18th annual conference of EURAGRI
12 Mai 2004 - 13 Mai 2004
Germany
The annual conference took place at the Federal Agricultural Research Centre in Braunschweig, one of the seven research centres under the hospices of the Federal Ministry of Consumer Protec-tion, Food and Agriculture. Participants came from EU Member States, Bulgaria, Romania, Norway and Switzerland, from DG Research of the European Commission, FAO and other re-gional or European organisations. Discussions at this two-days conference concentrated primarily on the new demands and challenges arising from the CAP reform and from consumer expectations on food quality and safety along the food chain. State Secretary Müller highlighted in his opening speech the need to reflect about the role of agricultural research and its present state of organisation in the light of the new demands and challenges. Nowadays, hardly any European country can afford to tackle these new, trans-disciplinary and cross-boundary problems on their own, he stressed. This means, that the agricultural marketplace is getting increasingly a Euro-pean one. Therefore it is necessary to carefully consider the role national research policies in the agricultural and food sector can play in linking national and European research policies more effectively.
Professor Cunningham, Member of the European Group of Life Sciences, pin-pointed three mega-trends for agricultural policy and research: structural changes resulting from demographic shifts; the European enlargement to the East; and globalisation and trade. General consumer ditrust after a variety of food scares in recent years is another challenge, that has led to a loss of credibility in scientists which can be regained only by fulfilling consumer expectations on food safety, transparency and accountability as well as quality and variety.
Professor Dalton, Chief Scientific Advisor in the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs of the United Kingdom said that major drivers for the policy agenda are legislative and regulatory changes stemming from CAP, CFP and from international agreements like the WTO, the Kyoto protocol or the biodiversity convention, not to forget scientific and technical discoveries. That means, the overall scenario has become much more complex, with agriculture being only one aspect in this wider dimension. Member States are all confronted with more or less the same challenges, the only difference being how they approach them. A lot could be gained by sharing information and cooperating more closely. The question to be answered is, how can we get there?
According to Mrs. Nichterlein from the FAO Regional Office for Europe the crucial issue for the future of agricultural research in Europe, and in the developing countries, is to identify the role agriculture can play in the more comprehensive process of sustainable development in rural areas and how agricultural research can support this more extensive role. Only by meeting these challenges, she continued saying, can agricultural research meaningfully contribute to strengthening food security and the many other roles that agriculture can play in a modern society.
Dr. Patermann from DG Research stressed that agriculture and agricultural science in Europe are at a critical moment: the reform of the Common Agricultural Policy is responding to the challenges of enlargement and of the WTO. In addition, citizens are increasingly demanding safe food of superior quality. As a consequence there is hardly room for a protected niche of «traditional agricultural research», but there are many opportunities to combine different scientific fields to contribute to these challenges. He continued asking for an overall research strategy for Europe and reminded the audience on the objectives of the Lisbon process to build a European Research Area. The European Commission is supporting the European agricultural research institutions to adapt to this changing scenario in developing a common research agenda to underpin important community policies in areas such as the CAP, CFP or the new forestry policy. In order to do so, it is important to improve coordination and EURAGRI has an important role to play here.
Two papers described the situation in the new Member States. While the overall policy challenges are similar, the new Member States are still confronted with a number of transformation problems in their national agricultural research systems. Assistance is needed for quite some time to help improving the status of these systems in the next 5 to 10 years. But it was also clear that this adaptation process will also have repercussions on the EU15 countries. It was stressed that a stronger cooperation is of utmost importance if the construction of EU25 is to succeed.
The participants debated in small discussion groups the question whether the current agricultural research policy and the current research structure are capable of addressing the challenges men-tioned before. It was felt that the present agenda of agricultural research is too narrow and reactive. The complexity of the current challenges is driving agricultural research to broaden its focus, to open up to more basic research, and to anticipate changing needs. With regard to the research structures it was felt that the political drive for change is weak. Current political structures are insufficiently flexible to follow the rapid changes in the CAP. There is also an urgent need to reorient structures to respond to the wider client base and to funding sources. New instruments and drivers are needed to promote a closer link between agricultural research and other disci-plines to increase synergies. Special attention must be given to mechanisms for strengthening East-West partnerships to reduce disparities between the new and old member states. From the discussions it became obvious, that the agricultural research agenda has to be broadened.
