FAO Regional Office for Europe and Central Asia

Fifth Agricultutal Business Summit “The European Green Deal and sustainable development”

Hybrid Event, 05/11/2020

11:00 – 15:30 CET

It has become clear that the negative economic and social impacts are deeper and broader than were first anticipated. The COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in a concurrent slowdown in all major global economies. This represents an unprecedented challenge to the economic integrity of the European Union (EU), its constituent member states, and the global trading framework.

Against this backdrop, we shall explore the EU’s priorities for Agribusiness and to what it extent it has been affected.

When European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen presented the European Green Deal on 11 December 2019, vowing to “leave no one behind” in the race to achieve a climate neutral economy by 2050, she indicated “this is Europe’s man on the moon moment,” she added, “Our goal is to reconcile the economy with our planet” and “to make it work for our people,” describing climate policy as Europe’s new growth strategy. Will these objectives be achieved?

New challenges have emerged owing to COVID-19 related to climate change and sustainability while technological innovations are having a considerable impact on the production, processing and distribution of food. I