Irish Farmers’ Association (IFA) president Tim Cullinan has been re-elected as one of the vice-presidents of COPA, the representative body for farmers in EU member states.
The new presidency of the organisation – which operates alongside the body for EU agricultural co-operatives as Copa-Cogeca – was elected on Friday (September 23).
The presidency includes one president and six vice-presidents, with Cullinan designated the fourth vice-president.
French farmer Christiane Lambert was re-elected unanimously for another two-year term as president, the first time this has occurred in 15 years. Lambert is also the first woman to occupy the role.
She is concurrently the president of the FNSEA, the main farmer organisation in France, for which she is also the first female president.
Lambert works a 230-sow pig farm which includes 106ha of crops and a renewable energy enterprise (namely solar).
Commenting on her re-election, Lambert said: “With the experience of my first mandate, I am particularly aware of the challenges that will arise over the next two years.
“We will have to deal with multiple crisis resulting from the war in Ukraine, climate change, or the historical tensions on energy prices.
“In this context, I intend to stay the course. EU agriculture has the capacity and the duty to pursue its sustainable growth model,” she added.
Lambert continued: “During my first term, we succeeded in bringing food security back on the agenda. I will ensure this issue remains at the heart of European decisions and that farmers are sufficiently recognised and considered by decision-makers”.
Apart from Cullinan, the other five vice-presidents (four of whom, like Cullinan, were re-elected for a second term) are:
- Massimiliano Giansanti as first vice-president: He is a cereal crop and dairy producer from Italy, and has been the president of one of Italy’s largest farm organisations, Confagricoltura, since 2017;
- Pedro Gallardo as second vice-president: He is a fourth generation crop farmer from Spain and is president of one of the regional branches of the Spanish farmer organisation Asaja;
- Mladen Jakopovic as third vice-president: He was elected president of Croatia’s Chamber of Agriculture in 2017, and grows plants for use in the organic cosmetic industry;
- Marius Micu as fifth vice-president: He has served as president of a number of agricultural organisations in Romania, and was also formally an advisor in the country’s parliament and a secretary of state (working below a government minister). He is the only one of COPA’s newly-elected presidency that has been elected for the first time;
- Palle Borgstrom as sixth vice-president: He is president of the Federation of Swedish Farmers and has operated an arable crop and dairy enterprise with his brother since 1981. The enterprise also includes forestry.