The EU is at a critical period in time, requiring a shift to innovation-driven growth to maintain competitiveness on the global stage. As identified by the Draghi and Letta reports, the EU is currently falling behind internationally. Slow productivity growth compared to the US & China, faltering outcomes for innovation, and structural vulnerabilities in energy and supply chains have become concerning long-term trends. The Competitiveness Compass recognises the well-established fact that the EU requires transformative action to be taken, and points to several potentially positive routes forward for agriculture.
Sustained economic growth will be essential for decarbonisation, technological transitions, maintaining the social model and ensuring the EU’s place on the global stage. The Compass’ emphasis on revitalising productivity, encouraging resilience in our sector and closing the innovation gap between the EU and its competitors is reassuring.
Innovation
Agriculture has boundless potential that can be unleashed through enabling the uptake of new technologies and empowering farmers to use them. The prioritisation of the use of innovative technologies through the Biotech Act and potentially the AI content strategy in the Compass are encouraging signs. CropLife Europe has long championed this topic, with digital and precision tools being one element of its toolbox. It is our belief that these tools are essential to increase productivity and sustainability on farms.
Our AgriGuide project exemplifies the innovation our sector is driving to provide better solutions for farmers across the Union. The emphasis in the Compass on improving the structure for digitalisation and connectivity is of great importance for modernising agricultural practices in rural areas. A call to promote skills across the Union by the Compass is aligned with our commitment – having reached 69% of our pledge to train 1 million farmers, advisors and multipliers across Europe.
Simplification
A balanced approach to trade and industrial policies is essential to achieving sustainability and growth priorities points without one coming at the expense of the other. The simplification of administrative burdens and harmonisation of reporting requirements is a sector priority. Farmers in particular struggle with onerous and inflexible regulations at both EU and national level, that often have overlapped in an unintegrated fashion with national regulations. CropLife Europe continues to advocate for complementary legislation which allows farmers to adopt tailor made solutions for their own farms rather than a one size fits all approach.
Looking to the future
As a sector, we are fully committed to contributing to Europe’s competitiveness. By 2030, we will invest €10 billion in digital and precision agriculture technologies and €4 billion in biopesticides However, these innovations will only succeed if they are supported by a regulatory framework that keeps pace, ensuring these innovations can be transformed into real, impactful tools for Europe’s farmers. The Competitiveness Compass represents a conscious first step by the Commission to strengthen Europe’s economic resilience and global leadership, and we hope that this trend continues.