Latest from EU Member States Archives - Agricultural and Rural Convention

From Local Roots to Global Vision: ARC2020 President Welcomes 2025

January 13, 2025 Hannes Lorenzen

From rural resilience to democratic revival, ARC2025 charts a transformative path for Europe. At first glance it may sound just like a wishful dream. But in fact it is an invitation to take action. Europe will be challenged this year by those who do not want to see it united and strong. But old nationalism and new geopolitical confrontations from East and West will also stimulate our civic courage. We see so many pioneering local initiatives leading the way across Europe setting up new farming and food systems: Farmers, local businesses and leaders of change, including researchers and forward-thinking politicians. Have a dream! It helps against sleepwalking into a nightmare. Taking action with others will make the dream, however big, a reality! […]

Letter From The Farm | The West of Ireland Never ‘Dewilded’

December 20, 2024 Martino Newcombe

Martino Newcombe runs a small farm in Co. Galway in the west of Ireland. Biodiversity is a central focus of his work. He practices conservation grazing on marshy terrain with Kerry cattle, a hardy ancient Irish dairy breed. In his stewardship of the land he is careful to heed the inherent understanding of deep ecology passed down from previous generations. In this first letter from his farm, Martino explains that you don’t have to be a cow to tell milk from cream. […]

BTV’s Cost: A Farmer Caught Between the Virus and the System

November 27, 2024 Marie Halicki

Marie Halicki, a newly established farmer in the French Alps shares with ARC2020 her fight against the BTV in 2024. […]

Behind the Danish Green Tripartite – Democracy, Smallholders and the Rights of Rural People

November 27, 2024 ARC

Ole Kjaerulff Davidsen of Frie bonder – Levende Land argues that The Green Tripartite Agreement in Denmark represents a worrying step backwards for democracy and human rights, excluding small farmers and rural organisations from decisions that deeply impact their lives. In so doing, it violates the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Peasants. Immediate action is needed to demand genuine democratic involvement and prioritise sustainable farming practices and rural rights that benefit people, nature, and the planet. […]

The Green Tripartite Agreement Locks in Industrial Ag and Biotech Solutionism

November 26, 2024 ARC

The Danish Green Tripartite could lock in the existing industrial farming system, based on the promises of questionable (bio)technologies. Denmark’s farming system needs a structural transformation and the use of GMOs should be tightly regulated to prevent further ecological damage. As it stands, this Agreement will do nothing to transform the farming sector in Denmark to a truly sustainable model. By June Rebekka Bresson (Noah, Denmark) and Franziska Achterberg (SOS, Germany). […]

Czech Republic | Fifty Years To Pay For A Farm

November 25, 2024 Terezie Daňková

A rural European gathering is a special moment. A time for those working on the ground in different territories and regions to compare notes on common challenges at local level, and reflect on European solutions. Access to land is increasingly a barrier for aspiring farmers across Europe, even as an ageing generation of farmers often fails to find a successor. At our European gathering in Plessé in 2022, Czech farmer Terezie Daňková realised how pervasive this issue is in other EU member states. […]

Weaving Common Ground – European Triangle for Rural Action

November 25, 2024 ARC

On 28 November – 1 December, in the rural village of Grzybów, Poland, ARC2020 is co-organising a European gathering of sustainable rural initiatives to take stock of a new political situation of Europe and to look into possibilities of cooperation: “Weaving Common Ground” between rural and urban people. In collaboration with our local hosts, the Ecological Folk High School and Ziarno association, the gathering will conclude a three-year cooperation of people in rural France, Germany and Poland. […]

Political Deal reached on Denmark’s Green Tripartite – What’s in it and what’s not?

