Food crisis: enough assessments, immediate action is needed.

As the international crisis in the Middle East continues to produce concrete and growing effects on agricultural markets, input costs, and food prices, Eat Europe and Farm Europe observe that the European Union still appears trapped in a phase of analysis and discussion that risks being not only insufficient, but harmful.

“At a time when agricultural businesses and the entire agri-food supply chain are facing rising costs and increasing uncertainty, continuing to postpone operational decisions means worsening the situation,” commented Luigi Scordamaglia, President of Eat Europe, after the latest meetings of European food crisis response mechanisms that seem to be yielding little progress. “This is no longer the time for assessments. The crisis is already here.”

Even the highest European economic authorities are pointing to the seriousness of the moment: the effects of the current shock are set to unfold progressively but deeply, with damage already accumulated that cannot be recovered in the short term. Ignoring or underestimating these signals would be a strategic mistake.

“The European Union must change its approach: not merely observe and analyse, but act with speed, vision, and appropriate tools. Immediate and structural measures are needed,” said Yves Madre, President of Farm Europe. “It is essential to activate contingency measures right away to support agricultural and agri-food businesses affected by rising costs and market tensions, and immediately act on fertilizers’ prices through excluding them from the application of the ETS, and by consequence from CBAM and define a dedicated decarbonization strategy for farmers and the fertilizer industry, focused on demand, through real incentives rather than on the artificial creation of supply without a market.”

But this alone is not enough.

At the same time, a more resilient European system must be built — one capable of preventing and managing crises without amplifying their effects. In this direction, it is urgent to launch concrete actions on strategic food storage to strengthen European food security, as already proposed by Eat Europe and Farm Europe.

This requires both allocating a dedicated budget of at least €20 billion within the competitiveness fund for investments in stockpiling and logistics in the agri-food sector, and defining a new stock management framework within the CMO (Common Market Organisation), as part of the package for a modern future CAP, ensuring it is effective and truly geared toward crisis management.

“No more delays: inertia has a cost. Continuing to postpone operational decisions while waiting for further data or analysis means leaving businesses and citizens exposed to a rapidly evolving crisis. Institutional inertia risks turning a manageable crisis into a structural one,” concluded Luigi Scordamaglia.

Europe has the tools, resources, and expertise to act. What is missing today is timeliness. It is time to move from words to action.