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News

Interview with Paolo De Castro

01/06/2023 - Press release - Lire en français

Interview with Paolo De Castro, member of the European Parliament's Agriculture Committee
A wide-ranging review of topical issues in this interview by Agronegocios: geographical indications, consumer information regulations and front-of-pack labeling, health warnings, sustainable use of plant protection products, technology, innovation and sustainability in the agri-food sector, climate change and water policies, implementation of the new CAP and the national strategic plan.

The Agriculture Committee is currently immersed in the examination of the EC proposal on geographical indications, on which the Swedish presidency wants to reach an agreement so that the trialogues can take place during the next Spanish presidency. How are negotiations going at present? Do you think it will be possible to conclude this dossier in the second half of the year?
Discussions in the Agriculture Committee are well underway. In recent weeks, thanks to the teamwork of all the political groups, we have succeeded in formulating almost 50 compromise amendments, covering around 90% of the 1,000 proposed changes tabled by the AGRI, JURI and INTA committees to Agriculture Commissioner Wojciechowki's proposal.
The package of amendments voted on April 20 by the AGRI Committee will be validated by the Parliament's plenary session at the end of May, forming our negotiating mandate for trialogues with the Commission and Council during the Swedish six-month presidency. Our aim is to bring the text to the House for final approval of the reform under the Spanish presidency, at the end of the year.

With this in mind, you and other MEPs recently visited the EU Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO), based in Alicante. What impressions do you retain from this visit, given that the role of the EUIPO with regard to Geographical Indications (GI) is one of the stumbling blocks in the negotiations?
The visit to the EUIPO was essential in order to appreciate at close quarters the very high level of expertise that this agency can offer in the protection and promotion of geographical indications, particularly with regard to questions of a technical and administrative nature. However, as a representative of the Parliament, we believe that EUIPO's role should remain consultative, leaving the final political choices to the European Commission, based on the intrinsic competence in agricultural and rural development that DG AGRI can bring. This will be our starting position for the negotiations ahead, being aware of the need to find an ambitious compromise on this point with the Council too.

In the first part of the year, we are also awaiting the EC's proposal for new regulations on consumer information on foodstuffs, particularly on the important issue of front-of-pack labeling. You have repeatedly spoken out against the French Nutriscore label. What is the Agriculture Commission's current position on this system, and what do you expect from the Spanish Presidency, which is likely to manage the opening of this debate in the Council?

The debate on different food labeling options has been going on for some years now, and we confirm that traffic-light-inspired systems, and in particular the French Nutriscore, are not appropriate because they do not provide accurate information, but rather condition consumers at the time of purchase.
It is precisely for this reason that we launched the discussion on the Italian Nutrinform Battery system, which we believe explains in greater detail and transparency the real nutrient intake of each portion of food we eat. But the proposal to reform these systems is currently blocked and excluded from the Commission's work program for 2023. We therefore have concrete evidence to suggest that the issue will most likely be postponed until the next legislature, which begins in 2024.

Do you think the European Commission will include in its proposal the possibility of introducing health warnings on drinks such as wine, similar to those that exist on tobacco, and like it seems Ireland intends to apply them, without Brussels objecting?
We have tabled an urgent question on this subject, asking the European Commission what it intends to do to ensure that Ireland complies with the authorization procedures laid down by the World Trade Organization. We cannot accept the introduction at a national level of mandatory health labeling for alcoholic beverages, with claims such as "seriously harmful to health". Not only would this be a bad standard, it would also be an obstacle to international trade. Not to mention the fact that the EU Parliament has already taken a very clear stance against health claims, voted by a large majority in the resolution on the fight against cancer: we do believe that our citizens should be better informed, with more transparent labeling systems for alcoholic beverages, so that they can distinguish between "use" and "abuse" of alcohol. But the battle to defend the wine sector doesn't stop there: indeed, we are witnessing increasingly frequent initiatives that see some of Europe's finest food products, including and especially wines, at the center of international public health policies. In this sense, the more the wine sector remains in coalition with other sectors of the European agri-food industry – even from a strictly regulatory point of view – the more tools we will have to defend ourselves against the growing initiatives that seek to relegate wine to an increasingly marginal position, or even exclude it. That's why we're working to make wine the protagonist of the new regulation on geographical indications, despite the many requests for exclusion that could isolate it from the challenges of the future.

