The European Coordination Via Campesina (ECVC) welcomes the generational renewal strategy presented by the European Commission as a long-awaited response to the demographic crisis threatening not only the European agricultural sector but also rural areas and European food sovereignty.
Some of the key demands and recommendations advocated by ECVC have been incorporated into the strategy, thanks in part to the youth consultation process that led to its publication. The dialogue between Commissioner Hansen and young farmers’ and rural youth organisations must continue regularly, especially in view of the next CAP reform.
By identifying market failures, legal rigidities, and institutional gaps, the strategy addresses some of the structural causes of generational renewal. We therefore welcome that some of the proposed solutions are equally structural, such as the creation of new institutions (e.g. the Land Observatory); the strengthening of social security systems in rural areas; the integration of generational renewal into the European Semester; the call for mandatory GR strategies to boost change at the national level.
We welcome efforts to pursue new reforms, such as decoupling the CAP’s direct payments from the pension age: if implemented, this could ease access to land and payments for young people. However, this proposed measure is set for 2032, which is a very delayed deadline given the urgency of the generational crisis in farming in Europe. Additionally, the measure would need to be coupled with policies and legislation on farm transfers from older to younger generations, as well as strong capping, redistributive, and degressive measures to finally stop enriching the largest and wealthiest farms with public money.
The strategy provides a good analysis of the problems affecting us, our work, and our lives in rural areas; however, it contains grey areas and inconsistencies in the implementation of certain tools, and it perpetuates capitalist logic and related mechanisms that are detrimental to generational renewal.
By treating agricultural production and food as commodities rather than a human right, the strategy legitimises the application of free-market rules and their inevitable abuses: unfair trading practices, indecent working conditions, the race for productivity at the expense of health and agroecology. We urge the EU to remove agriculture from the sphere of profit, and the EU has the legal tools to do so. If we want more farmers, policies for generational renewal must be based on principles of justice rather than profit-making. As young farmers, we want to produce food and contribute to the food sovereignty of the regions where we live, which is under threat from corporate interests and an aggressive neoliberal agenda. We refuse to accept the same logic which has caused the crisis of generational renewal in Europe, for we are farmers, not entrepreneurs. We work in solidarity, not competition.
The strategy ignores the fact that agroecology is a production model that can boost generational renewal and an agrarian transition towards a sustainable, autonomous, and just production model. The strategy must place greater emphasis on support for agroecological farms, which are a model of resilience to external environmental and economic shocks and a strong anchor for protecting rural areas. To meet the objectives of the strategy, the next CAP reform must enable the agroecological transition for numerous and diversified farms. If the Commission aims at welcoming 375.000 new entrants into the sector, both direct payments and start-up aid must better target agroecological farming. The industrial model that the CAP has been supporting has in fact caused the disappearance of farms and young farmers.
The proposal to increase the share of the CAP budget allocated to young people to 6% is more symbolic than a concrete measure. Without a clear roadmap to achieve access to land, fair prices and agroecology for all, we risk seeing this part of the European budget focused on a few projects led by industrial conglomerates or wealthy heirs. Access to farming is a right for all young people who want to work in this sector. The purpose of this strategy must be to help Member States realise and protect this right. In this sense, we are very concerned about the transfer of responsibilities to Member States that lack the capacity and, often, the political will to address generational renewal comprehensively.
It is, in fact, difficult to imagine Member States changing their succession rules or land policies. We are aware that key policy areas such as land, tax, education, and pensions are primarily national competencies; however, we believe that given the urgency of the generational crisis in European farming, a stronger tool such as a Directive on generational renewal is needed to address the issue and solve the contradictions between national legislations and European policies.
Such a Directive should be based on the rights enshrined in the UNDROP (United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Peasants and Other People Working in Rural Areas) and guide more coordinated action at the EU, national, and regional levels. European policies for generational renewal should take the form of provisions that can condition national policies and establish mandatory instruments that effectively remove obstacles. These policies should be inspired by those examples which have proven successful in countries with higher shares of farmers aged below 40, women farmers, and collective farms.
We have laid out our analysis, concerns, and recommendations related to the main topics in the strategy: finance, land, knowledge and new technologies and life in rural areas.