There are three months to go until the Spanish presidency of the European Union (July 1st – December 31st 2023). An important semester, as it will be the last to end before the next European elections, scheduled for May or June 2024. Speaking yesterday in Madrid to the regional councilors meeting in the Advisory Council for agricultural and fisheries policies, the Minister of Agriculture, fisheries and food, Luis Planas anticipated the action plan of the Spanish semester regarding this sector.

Between next July and December, seven Councils of Agriculture and Fisheries Ministers will be held, two of which will be of an informal nature which will take place in Vigo, in July (fisheries) and in Córdoba, in September (agriculture). In Cordoba, new technologies for the agricultural sector, capable of tackling climate change, will be discussed. The goal, reads the website of the Spanish ministry, is to make Iberian and European agriculture "more competitive", so that it "does not lose its position" at a global level. In Vigo, sustainable fishing will be discussed in particular, especially as regards the fishing fleet, with an emphasis above all on the digitization and decarbonisation of the sector.

Among the various priorities of the Spanish semester, Minister Planas indicated the possible reaching of an agreement between the Council and the European Parliament on the modification of the regulation of Protected Geographical Indications. One of the main objectives of the Spanish presidency will be to give impetus to the debate on new genomic techniques in plant production, in order to strengthen agriculture in the scenario of climate change, using less water and fewer plant protection products. Further items on the agenda: a proposal for a revision of the rules on animal welfare and on plant and forest reproductive material; the revision of the regulation of food information provided to the consumer, which ranges from the homogenization of the regulations in force on the indication of the origin of products, on nutritional labeling, or on the information to be provided on the labels of alcoholic beverages.

Minister Planas then expressed the Spanish government's support for the document on the opportunities of the bioeconomy, which will be approved by the next Council of Ministers of the European Union on 24 April. In essence, it will be a question of proposing "innovative solutions in the production of organic fertilizers, facilitating the reuse of waste from farms and the agri-food industry and the use of unconventional water sources in irrigation", reads the website of the ministry of Agriculture.

With reference to the state of implementation of the strategic plans of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), Planas finally explained that the application of the CAP will represent a "very ambitious change, since for the first time a very significant percentage of aid depends on voluntary decisions of farmers and implies a change in their practices”.