Agriculture & fishery
Our fight for a sustainable environment and modern agricultural and fishery policies
Our natural environment forms the basis of many of our daily activities: the food we eat, the coffee we drink, the water we use, and the nature we enjoy. We are convinced that our ambition to take care of our natural environment by reducing pollution and restoring nature aligns with our ambition to create a sustainable food system. For us, these objectives do not compete against one another.
5.1 Protecting nature restoration law
Restoring nature by saving the nature restoration law
The Nature Restoration Law is the EU’s ground-breaking law to reverse habitat decline, restore ecosystems, and combat climate change. By revitalising wetlands, forests, and more, it is expected to safeguard biodiversity, provides essential services, mitigates global warming, and strengthens Europe’s resilience and food security.
5.2 Partnership between Europe and farmers
The new cap: a partnership between Europe and farmers
The Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) is a partnership between agriculture and society, between Europe and its farmers. Renew Europe has been at the forefront of the latest CAP reform, which paves the way for a sustainable future for European farmers.
The agri-food sector is one of the biggest economic sectors in the EU and is responsible for:
1. Food production: There are around 9.1 million farms in the EU and 22 million people working in the sector. They provide an impressive variety of abundant, affordable, safe and good quality products for 500 million European consumers.
2. Farmers keep the countryside alive: The farming and food sectors together provide nearly 40 million jobs in the EU while 25% of the EU population lives in rural areas. As farming and activities related to it make up most of the job opportunities in the rural areas, they are crucial for preventing depopulation and widening urban-rural divide. If there were no farms or farmers, our villages and market towns would be profoundly affected.
3. Environmentally sustainable farming: Our countryside has been shaped by farming over the centuries and provides the habitat for a great diversity of fauna and flora. Farmers have to produce food whilst simultaneously protecting nature and safeguarding biodiversity. Using natural resources prudently is essential for our food production and for our quality of life, today, tomorrow and for future generations.
5.3 Food stays untouched
We don’t mess with our food
The COVID-19 pandemic, extreme weather conditions and the Russian invasion of Ukraine have exacerbated the factors responsible for food insecurity threatening millions of people worldwide. This is why food security and the resilience of the global food system are high on our political agenda.
We want to future-proof our food system, by securing its resilience together with food security and affordability in the EU and worldwide. Global agricultural commodity prices have been constantly rising since mid-2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Russia’s military aggression against Ukraine has exacerbated the market situation, pushing commodity prices up even further. This has put food security under pressure worldwide, heavily weighing on consumers budgets.
5.4 Modern boats, greener fisheries
Modern boats for greener and more attractive fisheries
We support Europe’s fisheries sector and our fishing communities. Our main aims are to ensure. food security, support the sustainable development of the sector and protect ecosystems as well as stimulate the decarbonisation of the sector, in line with the EU’s Green deal.
The funds available in the European Maritime, Fisheries and Aquaculture Fund (EMFAF) will contribute to modernise Europe’s ageing fishing fleet. More energy efficient vessels using the latest green techniques are necessary to reach our climate goals, but it will also make the sector more attractive for a new generation of fishers.
As fish and other aquatic food are a protein source with a low carbon footprint - if produced or fished sustainably - investing in a sustainable and prosperous fishing sector is of great importance to EU citizens. Having sustainable as well as healthier and more locally produced food available will benefit us all.
5.5 Track & trace
Track & trace our fish to empower consumers
We need to reduce the carbon footprint of our food consumption and eating more seafood and other aquatic foods is one way of doing that. This means we need to know better where our fish and aquatic food come from. That is why we fought for stricter rules on the traceability of these products.
Today it is too difficult for consumers to find out where their fish, shellfish or other aquatic foods comes from. Did a product come from a country outside the EU, was it caught by European fishers or was it perhaps produced in EU Aquaculture farms? EU citizens demand greater transparency and information to enable them to make healthy and sustainable food choices.
5.6 Coffee without deforestation
No deforestation in your coffee
The environmental impact of coffee can leave a bitter taste in your mouth. Thankfully, new deforestation rules will change this! We made sure you can enjoy your daily morning coffee without contributing to cutting down trees.
These new rules on deforestation-free products aim at cutting down the EU’s impact on global deforestation and therefore curbing greenhouse gas emissions and biodiversity loss. In practice, the EU has imposed a ban on deforestation- related products and commodities in the EU. Renew Europe successfully pushed for a wider definition of forest degradation, an extension of the scope of the legislation.
This means that the law will apply in particular to everyday products such as cocoa, coffee, palm oil, soya, wood, cattle, as well as derived products such as leather, chocolate and furniture. No specific product is banned, but the EU is closing its doors to the products whose suppliers are not able to demonstrate that they do not come from deforested lands or had not led to forest degradation after 2020. Companies that do not respect the regulation will be fined.
Democracy & Freedom
Renew Europe is proud to be the foremost defender of democracy, human rights, and respect for the rule of law within the European Parliament
