43rd Session of the European Commission on Agriculture

To assist Members of the Europe and Central Asia region in cooperating on agricultural problems and to make recommendations on current matters within the geographical and technical competence of the European Commission on Agriculture (ECA), FAO convenes the Forty-third Session of the European Commission on Agriculture to be held in Budapest, Hungary on 27 and 28 September 2023.

The session is dedicated to the sustainable use of land and water resources in Europe and Central Asia, reflecting current challenges related to these issues in the region.

Land degradation, soil salinity, lack of proper land tenure mechanisms, water stress, and climate change are among the main challenges affecting the region. Extreme events, such as droughts and flash floods, have become realities in many countries, showing that proper water management and governance are necessary and must be done in an integrated and transborder way, together with sustainable land and soil management and the proper governance of land tenure. The Commission will discuss these topics and connect them at the regional level using a multidisciplinary and multisectoral approach.

A regional approach to policy guidance and governance structures for land and water is necessary to ensure the sustainable use of these natural resources. It would also contribute to more resilient food systems and promote ecosystem services and the conservation of biodiversity in the region. This would allow countries to strengthen their production of goods and services in a sustainable way, improve nutrition and livelihoods and share good practices, experiences and lessons learned, thus contributing to the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), particularly SDG 6 target 6.4 and SDG 15 target 15.3.

Integrated land and water resources management and governance are essential to the sustainable use of these resources. The Commission will be invited to explore these issues in depth as subtopics of the main technical theme. Each subtopic will also consider cross-cutting aspects of the land and water nexus, in particular climate change, biodiversity, gender equality, and food security.