Initial weeks of Poland’s Presidency are now history - Main contents
The first weeks of Poland’s EU Council Presidency are already behind us. That was a time of intense activity. Polish strawberries captivated MEPs in Strasbourg and gained European-wide renown. Even European Commission Chairman José Manuel Barroso i couldn’t resist them. Thanks to the efforts of EU commissioners and the Polish Agriculture Minister, the embargo on Polish vegetable exports to Russia was lifted. It had been imposed as a result of the outbreak of an E.coli epidemic.
The Polish Presidency’s programme of activities in the agricultural area presented to the European Parliament’s agricultural, fisheries and environmental committees has met with wide support. It has promoted the chairmen of the aforementioned committees to declare their willingness to cooperate.
Sopot was the venue of a conference devoted to the tapping of agricultural biomass as an energy source. It helped launch a discussion on the subject in the European Union forum which had been one of the main goals of the Polish Presidency. The attention of European societies was drawn to the developmental potential of rural areas inherent in the biomass utilisation. The use of agricultural waste is a tool for the diversification of revenue sources in agriculture as well as a way to improve energy security.
A session of the EU Council of Agricultural and Fisheries Ministers (AGRIFISH), chaired by Minister Marek Sawicki, was held near the start of Poland’s Presidency. During that meeting, Fisheries Minister Maria Damanaki i presented a proposal to reform Common Fisheries Policy. The legislative packet comprised five elements, and the Presidency’s goal is to complete the first exchange of views on all those elements.
The packet’s general objective is to guarantee such fishing and aquaculture principles as would ensure long-term, balanced, environmental conditions and contribute to safe food supplies.
At the meeting of the AGRIFISH Council, the European Commission also unveiled ‘a Green Paper on promotional and informational activities pertaining to agricultural products’ which will inaugurate a debate on reshaping existing policy. For the Presidency that it the most crucial question, since the promotion of European agro-food products on EU markets and beyond is extremely vital to ensuring the competitiveness of European agriculture. Matters relating to the promotion of agro-food products will also be tabled at September’s informal meeting of EU agricultural ministers in Wroclaw.
July was also a time of intensive fruit and vegetable promotion. ‘It is tomato, apple, pear and cauliflower time’ is the way Minister Marek Sawicki launched the BezpieczneWarzywa.pl (safe vegetables) campaign designed to promote vegetables and fruit as healthy and safe products.
During the first month of Poland’s Presidency, Minister Marek Sawicki was one of the most popular and most frequently quoted Polish politician. Nearly 700 domestic articles dealing with the Presidency mentioned his name which gave him sixth place amongst all Polish politicians whose activities were described by the media.
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