Celebrating the 60th anniversary of the signature of the Treaty of Rome

Speaking in Brussels, Copa President Martin Merrild “During these challenging times, we praise the achievements of the EU. We celebrate 60 years of European unity. Once wars were waged on our fields, and people were starving in our cities. But today on our land, we produce safe food, we feed our people and we export to the world, thanks to the Treaty of Rome and also the creation of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP). ”
 
“We have achieved this by working together. With strong policies like the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) and the EU’s trade policy, we have managed to ensure that consumers have a good supply of safe, secure, quality food supplies at affordable prices for 500 million consumers in the EU as well as for a growing world population”, Cogeca President Thomas Magnusson said. He also underlined the big contribution that cooperatives have made to this by enabling farmers to join together to market their produce and get a better return for it.
Mr Merrild said “Yet a united Europe must be more than legal words. A united Europe must bridge societal divides and bring people together. We experience a rural-urban divide, a globalization wound in the country side. Together in the EU, we must overcome this, and help bring growth beyond the urban areas.”
 
“As farmers, we contribute to society. We produce food, we are stewards of the land and we are partners dealing with climate change and its impact. We helped to build Europe’s Single Market for our goods, and we stand ready to assist in transforming Europe once again, harvesting the immense potential of the bioeconomy. We stand with the EU in these challenging times, and we rejoice that the EU stands with us now and in the future. We call for a more ambitious EU in the future and a stronger CAP ”, President Merrild concluded.