No clean industrial deal without a stronger EU agriculture

Today, the European Commission adopted its Clean Industrial Deal.

Presenting the roadmap and main policy initiatives to follow, the Executive Vice President, Stéphane Séjourné, summarized the ambition as a need to do more and better and create a real business plan, while underlining the will to focus on “Made in Europe.” This new political impetus is a welcome and clear step in the right direction for the European Commission. It will need to be the first milestone before further bold initiatives to truly reconcile competitiveness and the green transition.

The role of agriculture must be stressed in this context : there will be no Made-in-Europe Clean Industrial Deal without more and better agricultural products. Whether it concerns renewable energy, chemicals (including bioplastics), textiles, or biomaterials for buildings, a large share of input will have to come from agriculture.

The role of agricultural biomass must be further underlined and fully reflected into the future bioeconomy strategy. Also in this sector, Europe should seek for sustainable intensification, in other words, to produce more and better. The bioeconomy agricultural values chains are strategic if Europe is willing to build a sovereign, efficient and affordable carbon neutral economy.

Therefore, Farm Europe calls upon the European Commission :

•⁠ ⁠To further integrate its agricultural and industrial strategies to unlock the potential contribution of farmers to the bioeconomy without unnecessary obstacles. For example, the crop cap on biofuels should be increased, the limitations in the taxonomy lifted and additional incentives created for other bioeconomy sectors going beyond traditional targets to create markets ;

•⁠ ⁠To strengthen its controls and certification mechanisms to stop unfair competition from imported products and establish robust sustainable value chains. Currently, fraudulent labelling, certification practices and lack of controls undermine the development of Made in Europe bioproducts. For example the credibility Annex IX A biofuels require urgent actions from the European Commission.