Strategic role of bioeconomy for agriculture and Europe’s future

At a pivotal moment for both the European Union and Ukraine, Farm Europe and the Association “Ukrainian Agribusiness Club” (UCAB) held today an internal workshop bringing together members of both organisations to discuss the role of agriculture and bioeconomy in strengthening Europe’s competitiveness, strategic autonomy and climate ambitions.

Held in the margins of the EU–Ukraine Reconstruction Summit, the workshop comes at a particularly timely moment as discussions on Ukraine’s accession to the European Union advance, and the European Union working on revising the Renewable Energy Directive and implementing a new bioeconomy strategy. Participants agreed on the importance of fostering an open dialogue to address both opportunities and concerns.

Opening the discussion, Dacian Cioloș, former Prime Minister of Romania, highlighted the need to build a shared vision for agriculture in an enlarged European Union.

During the workshop, Luc Vernet, Secretary General of Farm Europe, presented Farm Europe’s agricultural production radars and biomass flow analysis, illustrating the diversity of agricultural production across Europe and the strategic role of biomass in delivering food, feed, renewable energy, biomaterials and climate solutions, especially to lay down the conditions for a carbon neutral economy, which is to a large extent an agri-based bioeconomy.

Discussions emphasized that agriculture must be recognised as a central pillar of the European bioeconomy to achieve climate neutrality, energy security and food security objectives, as it is and should remain a central pillar of vitality of all rural regions. The European Union shall lay down the conditions for unlocking the potential of all regions, including those with lower agronomic potential and higher production costs. Unlocking the potential of bioeconomy, fostering investments in EU farms and unleashing industrial investments will be key to overcome land abandonment and to avoid increasing dependencies on future bioeconomy value chains. 

The workshop marked the first step in a broader Farm Europe–UCAB structured dialogue. Its conclusions will help shape future reflections on Ukraine’s EU negociation process and the future of a competitive and sustainable European agricultural model.