The division of responsibilities at EU Council level on proposals concerning the environment and the primary sector needs to be reviewed in order to strengthen the role of agriculture ministers. This is the request made in a letter sent by the agriculture ministers of 16 Member States to the Swedish rotating presidency of the Council of the European Union. The letter was also signed by the Italian minister Francesco Lollobrigida.

“We express our appreciation for the decision taken by the minister - underlines the president of Confagricoltura, Massimiliano Giansanti -. When proposals for regulations which may limit the Union's agricultural production potential are under discussion, the role of the Agricultural Council must be valorised”.

“At the negotiating tables in Brussels - adds Giansanti - proposals are arriving based on bans and limitations on the means of production, in the absence of valid technical and economic alternatives for farmers. In this way there is the risk of reducing European production capacity to the advantage of imports from third countries where the rules may be less stringent than those applied in the EU in terms of food safety and protection of natural resources”.

“In short, a zero-sum game in which everyone loses: the environment, consumers and agricultural businesses - concludes the president of Confagricoltura -. Research and technological innovations have the role of providing agricultural businesses with valid alternatives to continue producing in conditions of increasing environmental sustainability".