The regulation for the sustainable use of plant protection products is another of the major issues facing the EU this year, pending a study of its impact in economic terms and on food production. What does the EP Agriculture Committee have to say about this regulation? As an agronomist, do you think EU agriculture could afford such restrictive regulations?
This is also a crucial issue on which the European executive bodies must be consistent. We cannot ask our farmers, as part of the Green Deal and Farm-to-Table strategy, to halve pesticide use by 2030, without offering a valid alternative for crop protection. New sustainable biotechnologies, such as cisgenesis (genetic modification introduced into an organism by incorporating a gene from another organism) and genome editing, have been known and accessible to the international scientific community for decades, and need only be regulated.

"We confirm that systems inspired by traffic lights, and in particular the French Nutriscore, are not appropriate because they do not provide accurate information."
"We will only start work on the proposed regulation on the sustainable use of pesticides when a regulation on new genetic techniques is simultaneously proposed to industry players."
"The current reservoir system, both in Italy and throughout the Mediterranean basin, is not sufficient to guarantee water supply in severe drought conditions, due to lack of investment but also lack of maintenance of the facilities themselves."

However, the Commission seems to have wanted to "put the cart before the horse" by first proposing ambitious reduction targets, and only then proposing functional alternative instruments to achieve these targets. As the Agriculture Committee, we are working to reverse this approach, and will only start work on the proposed regulation on the sustainable use of pesticides when a regulation on New Genetic Techniques (NGT) is simultaneously proposed to industry players. Going right back to university days, our professors taught us the importance and value of genetic improvement: a thousand-year-old technique that enables us to produce and market new plant varieties that are more resistant to disease and water shortage, and benefit from low operating costs. Gene editing has only accelerated this process, which already exists in nature. The task now is to translate it into normative legislation.

The Agriculture Commission is committed to technology and innovation, for the future of a sustainable yet economically profitable agri-food sector. What measures do you think the European Commission should take in this respect?
We all agree that we want to farm in a way that has a lower environmental impact and is sustainable in terms of public health, possibly without synthetic chemicals. The problem, I repeat, however, is to know which productive inputs enable farmers to produce enough food, with high quality standards, while guaranteeing them an adequate income. In our view, through research and innovation, this is an equation that can be solved in order to achieve what the FAO has identified as "sustainable intensification".

Climate change is forcing agriculture to be much more efficient in its use of an already scarce resource like water, and even more so in countries that are already experiencing this serious problem, such as Italy and Spain. In your opinion, what are the hydrological policies that need to be promoted beyond national initiatives, and taken on within the framework of the European Union?
In a global context in which the world's population is growing geometrically, with the same arable land and with a climate altered by excessive polluting emissions, I can see only one way: we must strengthen our water supply capacity in recurring situations of rainfall shortages and consequent decreases in aquifer reserves. The current reservoir system, both in Italy and throughout the Mediterranean basin, is not sufficient to guarantee water supply in severe drought conditions, due to lack of investment but also lack of maintenance of the facilities themselves. The National Recovery and Resilience Plan (PNRR) and its funds represent a unique opportunity in this respect, and we hope that it will not be squandered for ideological or even bureaucratic reasons.

Internally, and as a privileged observer of your country's agricultural policy, what is your opinion on the implementation of the new CAP in Italy? Has the Italian National Strategic Plan been well accepted by the sector, or is it also being criticized, as in the case of Spain?
The new Common Agricultural Policy that came into force this year, and which will accompany us all, farmers and consumers alike, until 2027, guarantees virtually unchanged financial resources: in Italy, we're talking about 7.3 billion euros a year that will be used to practice a more selective, qualitative agriculture, oriented towards ecological transition and social sustainability. But let's not forget that the CAP, revised more than 60 years into its "career", is not set in stone and can be reshaped along the way. Its implementation at the national level, both in Italy and Spain, will in any case support the most virtuous farm operators: the days of subsidies rains are over."

Source: agronegocios.es

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