What Europe has experienced over the past year has been an outrageous ‘green roll-back’ that is recklessly playing with our future. 

But let’s have a closer look at what this has been looking like in practise! 

 Sustainable Food Systems Law 

With its long-awaited proposal on sustainable food systems (SFS), the European Commission wanted to systematically shift food production and consumption patterns for good, something that could be seen as the core of the Farm to Fork promise. For example, the SFS should have included “measures like mandatory requirements for sustainable public procurement of food or voluntary harmonised sustainability labelling systems”. But after years of work by not only the EU Commission but hundreds of civil society organisations, the proposal was not even published anymore and put back into the drawer.  

Sustainable Use of Pesticides Regulation:

Following up to the Farm To Fork-Strategy, the Sustainable Use of Pesticides Regulation (SUR) proposed to reduce the use of pesticides by 50% by 2030 – a groundbreaking step. But after the EU Parliament had already watered down the proposal in November 2023, it eventually voted against the whole proposal and even decided to not work on the file anymore. At the same time, the Ministers of the EU Member States could also not reach an agreement, despite of efforts by the Spanish Presidency who presided the negotiations. EU Commission President von der Leyen then withdrew the proposal in February 2024, abandoning any target to reduce pesticides completely.
 

EU Nature Restoration Law:  

Not our climate is danger, humanity is. The same applies to what keeps us alive every single day: our nature. But if it is our rivers, wetlands, butterflies and farmland birds, or our pollinating insects – our nature is in rapid decline. That is why the EU Commission proposed a law to restore “at least 20% of the EU’s land and sea areas by 2030, and ultimately all ecosystems in need of restoration by 2050.” 

After a tough fight by progressive Members of the EU Parliament (MEPs), civil society organisations, as well as the climate movement, the EU Nature Restoration Law (NRL) was eventually passed in the EU Parliament in spring 2024. Still, conservative EPP’s boss Manfred Weber heavily divided his group by demanding everyone to vote against the law. Earlier, he even exchanged MEPs for critical votes in the Environment Committee if they indicated to be in favour of the law. Weakened, but still alive, the law was passed – only to now be in a deadlock in the Council of Ministers. Countries such as Hungary and the Netherlands block the law, and no solution is in sight as their refusal seems to be ideological and not driven by concrete wishes for amendments. 

Ahead of the Council of Environment Ministers on June 17th, Ireland has coordinated an open letter signed by 11 countries and Ministers, demanding an approval of the NRL: The states that have signed up are Germany, France, Spain, Denmark, Luxembourg, the Czech Republic, Lithuania, Slovenia, Estonia and Cyprus, as well as Ireland. 

Common Agricultural Policy (CAP): 

Imagine, you had 386.6 billion euros in your pocket. Imagine, you could use that money to protect our climate, our biodiversity, and ensure that our farmers receive a fair remuneration. But the truth is that so far, the CAP – accounting for a third of the EU’s budget – has been systematically failing on all these dimensions.  

As a matter of fact, also the last CAP reform in 2020 was a big disappointment. If there was some progress, it was – pushed for by more than 3600 scientists – the Good Agricultural and Environmental Conditions (GAECs), in other words minimum standards to comply with to receive CAP funding.  

But then farmers took to the streets all over Europe in the beginning of 2024. While they were united in rightfully demanding fair incomes for their hard work, there remained a huge dispute relating to the environmental ambition of the CAP. For example, the international peasants movement Via Campesina underlined “that certain CAP conditionality rules are not adapted to the realities of farmers, requires complex and heavy bureaucracy indeed, and is insufficient to effectively support European farmers in a transition towards more sustainable agricultural models and towards agroecology. Yet this transition is essential in the face of the seriousness of the climate and biodiversity crises. It requires a strong political commitment from all European institutions to secure the income of all European farmers through fair prices and a better distribution of public aid.”  

But while Via Campesina had to wait months to even get a meeting with EU Commission President von der Leyen, leading policy makers were happy to listen to the controversial and heavily criticised association COPA COGECA and largely fulfil their wish-list of rolling back green rules. In turn, 140 NGOs (including Feedback EU) condemned what they called an “opportunistic” rollback of EU green policies to gain political support ahead of the upcoming European Parliament elections. 

What this shows? Our votes matter. YOUR VOTE MATTERS.  

The future of the EU’s future food policies lays in your hand!