In the following session, three examples were given of successful trans-boundary cooperations. ,The first developed out of science in the field of plant genomics research between France and Germany. Policy followed later and a bilateral programme GABI/Genoplant with joint funding developed. In the meantime this cooperation has been expanded and so far, 12 partners have joined this ERA-Net on Plant Genomics (ERA-PG). The network has already begun to exchange information between the participants to determine the current state of genomics research, its management, administration and the research priorities of each country. ,The Nordic Cooperation was initiated by a policy decision in 1962 (the Helsinki Treaty) to make better use of similarities in the region (Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, Sweden and the autonomous territories Faroe Islands, Greenland and Aland Islands). Cooperation in the field of agriculture and forestry comprises sustainable agriculture, sustainable forestry, genetic resources and biodiversity, food safety and rural development. In the area of forestry the participating countries agreed on a joint programme with distributed responsibilities in research and in the case of plant genetic resources the Nordic Gene Bank serves all Nordic countries. ,The International Centre for Advanced Mediterranean Agronomic Studies (CIHEAM), was founded under the aegis of the OECD and the European Council on May 21, 1962 as a result of an Agreement between the government of seven Southern European countries: Spain, France, Greece, Italy, Portugal, Turkey. The founding Agreement provides that the Centres objectives are to "provide, both economic and technical education and to promote the spirit of international co-operation between supervisors in the area of agriculture in the Mediterranean countries". In the meantime CIHEAM gradually opened up to other countries of the Mediterranean Basin. CI-HEAM has four Mediterranean Agronomic Institutes (Italy, Greece, France and Spain) and runs a joint programme of activities., ,Peter Keet from the Dutch Ministry of Agriculture presented a discussion paper (prepared by an Ad-hoc group) how a more effective cooperation at programme level could be developed during the coming year. At the end of this evolution process it is expected to have a structure in place for identifying important trans-boundary research questions apt for integrated approaches in programme planning and implementation. The envisaged process for building a European Research Area for Food, Agriculture, Nature, Rural Development and Environment was outlined to the audience. All participants were invited to contribute to the discussion and further development of this initiative. There was consensus about the possible added value forthcoming from an intensified cooperation in agricultural research across Europe. The participants welcomed the suggestion to put agricultural research on the agenda of the July agricultural council meeting under the Dutch presidency to give it more prominence and a wider political support. The importance for a high level platform was stressed, where research managers and funders in Europe can meet, to identify themes and commit national investments in common research activities. This was considered crucial for a more effective and efficient cross-border cooperation to happen.
For further information: http://europa.eu.int/comm/research/agriculture/index_en.html(öffnet in neuem Fenster)
Professor Cunningham, Member of the European Group of Life Sciences, pin-pointed three mega-trends for agricultural policy and research: structural changes resulting from demographic shifts; the European enlargement to the East; and globalisation and trade. General consumer ditrust after a variety of food scares in recent years is another challenge, that has led to a loss of credibility in scientists which can be regained only by fulfilling consumer expectations on food safety, transparency and accountability as well as quality and variety.
Professor Dalton, Chief Scientific Advisor in the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs of the United Kingdom said that major drivers for the policy agenda are legislative and regulatory changes stemming from CAP, CFP and from international agreements like the WTO, the Kyoto protocol or the biodiversity convention, not to forget scientific and technical discoveries. That means, the overall scenario has become much more complex, with agriculture being only one aspect in this wider dimension. Member States are all confronted with more or less the same challenges, the only difference being how they approach them. A lot could be gained by sharing information and cooperating more closely. The question to be answered is, how can we get there?
According to Mrs. Nichterlein from the FAO Regional Office for Europe the crucial issue for the future of agricultural research in Europe, and in the developing countries, is to identify the role agriculture can play in the more comprehensive process of sustainable development in rural areas and how agricultural research can support this more extensive role. Only by meeting these challenges, she continued saying, can agricultural research meaningfully contribute to strengthening food security and the many other roles that agriculture can play in a modern society.
