Rimini – “Europe is at a crossroads: it must choose whether to continue investing in the central importance of agriculture and food security, or to marginalise a sector that is absolutely strategic – not only for food production, but also for the environment and the sustainability of rural areas, as agriculture has always been,” said Cristiano Fini, national president of CIA-Agricoltori Italiani, at Ecomondo, which opened today in Rimini.
He added: “We need to invest more resources in the CAP”, the EU’s Common Agricultural Policy, “for the next programming period”. In particular, “the CAP, most importantly, must be excluded from the single fund because it would create unfair competition and intense rivalry within the European Union itself, which runs counter to Europe’s founding principles.”
According to Fini, “we need to invest more in area-based measures, but we must also seek to allocate greater resources to investment in agriculture and, above all, to research.” Finally, “we need a more competitive agricultural sector – more competitive within the European Union itself, but above all in relation to the outside world. To achieve this, we do indeed need more resources, but also greater autonomy for the future Common Agricultural Policy,” Fini concluded.
English version by the Translation Service of Withub
