Bilateral meeting with H. E. Jessika Roswall, Commissioner for Environment, Water Resilience and a Competitive Circular Economy​ of the European Union

Rome - The FAO Director-General, QU Dongyu, met today with H. E. Jessika Roswall, Commissioner  for Environment, Water Resilience and a Competitive Circular Economy​ of the European Union (EU) at FAO headquarters.

The Director-General welcomed Commissioner Roswall and congratulated her on her recent appointment. He referred to her important wide-ranging portfolio and the many parallels with the work of FAO. He looked forward to working closely with her and the other EU Commissioners who are responsible for related issues.

Commissioner Roswall began by indicating that she was glad to be present in FAO headquarters on the day of the UN International Day of Forests which was being marked by many events and colorful exhibitions based on this year’s theme of ‘’Forests and Foods’’. She mentioned that forests and forest conservation are very important considerations in her brief and another topic of mutual interest. The Director-General described one of the day’s events at the Global Library of Trees and Flowers – FAO Park which is an exciting and innovative initiative in Rome’s Villa Doria Pamphilj Park and contains over a hundred newly planted trees and plants, representing sustainable practices and diverse regions around the world. He spoke about the need for diverse reforestation as well as the appropriate rehabilitation and replanting of diverse landscapes and habitats including attention to bushes, grasses and mosses.

Commissioner Roswall outlined the work of the new EU Commission across interlinked areas. She mentioned the recently launched Vision for Food and Agriculture and a similar upcoming vision on the bioeconomy. She described the necessity to consider all of these policy areas from a global perspective and therefore the need to work closely with FAO and the importance of a multilateral approach. She listed water resilience and biodiversity as other important areas of common interest. The Director-General agreed and recalled FAO’s long engagement on those topics over its 80 years history as well as the struggles to properly define the bioeconomy and the movement towards a global consensus to achieve much needed progress. In particular, he underlined the important emphasis that the FAO has given to water issues under his mandate and the establishment of the annual Rome Water Dialogue as part of the World Food Forum which takes place every October.

The pair agreed to work closely together and finished the meeting with a tour of the FAO building, discussing the importance of polinators, inspecting the World Forestry Day exhibits and the diverse plants and flowers on the buildings terrace which served as a timely reminder of the global challenge to cherish the environment.