It will serve as a follow-up to the broad consultation on the challenges faced by European agriculture, which took place in July 2010 ( IP/10/958), on the initiative of Dacian Cioloş, European Commissioner for Agriculture and Rural Development. The conference will focus on food security, the sustainable management of natural resources, mitigation and adaptation to climate change, and the balanced territorial development of European agriculture and rural areas.
Ahead of the event, Dacian Cioloş, the Commissioner for Agriculture and Rural development stated: "The decisions that will be made in the coming months will impact on our food security, the use of our natural resources and the development of our rural economies for years. It is fundamental that civil society should remain mobilized and fully involved in this process. That is the meaning of this new conference. Because the CAP's future concerns us all. It is about the capacity of our generation to own a policy, which for 50 years has enabled Europe to reach its agricultural potential."
The conference will be opened by Commissioner Dacian Cioloş, Sofoclis Aletraris, Minister for Agriculture, Natural Resources and Environment of the Republic of Cyprus, President in office of the Council and Czeslaw Sioekerski, Vice-Chairman of the European Parliament's Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development. Top officials of the AGRI Directorate General, farmers and food industry organisations, research institutes, think tanks active in environment and agriculture, and international organisation (OECD, Food and Agriculture Organization) will intervene in the plenary sessions and workshops. Participation in the conference is on invitation only, however, the proceedings will be webstreamed in all twenty two official EU languages for the plenary sessions and in English, French, German, Italian, Spanish, and Polish for the workshops.
For more information on the conference and the link to webstreaming - see: http://ec.europa.eu/agriculture/events/cap-conference-2012_en.htm
