Cooperation and partnership between the EU, national governments and civil society will be crucial to fostering generational renewal of the farming population.
"Generational renewal is a problem that goes far beyond a reduction in the average age of EU farmers. It is essentially a matter of rethinking the whole strategy so that younger people are attracted to the farming profession, thus revitalising the rural world", stressed Piroska Kállay, rapporteur for the EESC opinion on this issue, which was adopted at the EESC plenary session in October.
Co-rapporteur John Bryan said: "There is a need for greater coherence between CAP measures and national legal frameworks and taxation policies to facilitate the transfer of holdings."
The biggest concerns of the EU's young farmers are farm income, bureaucracy, unfair competition, financing, access to land, access to methods of practical knowledge transfer, lack of basic services like broadband, and social isolation. Successful implementation of generational renewal is one of the most important challenges of our times, but also constitutes an opportunity.
It is therefore fundamentally important to address all these issues in the 2021-2027 CAP budget in order to meet the funding requirements for meaningful support. To this end, the EESC proposes that a minimum of 2% of the CAP budget (Pillars I and II) should be allocated to supporting young farmers. (mr)