Group III extraordinary meeting in The Hague, 21 April

On Thursday 21 April, the EESC's Various Interests Group has held an extraordinary meeting at the Dutch Economic and Social Council (Sociaal-Economische Raad/SER) in The Hague. The conference was entitled From agricultural to food policy – Towards healthy and sustainable production and consumption.

The group wanted to continue focusing on the issue of a sustainable food policy and engage in dialogue with national institutional and civil society stakeholders, with a view to drawing up conclusions that have been submitted to the Presidency of the EU Council and to the other EU institutions.

The title and content of the event were largely inspired by the report of the Netherlands Scientific Council for Government Policy entitled Towards a Food Policy (http://www.wrr.nl/en/publications/publication/article/naar-een-voedselbeleid/), which is being supported and promoted by the Dutch Ministry of Economic Affairs at national and European levels. In fact, the Presidency of the EU Council will be holding an informal meeting of agriculture ministers from 29 to 31 May 2016, partly for the purpose of commencing discussions on the CAP after 2020, and has already requested an exploratory opinion from the EESC on More sustainable food systems, which should be ready just a few days before the May meeting.

The conference involved approximately 100 participants (EESC members, local civil society organisations and media representatives). Speakers included prominent national and European players from the institutional, agricultural, consumer and environmental protection, research and business arenas.

Address:
Sociaal-Economische Raad (SER
)
Bezuidenhoutseweg 60
2594 AW Den Haag