The EU Commissioner-designate for Agriculture and Food, Christophe Hansen, has pledged to make “generation renewal” central to his new role over the next five years.
Hansen told the the Agriculture and Rural Development Committee that only 10% of farmers are currently under the age of 40 and that Europe is “heading towards the demographic cliff”.
“I want farming to entice young people once again, they need a fair day’s pay for a fair day’s work and this is why I intend to develop a strategy for generational renewal in close co-operation with the young farmers,” he said.
Hansen also said that the EU needs to support the development of a “land observatory” which he believes is “crucial to promote transparency and accountability in the land market, to improve access to land for young farmers”.
He told the committee: “I grew up on a family farm on the border between Belgium and Luxembourg, so I know the good times and the bad times of farming.
“I remember well my father and, after him, my brother struggling with paperwork when all they really wanted to do was work their land and take care of their animals”.
Commissioner-designate
The Commissioner-designate said the EU “depends on its nine million farms, more than 90 % of which are family farms”
“Together with the wider agri‑food sector, these farms provide us with safe and high‑quality food,” he added.
But he also acknowledged that it was not an easy life.
“Farmers are under pressure: under pressure to carve out a living from their work, under pressure from climate change and extreme weather events, from geopolitical instability and unfair competition, and from increasing regulatory complexity and administrative burden.
“That is why I intend to be a ‘boots on the ground’ commissioner. I will use every opportunity to visit farms and farmers throughout the member states,” Hansen added.
He also stressed that it is “vital that farmers have a fair and sufficient income” – a statement that Irish farmers will welcome.
Looking back on farmer protests across Europe last year he said that one of the main concerns expressed by farmers was that “we hold our own producers to higher standards than non-EU producers.
“This can also lead to social, environmental and production leakage to other parts of the world and I believe we have to avoid that,” Hansen also told the committee.
Fundamentally Hansen believes that the key question for Europe is “who will enter or continue farming if they cannot make a decent living out of it?
” Farmers’ income is only around 60% of the EU average. Therefore, income support remains key.
“But all the farmers I met so far said that they would rather prefer to get a fair price for their products than rely just on public support.
“They need to be fairly remunerated by the market and that should be our main global goal,” he said.