Dr. Patermann from DG Research stressed that agriculture and agricultural science in Europe are at a critical moment: the reform of the Common Agricultural Policy is responding to the challenges of enlargement and of the WTO. In addition, citizens are increasingly demanding safe food of superior quality. As a consequence there is hardly room for a protected niche of «traditional agricultural research», but there are many opportunities to combine different scientific fields to contribute to these challenges. He continued asking for an overall research strategy for Europe and reminded the audience on the objectives of the Lisbon process to build a European Research Area. The European Commission is supporting the European agricultural research institutions to adapt to this changing scenario in developing a common research agenda to underpin important community policies in areas such as the CAP, CFP or the new forestry policy. In order to do so, it is important to improve coordination and EURAGRI has an important role to play here.
Two papers described the situation in the new Member States. While the overall policy challenges are similar, the new Member States are still confronted with a number of transformation problems in their national agricultural research systems. Assistance is needed for quite some time to help improving the status of these systems in the next 5 to 10 years. But it was also clear that this adaptation process will also have repercussions on the EU15 countries. It was stressed that a stronger cooperation is of utmost importance if the construction of EU25 is to succeed.
The participants debated in small discussion groups the question whether the current agricultural research policy and the current research structure are capable of addressing the challenges men-tioned before. It was felt that the present agenda of agricultural research is too narrow and reactive. The complexity of the current challenges is driving agricultural research to broaden its focus, to open up to more basic research, and to anticipate changing needs. With regard to the research structures it was felt that the political drive for change is weak. Current political structures are insufficiently flexible to follow the rapid changes in the CAP. There is also an urgent need to reorient structures to respond to the wider client base and to funding sources. New instruments and drivers are needed to promote a closer link between agricultural research and other disci-plines to increase synergies. Special attention must be given to mechanisms for strengthening East-West partnerships to reduce disparities between the new and old member states. From the discussions it became obvious, that the agricultural research agenda has to be broadened.
In the following session, three examples were given of successful trans-boundary cooperations. ,The first developed out of science in the field of plant genomics research between France and Germany. Policy followed later and a bilateral programme GABI/Genoplant with joint funding developed. In the meantime this cooperation has been expanded and so far, 12 partners have joined this ERA-Net on Plant Genomics (ERA-PG). The network has already begun to exchange information between the participants to determine the current state of genomics research, its management, administration and the research priorities of each country. ,The Nordic Cooperation was initiated by a policy decision in 1962 (the Helsinki Treaty) to make better use of similarities in the region (Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, Sweden and the autonomous territories Faroe Islands, Greenland and Aland Islands). Cooperation in the field of agriculture and forestry comprises sustainable agriculture, sustainable forestry, genetic resources and biodiversity, food safety and rural development. In the area of forestry the participating countries agreed on a joint programme with distributed responsibilities in research and in the case of plant genetic resources the Nordic Gene Bank serves all Nordic countries. ,The International Centre for Advanced Mediterranean Agronomic Studies (CIHEAM), was founded under the aegis of the OECD and the European Council on May 21, 1962 as a result of an Agreement between the government of seven Southern European countries: Spain, France, Greece, Italy, Portugal, Turkey. The founding Agreement provides that the Centres objectives are to "provide, both economic and technical education and to promote the spirit of international co-operation between supervisors in the area of agriculture in the Mediterranean countries". In the meantime CIHEAM gradually opened up to other countries of the Mediterranean Basin. CI-HEAM has four Mediterranean Agronomic Institutes (Italy, Greece, France and Spain) and runs a joint programme of activities., ,Peter Keet from the Dutch Ministry of Agriculture presented a discussion paper (prepared by an Ad-hoc group) how a more effective cooperation at programme level could be developed during the coming year. At the end of this evolution process it is expected to have a structure in place for identifying important trans-boundary research questions apt for integrated approaches in programme planning and implementation. The envisaged process for building a European Research Area for Food, Agriculture, Nature, Rural Development and Environment was outlined to the audience. All participants were invited to contribute to the discussion and further development of this initiative. There was consensus about the possible added value forthcoming from an intensified cooperation in agricultural research across Europe. The participants welcomed the suggestion to put agricultural research on the agenda of the July agricultural council meeting under the Dutch presidency to give it more prominence and a wider political support. The importance for a high level platform was stressed, where research managers and funders in Europe can meet, to identify themes and commit national investments in common research activities. This was considered crucial for a more effective and efficient cross-border cooperation to happen.
For further information: http://europa.eu.int/comm/research/agriculture/index_en.html(öffnet in neuem Fenster)