Increasing global competition, climate change with increasingly visible effects every year, ever more regulations and an agri-food industry that is often unfairly squeezing its margins. European farmers have been under increasing pressure for years. They made this clear by demonstrating loudly in 2023 in many Member States and in Brussels when EU leaders met there.
To address their existential problems and demonstrate that Europe has heard them, Ursula von der Leyen launched a “strategic dialogue on the future of agriculture” at the beginning of the year, which brought together representatives of 29 stakeholders in the agri-food sector in over 100 meetings. From these discussions, which included organisations with often opposing visions (from Copa-Cogeca, which represents farmers, to Greenpeace), a vast report emerged, listing all the fronts on which action will be needed to reconcile production, the protection of nature, decent incomes for farmers, consumer information, etc.