• The war in Ukraine has highlighted the European Union's dependence on imports of raw materials.
• European politicians are renegotiating sustainability targets in order to increase productivity.
• Among the proposals: unlocking fallow agricultural land and the use of plant protection products to sow protein crops.
• The appeal from environmental associations: "A serious mistake".

The Russia-Ukraine conflict has brought to light the need for greater independence among European countries in the production and supply of raw materials, from gas to grain. Within the halls of the institutions, discussions are under way on how to address the emergency and promote autonomy. The ongoing debate on agri-food concerns whether to revise the sustainability targets of the Biodiversity and Farm to Fork strategies contained in the Green Deal, and those of the CAP, with the aim — as argued by some European politicians — of increasing productivity and guaranteeing food security in the EU.

Sustainability vs productivity: the derogation on fallow land

On 17 March, European Commissioner for Agriculture Janusz Wojciechowski announced to the European Parliament the lines of intervention for an action plan on agri-food. Among the measures on the table: unlocking the CAP crisis reserve of 500 million euros for farmers, and a derogation from the CAP constraints on fallow land designated as ecological focus areas (EFAs), so as to allow farmers to plant more protein crops. This would mean temporarily suspending the CAP obligation to leave at least 5 per cent of a farm's arable land uncultivated — a measure that, in Italy alone, would make approximately 200,000 hectares available for the upcoming spring sowings. "By adopting our proposals of recent weeks — declared Paolo de Castro, a member of the European Parliament's Agriculture Committee — the EU executive will put a stop to the ban on the use of plant protection products on fallow agricultural land, which will therefore be able to return to conventional cultivation."

Environmental associations: "Weakening sustainability targets is a serious mistake"

In a letter addressed to Prime Minister Draghi and to the ministers of Agriculture Stefano Patuanelli and of Ecological Transition Roberto Cingolani, 17 environmental associations describe the weakening of the European Union's sustainability targets as a serious mistake. "The current attempt by certain lobby groups to instrumentally exploit the tragedy of war as a pretext for demolishing the already contested Farm to Fork and Biodiversity strategies — the letter reads — clearly indicates a lack of awareness, if not outright irresponsibility, regarding the gravity of ecological crises at a global level, and a persistent prioritisation of immediate and specific economic interests." And, further: "It is not by increasing production through further degradation of our natural environment, or by increasing dependence on fossil energy, that short- and long-term problems will be solved; we must instead produce and consume our food differently."

Timmermans: "The Green Deal is part of the solution, not the problem"

In recent days, Frans Timmermans, Executive Vice-President for the Green Deal, had also argued for the importance of maintaining sustainability targets, addressing his colleagues as follows: "Please do not believe the illusion that you will help food production by making it less sustainable, by not going for the Farm to Fork strategy, by not making it more resilient in terms of the natural environment." Using as an example the problems arising from the ban on importing potassium — used to produce fertilisers — from Belarus, Timmermans stressed that the Green Deal — one of whose objectives is precisely to reduce the use of fertilisers — is part of the solution and not the problem.