Hungary has held the Presidency of the Visegrád Group since July 1 this year. Today’s meeting was the first meeting at the level of the ministers of agriculture organised under Hungary’s one year’s presidency.

The talks were to strengthen cooperation within the expanded Visegrád Group for more effective implementation of the interests of the countries of the region on the European Union’s forum.

The meeting focused on issues related to the legislative package and national strategic plans of the Common Agricultural Policy.

“The legislative package on the CAP reform should be adopted sufficiently in advance so that the deadline for submitting the draft strategic plans to the Commission can be met. This is of key importance for ensuring full functionality of the new implementation model from the beginning of 2023,” emphasised Poland’s deputy minister.

“The European Commission should present detailed and objective rules for assessing the plans. When assessing them, the Commission should avoid over-interpreting the provisions, especially when they do not pertain directly to the CAP area,” added Ryszard Bartosik, Secretary of State.

Joint Declaration

Concluding the talks, the ministers signed the Joint Declaration of the Ministers of Agriculture of the Visegrád Group (Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia) and Bulgaria, Croatia and Romania on the need to establish a transparent procedure for adopting CAP strategic plans and ensuring the functionality of the new implementation model. The document presents a number of important postulates and it will be an important, common voice of the countries of the region in further discussions on the EU’s forum.

Sustainable food systems

The second topic of the talks was issues related to sustainable food systems, digitisation and food waste prevention.

“Research and innovation play an important role in the transformation of food systems. They are crucial for developing new technologies and innovative solutions, overcoming barriers and discovering new market opportunities for the development of the agri-food sector,” emphasised Deputy Minister Ryszard Bartosik.

Secretary of State also informed about steps taken by Poland. Poland’s Food Passporting System is one of them. The aim of this pilot project is to develop an innovative digital system to guarantee efficient tracking and identification of information on agri-food products throughout the supply chain.

“We are ready to get involved in this work so that food waste in Europe is minimised. Apart from its social and economic dimension, the phenomenon of food waste also has an ethical dimension for Poland, and we want to make it very clear,” emphasised Ryszard Bartosik, Secretary of State.