PRESS RELEASE: Future of European agriculture discussed in Tallinn



The environmental and agricultural organisations, agricultural experts and officials of Estonia and other EU Member States will attend a conference on 1 September to discuss the future of European agriculture.


The two-day event organised under the auspices of the Estonian Fund for Nature (ELF) focuses on the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) of the European Union, which is one of the most expensive and central policies of the Union. The CAP has a significant impact on Estonian farmers, other residents and nature. “The direction in which the CAP moves also determines the future developments in Estonia – which support will be granted to farmers, how healthy is the food sold in shops and on markers, and how the birds and the bees get on,” explained Aleksei Lotman, expert of environment-friendly agriculture of the ELF and moderator of the conference. “The CAP, which comprises approximately 40% of the joint budget of the European Union, has a strong impact on what we eat and our living environment. The conference brings together various experts, who all approach agriculture from different angles. We can therefore expect an exciting event that will hopefully result in us finding some common ground.”

The objective of the conference ‘CAP 2020. Towards Sustainable Agriculture’ organised within the scope of the Estonian Presidency of the Council of the EU is to promote open discussions on CAP 2020 and to contribute to the establishment of a more balanced and environmentally-sustainable agricultural policy in the European Union. The event will take place in two parts: a conference will be held in Hotel Euroopa in Tallinn on the first day and on the second day, the foreign guests will visit Mätiku Farm and Saidafarm, and a seminar will be held at the centre of the Matsalu National Park in Penijõe.

The programme of the event is available here: http://elfond.ee/cap-conference/programme

The European Commission has started working on the principles of CAP 2020.
A public consultation was held last spring, where everyone could present their positions regarding the CAP. In recent months, ELF expert Aleksei Lotman has written about the CAP process and introduced the positions of environmentalists in the Estonian and English versions of the ELF blog www.estcap.blogspot.com



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