Daily updates on whats new on the ARC website and in the CAP debate
The Nature Restoration Law (NRL) continues its perilous path towards enactment, surviving the first major hurdle at the Environment Committee in the European Parliament on the morning of today, Thursday 15th June. So what happened, and what’s next? […]
Good news! The Nature Restoration Law (NRL) won’t, can’t and couldn’t cause the abandonment of 10% of Europe’s perfectly good farmland. This is important to know in advance of the vote on the 15th in the European Parliament’s Environment Committee. If this committee doesn’t pass the compromise NRL text, its likely over. So if you are contacting MEPs on the ENVI Committee – or if indeed you are one of those 88 MEPs – rest assured. These is no land abandonment in the NRL. Explainer by Oliver Moore. […]
The Environment Committee’s compromise text on the Nature Restoration Law sees few significant changes to the main targets, including in the contentious area of rewetting organic soils. Other relevant restoration actions are however more restricted to Nature 2000 sites than in the Commission proposal. Oliver Moore reports. […]
The main groups in the Environmental Committee have reached an agreement text on the Nature Restoration Law late this evening: “This evening the ENVI shadow rapporteurs of the Nature Restoration Law arrived at a package deal, which will be brought to the vote in the ENVI committee on 15th June” a short joint statement reads. […]
The Nature Restoration Law is in a perilous place at present. Having been rejected by two relevant Committees in the European Parliament outright, all eyes are on the Committee leading on the file – the Environment Committee, or ENVI. Oliver Moore with a brief explainer of the current state of affairs. […]
MEPs from the Agri committee in the European Parliament have voted for complete rejection of the Nature Restoration Law (NRL). The vote was by a 2/3 majority – 30 for the rejection vs 16 against, with no abstentions. So what’s next? […]
A range of amendments to the Nature Restoration Law (NRL) have been tabled for Tuesday’s Agriculture and Rural Development Committee in the European Parliament. Reduced targets, increased exemptions and a reduced role for NGOs are among the standout amendments. […]
While the debate intensifies around pesticides and new genomic techniques (NGTs), the European Commission appears to be in a political battle on many fronts as to whether these topics are on or off its agenda for the Summer. […]
Inaugurating the 2023 programme of field visits, Adèle Pautrat, coordinator of the Seeds4all project, and Hannes Lorenzen, President of the ARC2020 association, travelled to Belgrade, Serbia, in February and met several members of the Balkan Seed Network: Gordana Djurić (Alica Foundation, Bosnia-Herzegovina), Kostas Koutis (Aegilops, Greece), Ivana Radović (Ecological movement Frame of Life, Serbia) and Lavdosh Ferruni (Organic Agriculture Association, Albania). […]
From re-enchanting pride for local crops and know-how to real world solutions to help relocate historical production sectors, Adèle explored from different angles how best to instil self-sufficiency and resilience in rural territories. Throughout the journey, one common thread emerged: the crucial role that agrobiodiversity plays in driving territorial transitions and rural revolutions. […]
In its inception impact assessment for the deregulation of GMOs, the Commission argues that plants produced through New Genomic Techniques would contribute to sustainability goals outlined in the European Green Deal’s Farm to Fork and Biodiversity Strategies. One of the main goals of the Farm to Fork Strategy is to reduce the use of pesticides by 50% by 2030. […]
We are told today that agriculture and rural areas are living through a pervasive digital transformation. But will digitalisation reverse the current productivism model or perpetuate it? At 72nd Annual Meeting of the Association for Regional Agricultural and Forestry Economics (ARAFE), Matteo Metta presented his insights on digital agriculture from the rural perspectives. The hybrid event took place last 23 October 2022 at the Ryukoku University (Kyoto, Japan) and touched upon key issues, global trends and local realities in agri, food, and rural transformations. […]
As the European Commission prepares for the launch of its proposal on the Sustainable Food Systems (SFS) Legislative Framework in late September, the EU Food Policy Coalition has published a joint report laying out clear policy recommendations for the SFS Law to ensure a meaningful transition to sustainable food systems across the European Union. Summary and report to download here. […]
This weekend, our sights are set on England. The Michael Dower Award for European Rural Resilience will be launched in honour of the late European Englishman, at an event dedicated to his life and work, in the Peak District National Park on Saturday April 22nd. […]
The European Commission’s legislative proposal for the deregulation of new GMOs – or new genomic techniques as they are also known – is to be delayed from June 7th 2023 until at least the latter half of that month. Mathieu Willard contextualises recent events surrounding the controversial proposal with an overview of the current GMO regulatory framework and the possible policy options hinted at in an impact assessment leaked by AGRA FACTS. […]
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