November 19, 2024 Asger Mindegaard

After a long silence saturated with rumours and speculations, a broad majority Monday presented a political deal on implementing the informal green tripartite agreement (IGTA) from June. The deal sees stronger reduction targets for Nitrogen pollution than were initially proposed, while maintaining the climate tax and land use changes proposed by earlier agreements. These latter taxes and changes have been criticised as far too little compared the the scale of the challenge by opponents, who also rail against the voluntary nature of the targets and reliance of future technologies and future political will. A significant if still controversial day for Denmark. Asger Mindegaard unpacks the preliminary details for ARC. […]

France | Local Authorities Can Lead on Sustainable Food

November 18, 2024 ARC

France’s territorial food programmes are an exciting example of what can happen when local communities have a say in their food systems. An open letter signed by a collective of more than 120 French mayors and local councillors of all political stripes, 19 organisations and 7 scientists, and published on Friday in Le Monde, calls for a systemic vision and state support to local authorities who are working to advance the agroecological transition and transform local food systems. […]

European Days of Action – Mobilizing for a Just Transition of our Food Systems

November 15, 2024 ARC

October has come to a close, and with it, another year of European Days of Action! With 64 events in 25 countries, we’ve raised our collective voice to highlight some critical EU negotiations next year: the EU budget, also known as the Multiannual Financial Framework and the upcoming Common Agricultural Policy. Mia Mancini and Pauline Naterstad tell us more. […]

The Danish Green Tripartite Agreement Ignores a Necessary Transformation of EU Farming

November 14, 2024 Sybille Kyed

Sybille Kyed, Policy director of Organic Denmark says that the Green Tripartite Agreement sets agri-food in that country onto the wrong track. It sidelines organic farming, ignores biodiversity and soil considerations on the majority of Denmark’s land, and in so doing inadvertently solidifies a questionable use of crops and land: organic can feed more people as the rules for organic farming mean extravagant amounts of crops aren’t grown to feed indoor animals. While ambivalent on technology, Kyed is concerned the agreement directly supports technology irresponsibly. Finally, she proposes another approach, one that integrates CO2e into CAP’s GAECs and eco-scheme system. […]

Deep Dive into The Green Tripartite – what’s in, what’s not and the Tricky Issue of Implementation.

November 12, 2024 Rasmus Blædel Larsen

This longer piece by Rasmus Blædel Larsen is a deep dive into the substance of the initial Green Tripartite Agreement text, as well as into some of the earlier critics of aspects of the agreement. In particular the contentious role of trees, the ambition of the targets, impact on biodiversity and finally actual implementation. Municipalities signed up to this as partners, and have a big role in delivery – perhaps one of the most important roles. But do they have the capacity to follow through? […]

Denmark’s Green Tripartite – Politics Plays its Role

November 10, 2024 Asger Mindegaard

In this piece, Asger Mindegaard (former Green Advisor in the European Parliament) brings us up to speed with the state of play for implementation of the Green Tripartite Agreement. After much fanfare back in June, pressure is mounting from many sides. The tricky issue of Nitrogen plays a role – alongside political parties and stakeholders of many hues. […]

Stakeholder Collaboration as the Cornerstone of the Green Transition The Danish Model

November 7, 2024 Niels Peter Nørring

Here, Niels Peter Nørring Director of Climate and EU Policy at the Danish Agriculture and Food Council (DAFC) explains what’s in the Green Tripartite Agreement (GTA), which DAFC signed up to on June 25th, with a range of other stakeholders from Danish society. He introduces the Danish tradition of Tripartite agreements, the GTA’s main elements, including its livestock tax and funding, and assesses its applicability to the EU more widely. […]

Paving the Way for Agriculture Emission Reductions – the Danish case

November 7, 2024 Emil Fraas

Kicking off our series on the Danish agriculture in general, and the Green Tripartite Agreement in particular, here Emil Fraas of CONCITO introduces the broad contours of the Green Tripartite Agreement (GTA). As well as an introductory outline to the agreement, his focus is on the background that led to it, funding to support it, the role Nitrogen plays in the agreement, how integrated or otherwise the GTA is to the Common agricultural policy (CAP) and other enabling circumstances. Frass sees positives in the GTA, while also seeing merit in more ambition on climate, biodiversity and diet. […]